History Commons^™

The Act Of Killing - Review, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Critically reviews Joshua Oppenheimer's celebrated film The Act of Killing. Suggests that the film appears to have been staged in sigificant places and that it gives a misleading impression of the character of the 1965-66 killings, especially by downplaying the role of the military in order to emphasise the psychopathic character of Anwar Congo and his friends.

The Incredible Shrinking Pancasila: Nationalist Propaganda And The Missing Ideological Legacy Of Suharto, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Although President Suharto dominated Indonesian politics for more than three decades, and although Indonesians spent millions of hours under his regime mastering the principles of the national ideology, Pancasila, remarkable little remains of his ideological legacy.

Genocide In Indonesia, 1965-1966, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.

The Homo Floresiensis Controversy, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

The 2004 announcement of the discovery of a new species of hominin in the form of sub-fossil remains from Liang Bua cave in Flores aroused immediate excitement and controversy. The discovery attracted sceptical attention from dissenting palaeontologists. The sometimes acrimonious debate addressed the relative importance of apparently archaic and apparently modern features of the remains.

The Indonesian Revolution: Archives And Emotions, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Discusses the possibility that archival materials can be used to create a sense of emoptional commonality between current generations and earlier ones.

Nature Conservation And Cultural Preservation In Convergence: Orang Pendek And Papuans In Colonial Indonesia, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.

A Genocide That Never Was: Explaining The Myth Of Anti-Chinese Massacres In Indonesia, 1965–66, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Many publications refer incorrectly to extensive massacres of Chinese in Indonesia in 1965–66. Approximately half a million people were killed in this period, but the victims wereoverwhelmingly members and associates of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Chinese Indonesians experienced serious harassment but relatively few were killed. The persistence of this myth is attributed to a trope dating back to the seventeenth century which equates the social position of Chinese in Indonesia with that of Jews in Europe and which thus predicts periodic pogroms and attempts at genocide. The myth has survived partly because it inspires a sense of urgency in …

Indonesia As An Archipelago: Managing Islands, Managing The Seas, Robert Cribb, Michele Ford

Robert Cribb

Indonesia's archipelagic character shapes its identity.

Constructing Indigenousness In The Late Modern World, Robert Cribb, Li Narangoa

Robert Cribb

Examines changing meanings of the term 'indigenous" in relation to other ideas that have been valued in various (mainly Western) philosophical system, such as priority, attachment to the land, and technical knowledge.

'A Little Knowledge Is A Useful Thing': Paradoxes In The Asian Studies Experience In Australia, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Asia has increasingly become a routine part of the educational and research curriculum in Australia, with the consequence that the importance of the specialist skills of Asianists has diminished.

Hiding Borders, Skewing Perspectives And Reversing Time: Possibilities For A New Generation Of Historical Atlases, Li Narangoa, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

New computer graphics technology puts the power to create maps into the hanmds of working historians, The result will be a much richer array of imaginations of the geographical past than was once possible.

Region, Academic Dynamics And Promise Of Comparativism, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Argues for setting Southeast Asia in a broach comparative studies framework.

Circles Of Esteem, Standard Works, And Euphoric Couplets: Dynamics Of Academic Life In Indonesian Studies, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Indonesian Studies as a field is strongly influenced by its own social character as a community of competing and cooperating scholars. Outside individual universities, the dominant social form is not the powerful professor, but rather the “circle of esteem,” a cluster of scholars who respect each other, cite each other’s work, push each other’s ideas into the academic marketplace, and, occasionally, rise to each other’s defense. Circles of esteem arise because academic work has less to do with the industrial production of knowledge than with a constant search for novelty, which may arise from new sources or new uses of …

Ethical Regulation And Humanities Research In Australia: Problems And Consequences, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Examines problems created for humanities and social science research by the unthinking application of ethical prescriptions from bio-medical research.

Genocide In The Non-Western World: Implications For Holocaust Studies, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

The example of the Holocaust has tended to dominate genocide studies, but the broader study of extreme violence makes it difficult to exclude the mass killing of indigenous peoples and mass killing on political grounds from the category of genocide.

Japan And Transformation Of National Identities In The Imperial Era, Li Narangoa, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Japan's view of the nationality of its Asian neightbours took many forms during the imperial era. In some respects Japan asserted its superiority to those neighbours, in other respects saw them as nations with a standing equal to that of Japan. The working out of these two views reflected Japanese strategic interests.

Environmentalism In Indonesian Politics, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Environmential politics emerged in Indonesia during the autheoritarian Suharto era. Rather than being a reaction to Suharto's predatory approach to the environment, many environmental policies were closely tied to the managerial, technocratic and campaign-oriented approach of the New Order.

Unresolved Problems In The Indonesian Killings Of 1965-1966, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.

Remembering, Forgetting And Historical Injustice, Robert Cribb, Kenneth Christie

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.

Military Strategy In The Indonesian Revolution: Nasution's 'Total People's War' In Theory And Practice, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Analyses the guerrilla strategy of General A.H. Nasution, architect of Indonesia's guerrilla resistance to the Dutch in the late 1940s and finds that his strategy, unlike that of Mao or Giap, involved keeping the mass of the poeple at arm's length from the guerrilla army.

Independence For Java? New National Projects For An Old Empire, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

In the context of speculation that outlying regions might break away from Indonesia, the chapter suggests that Java might be better off shorn of its Indonesian empire.

Mongoler I Troebbel Pa Java (Mongols In Trouble On Java), Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Brief article in Norwegian on the unsuccessful Mongol invasion of Java in the 13th century

How Many Deaths? Problems In The Statistics Of Massacre In Indonesia (1965-1966) And East Timor (1975-1980), Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Political Structures And Chinese Business Connections In The Malay World: A Historical Perspective, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

The prominence of ethnic Chinese among successful business owners in Southeast Asia is intriguing. Many have sought the secret of Chinese success in Chinese characteristics. This chapter suggests that Chinese success rests rather on the specific historical circumstances in Southeast Asia during the colonial period and after. A series of crony-like arrangements has been possible because political conditions permitted them,

From Petrus To Ninja: Death Squads In Indonesia, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Discusses the so-called petrus killings by death squads in Indonesia in 1983-83 and makes comparisons with the stories of killings by 'ninja' around the time of Suharto's fall from power in 1998.

Nation: Making Indonesia, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.

More Smoke Than Fire: The 1997 'Haze' Crisis And Other Environmental Issues In Indonesia', Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Reports on the 1987 haze crisis, analyses the four explanations put forward for the crisis and speculates on political consequences for the Suharto government.

Paradijsvogels Op Nieuw-Guinea: Een Pootloos Modeartikel, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.

Birds Of Paradise And Environmental Politics In Colonial Indonesia, 1890-1931, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

Pressure to protect the bird of paradise, native to New Guinea and eastern Indonesia, began to develop in the late nineteenth century. Progress was slow, partly because lack of knowledge of the ecology of the birds made it difficult to assess the best way to provide protection, partly because of problems of enforcement, partly because of countervailing interests represented by the trade in pelts.

Women's Role In The Indonesian Revolution: Some Historical Reflections, Anton Lucas, Robert Cribb

Robert Cribb

No abstract provided.