Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba

Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia

By (author) Cynthia T. Fowler

Publication date:

12 December 2016

Length of book:

148 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

238x158mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498521840

Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia examines biosocial change in the Austronesian community of the Kodi by examining multispecies interactions between select biota and abiota. Cynthia T. Fowler describes how the Kodi people coordinate their mundane and ritual practices with polychaetes and celestial bodies, and how this synchrony encourages and is encouraged by social and ecological variations. Fowler grounds her anthropogenic environmental research with information from geospatial science, marine ecology, astronomy, physics, and astrophysics.

Chapter 1 Stretching Our Biosoical Universe
Chapter 2 Making Worlds with Transtaxa Beings in Multispecies Swarms
Chapter 3 The Interchangeability of Humans, Seaworms, and Spirits
Chapter 4 Connecting with Celestial Bodies and Un-Grounding Space-Time
Chapter 5 Listening for Cosmic Voices and Speculating about their Perspectives
Chapter 6 Sequential Synchronies in Multispecies Interactions and Biosoical Change

Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba is an innovative, fascinating, and original take on a society we thought we knew quite well. Cynthia T. Fowler provides revealing and insightful passages that reflect on the relation of space and time, on the periodicity of sea worms and moon phases, and on rituals which try to recover lost souls from celestial bodies.