The Gay Archipelago

by Boellstorff, Tom

• ISBN13: 9780691123332
• ISBN10: 0691123330
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-10
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

The Gay Archipelagois the first book-length exploration of the lives of gay men in Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation and home to more Muslims than any other country. Based on a range of field methods, it explores how Indonesian gay and lesbian identities are shaped by nationalism and globalization. Yet the case of gay and lesbian Indonesians also compels us to ask more fundamental questions about how we decide when two things are "the same" or "different." The book thus examines the possibilities of an "archipelagic" perspective on sameness and difference. Tom Boellstorff examines the history of homosexuality in Indonesia, and then turns to how gay and lesbian identities are lived in everyday Indonesian life, from questions of love, desire, and romance to the places where gay men and lesbian women meet. He also explores the roles of mass media, the state, and marriage in gay and lesbian identities. The Gay Archipelagois unusual in taking the whole nation-state of Indonesia as its subject, rather than the ethnic groups usually studied by anthropologists. It is by looking at the nation in cultural terms, not just political terms, that identities like those of gay and lesbian Indonesians become visible and understandable. In doing so, this book addresses questions of sexuality, mass media, nationalism, and modernity with implications throughout Southeast Asia and beyond.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Note on Indonesian Terms and Italicization	xv
Part One The Indonesian Subject	1	(88)
Introduction	3	(32)
Historical Temptations	35	(23)
Dubbing Culture	58	(31)
Part Two Opening to Gay and Lesbi Worlds	89	(96)
Islands of Desire	91	(35)
Geographies of Belonging	126	(31)
Practices of Self, Tests of Faith	157	(28)
Part Three Sexuality and Nation	185	(48)
The Postcolonial State and Gay and Lesbi Subjectivities	187	(29)
The Gay Archipelago	216	(17)
Notes	233	(10)
Works Cited	243	(24)
Index	267