Theoretical and philosophical issues
General
The works below address broad theoretical and philosophical issues in the human sciences across a range of disciplines from social and cultural anthropology, to cultural, media and performance studies. The first are general theoretical; the second set draw on regional and ethnographic materials to develop wider theoretical arguments. Those that develop theoretical arguments extrapolated from Anthropology, Cultural or Media Studies and so on are listed under other headings.
2020. Don't Panic! Reflections on crisis, criticism and media. Prolegomenon to a research programme.
2013. What's new? an exercise in hyporeality. Keynote address to APSS 3rd. Postgraduate Students Conference on Novelty/Theory, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Sept. 2013.
2006. Just talk? anthropological reflections on the object of media studies in Indonesia. Asian journal of social science 34, 3: 492-519.
2001. Loose canons: commentary as the missing object in Indonesian media studies. Symposium on Media Cultures in Indonesia. Univ. of Leiden, April 2001.
1997. The subject of ‘The Subject’: reconsidering some problems in studying non-Western media. Paper to the workshop on The subject of the Subject in media studies. SOAS, 1997.
1997. For the motion. In Cultural studies will be the death of anthropology. ed. P. Wade, Manchester: GDAT, 12-21 & 63-65.
1996. Ethnography as a practice, or the unimportance of penguins. Europaea II-1: 3-36.
1995. After anthropology: a view from too near. Paper to the Anthropology Department seminar SOAS, October 1995.
1992. Beyond reason? a human comedy. Sociaal-antropologische cahiers. No. 25, Nijmegen: Instituut voor Culturele en Sociale Antropologie.
1985. Texte est un con. in Contexts and levels: essays on hierarchy. eds. R.H. Barnes, D. de Coppet & R.J. Parkin, J.A.S.O. Occasional Paper No. 4, Oxford: J.A.S.O., 33-53.
1982. Meaning or moaning? an ethnographic note on a little-understood tribe. In Semantic anthropology. ed. D.J. Parkin, London & New York: Academic Press, 39-63.
Regional
These works draw on ethnographic or regional materials to raise wider theoretical questions in the human sciences.
2017. Bali is a battlefield; or the triumph of the imaginary over actuality. Jurnal Kajian Bali 7, 1: 187-212.
2015. Beyond the Whorfs of Dover: a study of Balinese interpretive practices. Heidelberg ethnology. Occasional paper.
2013. When is Indonesia? In Rethinking Asian media and film. ed. M. Hobart, Special issue of The Asian Journal of Social Science, Brill.
2000. After culture. anthropology as radical metaphysical critique. Yogyakarta: Duta Wacana Press.
1985. Is God evil? In The anthropology of evil. ed. D.J. Parkin, Oxford: Blackwell, 165-93.
1985. Anthropos through the looking-glass: or how to teach the Balinese to bark. In Reason and morality. ed. J. Overing, ASA Monographs in Social Anthropology 24, London: Tavistock, 104-34.
1984. Understanding a thing: some problems in Balinese naming. Paper to the University of London Intercollegiate Seminar in Anthropology.