Freedom In Entangled Worlds

by Kirksey, Eben

• ISBN13: 9780822351344
• ISBN10: 082235134X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-21
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Eben Kirksey first went to West Papua, the Indonesian-controlled half of New Guinea, in 1998 as an exchange student. His later study of West Papua's resistance to the Indonesian occupiers and the forces of globalization morphed as he discovered that collaboration, rather than resistance, was the primary strategy of this dynamic social movement. Accompanying indigenous activists to Washington, London, and the offices of the oil giant BP, Kirksey saw the revolutionaries' knack for getting inside institutions of power and building coalitions with unlikely allies, including many Indonesians. He discovered that the West Papuans' pragmatic activism was based on visions of dramatic transformations on coming horizons, of a future in which they would give away their natural resources in grand humanitarian gestures, rather than passively watch their homeland be drained of timber, gold, copper, and natural gas. During a lengthy, brutal occupation, West Papuans have harbored a messianic spirit and channeled it in surprising directions. Kirksey studied West Papua's movement for freedom as a broad-based popular uprising gained traction from 1998 until 2008. Blending extensive ethnographic research with indigenous parables, historical accounts, and compelling narratives of his own experiences, he argues that seeking freedom in entangled worlds requires negotiating complex interdependencies.

Author Biography

Eben Kirksey is a Mellon Fellow and Visiting Assistant Professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Table of Contents

Preface: Flying Fish, Flying Tourists, September 1994	p. ix
List of Key Characters	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Breakout, 1998-2000
Interlude: The King Has Left the Palace: Java, May 199S	p. 23
The Messianic Multiple, July 1998	p. 29
From the Rhizome to the Banyan, 1998-2000	p. 55
Plateau, 2000-2002
Interlude: Freeport Sweet Potato Distribution Inc.	p. 83
Entangled Worlds at War, 2000-2001	p. 90
Don't Use Your Data as a Pillow, June 13, 2001	p. 125
Innocents Murdered, Innocent Murderers, August 31, 2002	p. 138
Horizons, 2002-2028
Interlude: Bald Grandfather Willy	p. 175
First Voice Honey Center, 2002-2008	p. 182
Epilogue: The Tube, 2006-2028	p. 210
Acknowledgments	p. 221
Notes	p. 225
Bibliography	p. 283
Index	p. 301
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