Err, that's President Obama's mother's next book. The Duke Chronicle is reporting that Duke University Press--well known for its anthropology books--will publish a revised version of Ann Dunham's dissertation.
From the Chronicle article:
The book, which will be titled "Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in
Indonesia," is focused on the metalworking industries in the Javanese village of
Kajar and their position as a possible economic alternative in an area that
traditionally depends on rice for survival.
The dissertation-at the
request of Dunham's daughter, Maya Soetoro-Ng-was edited by
Alice Dewey,
Dunham's graduate adviser, and
Nancy Cooper, her fellow graduate student in
anthropology.
Here's the DUP press release about the book.
I can't wait to get my hands on this. And if you can't either, you can read the dissertation here --click on the link at the right of the screen that says "Full Text Copy" (at least as long as you're coming from an institution with a subscription). It takes a long time to download--it's more than a 1000 pages long. Here, btw, is the abstract:
This dissertation is a socio-economic study of peasant metalworking industries in Indonesia. The emphasis is on traditional blacksmithing, but data is also provided on copper, brass, bronze, silver and gold industries.
Since the late nineteenth century, economists and administrators have been predicting the demise of village industries in Indonesia. Despite such predictions, the number of persons employed in these industries has steadily increased, the rate of increase accelerating during the last two decades. Social scientists working in Indonesia have tended to view this increase negatively, as a sign of crisis in the agricultural sector. However, their models of rural change have been based almost entirely on studies of lowland wet-rice villages. This dissertation contends that these models need revising because they start with the false assumption that agriculture always generates more income per labor hour than non-agricultural occupations. It describes a number of villages where, for a variety of historical, ecological and demographic reasons, metalworking tends to be more profitable than agriculture. Villagers accordingly give metalworking priority in their strategies of resource and labor allocation, and consider agriculture to be a secondary occupation.
Part One of the dissertation draws on data from the fields of archaeology, history, metallurgy and cultural anthropology to describe metalworking industries as they existed in the past, and as they are viewed by the smiths themselves. This view, which includes a strong cultural dimension, is very different from the view of modern development planners.
Part Two presents current ecological data on metalworking industries. An overview describes their socio-economic organization, including patterns of resource allocation, intra-industry stratification, and the use of capital by village-based entrepreneurs. There follows a detailed study of Kajar, a large and well-stratified blacksmithing village in Jogjakarta region, and shorter descriptions of five other metalworking villages.
Part Three presents the development view of metalworking industries and raises questions about their future. It discusses the available macrodata from national surveys, and the possible impact of changes in protective import and licensing regulations. Extension programs carried out by the Department of Industry in metalworking villages are critiqued, and some recommendations presented.
Not sure why I hadn't thought about looking at Dr. Dunham's dissertation before. (According to worldcat, it's in about twelve libraries--pretty good for a dissertation! Wonder why, amidst all the talk of the senior theses of Presidential candidates and their spouses during the last election, no one talked about this. Hey, it's about industrial development and getting peasants out of fields and into manufacturing.) This book may open up some more room for speculation on the President.
And it'll get a lot more attention than the usual work in anthropology, I'd imagine. Meanwhile,--note to self--I need to get back to my paper on Obama's race and law syllabus, so I can contribute to the growing genre on "Obama and __."
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