Motorcycling on Ambon
by Fridus Steijlen – ‘Continues to amaze me’, ‘it is dangerous’, ‘they drive like lunatics’ – these were some of the comments on social media when friends posted…
Tag: Regio Azie
The hardly noticed disappearance of the state of Nagorno-Karabakh
By Hannan van Rooij – In 2022, with a group of friends I was planning to participate in the Mongol Rally. This is a contest where people drive…
Easter gardens and Christmas trees
By Fridus Steijlen – When I arrived in mid-January in Ambon for my second year at Pattimura University I saw Christmas and New Year decor on the streets,…
Myanmar’s civil society in turbulent times: outside-in and inside-out
Ten years ago I published an article on my research with civil society actors from Myanmar, in which I described the sudden changes in ideological and physical positioning…
Two years after Myanmar’s military coup survivors of Rohingya genocide and victims of post-coup atrocities file joint complaint
By Maaike Matelski On 8 December 2022, Nickey Diamond visited the VU for two lectures. Nickey is an activist from Myanmar who recently started a PhD in Anthropology…
Police handling of pitch invasion leaves 127 football supporters dead in Indonesia
By Freek Colombijn. “Football is the most important thing of unimportant things”. The truth of this quote, which I often give in my classes, but which –if I…
Gotong Royong: a recent flood and strong leadership strengthen a system of solidarity in Lombok
By Jop Koopman On the 6th of December 2021, a massive flood happened in the area of Gunungsari in West Lombok. Floods are not rare in the rainy…
Unsung Heroes: Jakarta’s Waste Picker Women and Their Unpaid Care Work
by Rachma L Putri “I think, as long as I remember, I never felt happy about my life. There is always too much burden in my life” said…
Myanmar anthropologists dismissed
By Maaike Matelski – In this picture, anthropology students from Yangon University show the ‘three fingers salute’ for democracy. Students and university staff across Myanmar have been protesti…
Mobility and immobility during the pandemic: Experiences on a journey from Amsterdam to Semarang
By Pamungkas (Yudha) Dewanto As a response to the global corona crisis, authorities all over the world set strict health protocols for travelers. Focusing on the case of…
Military coup in Myanmar: back to square one?
In the early morning of 1 February, the day that a newly elected government was supposed to convene, Myanmar’s military staged a coup, taking government leaders captive and…
Podcast #3 is online! Guest: Haiyue (Fiona) Shan
In this episode, Puck de Boer talks to Haiyue (or Fiona, her English name) Shan, a PhD student at the Sociology department of VU University. From a holistic,…
‘Humanizing’ Indonesia’s COVID-19 Pandemic Response
While the rich industrial countries are simply readjusting their national budgets amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the fiscal options for the middle-to-low income countries seem to be strictly limited.…
Religious extremism: vulnerability and resistance among Indonesian migrant workers in Asia
By Yudha Dewanto After turning 16, never having stepped a foot outside of her province, Katri pushed herself to go to Malaysia. Seeking a solution to family problems,…
Yellow fragmentation
By Irene Stengs. Bangkok, Sunday May 5. With hundreds of others, I am queuing to enter the restricted area around the Grand Palace where the Royal Land Procession…
Pattimura dag en een complexe Molukse loyaliteit
Door Fridus Steylen. April en juni zijn hoogtijmaanden voor aandacht voor de geschiedenis van Molukkers in Nederland. Op 25 april wordt de proclamatie van de Republik Maluku Selatan,…
The Car Free Day in Surabaya: a pro-environment event?
By Freek Colombijn Every Sunday morning from 6 to 10 a.m. part of the main street of Surabaya is closed for all motorized traffic for an event that…
Hodeidah is being attacked, but the Western media is silent
By Marina de Regt. “Hodeidah is empty, Marina, there is no one there anymore”, says Noura to me this morning, in a short telephone conversation that is repeatedly…
Try a Little Legal Tenderness
This financial speculation essay acknowledges the inspiration of the Dick Jensen version of the song, “Try a Little Tenderness,” in its principal guiding pun; it is a suggested…
Unpicking an (A)moral Anthropological Stance: Ongoing Violence in Myanmar
REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain Introduction by Maaike Matelski In June 2015 the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology organized a seminar on account of the increasing number of Rohingya refug…
Een reis door het paradoxale verleden van Iran
Door Kostas Brejaart In het hipste koffietentje van Teheran drink ik een dubbele espresso. Ik moet nog steeds wennen aan het feit dat ik in Teheran ben en…
Volunteers and refugees in South Korea
by Maaike van Nus
‘What if they were really extreme’
Hayate Ait Bouzid is a Master student Anthropology at the VU who did her research about the environmental behaviour of middle-class people in Brunei Darussalam. A country that…
Dancing to the State: Ethnic Compulsions of the Tangsa in Assam
By Meenaxi Barkataki-Ruscheweyh Let me begin by telling you a little bit about myself, the region and the people — the Tangsa — with whom I worked and…