Description
Book SynopsisConsiders how interdisciplinary collaboration between anthropology and queer studies might enrich both fields. This book provides several in-depth case studies, primarily concerning the lives of Indonesian men who term themselves gay (an Indonesian-language word that overlaps with, but does not correspond exactly to, English "gay").
Trade Review“
A Coincidence of Desires responds to the imperative in queer studies to resituate the field’s epistemology by asking new questions about the relations between language, religion, sexuality, knowledge, and time. Drawing on a host of ‘coincidences’ between queer studies and anthropology, and using his extensive ethnographic experience in Indonesia, Tom Boellstorff casts his case studies as theoretical meditations in compelling and unexpected ways.”—Robyn Wiegman, Duke University
“By exploring different formulations of time in canonical anthropological texts, in queer theory, and in his own ethnography on Indonesia, Tom Boellstorff challenges and reconfigures conventional anthropological and queer understandings of temporality. By focusing on‘coincidence’—the temporal simultaneity of two events—Boellstorff destabilizes more traditional notions of linear, hierarchical time that structure a range of hegemonic dualities, including male/female and modern/traditional. Boellstorff’s nuanced treatment of ‘coincidence’ ultimately demonstrates the productive potential for a new interdisciplinarity that brings anthropology and queer theory into dialog around questions of gender, sexuality, modernity, and temporality.”—Megan Sinnott, author of
Toms and Dees: Transgender Identity and Female Same-Sex Relationships in Thailand“This major study reflects a mature consideration of Boellstorff’s decade and a half of ethnographic research. . . . Boellstorff is indeed to be praised for a study that draws solidly on Indonesia-based research to speak to analytical issues that are relevant well beyond that country’s borders.” -- Peter Jackson * Intersections *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
A Note on Indonesian Terms and Italicization xiii
INTRODUCTION: Queering Disciplines in Time 1
1. Zines and Zones of Desire 35
2. Warias, National Transvestites 78
3. Gay Language, Registering Belonging 114
4. Between Religion and Desire 139
5. The Emergence of Political Homophobia 161
6. Comparatively Queer in Southeast Asia 181
Notes 219
References 235
Index 269
