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Matthew Amster

Gettysburg College, Anthropology, Faculty Member

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Papers by Matthew Amster

Animism and Anxiety: Religious Conversion Among the Kelabit of Sarawak

The Diary of a District Officer: Alastair Morrison's 1953 Trip to the Kelabit Highlands

Borneo Research Bulletin, 2005

In 1953, Alastair Morrison, then acting District Officer for the Bara, traveled to the Kelabit Hi... more In 1953, Alastair Morrison, then acting District Officer for the Bara, traveled to the Kelabit Highlands along with his wife, photographer Hedda Morrison, and ever changing entourage of 'coolie" porters and guides. This journey was part of his regular responsibilities as a District Officer. During such tours, Morrison surveyed longhouse communities and collected information about the local population and spoke to people about government policies, school fees, taxes, the registering of guns, and often sought to resolve local disputes. Such journeys were summarized in formal reports. However, Morrison also kept travel notebooks, which he later used to write his memoir, which summarized the highlights of his life in Sarawak (Morrison 1993). These handwritten travel notebooks from his journeys are preserved, along with his wife's photographs, in the Kroch Rare Book and Manuscript Collection at Cornell University. This article is based on a close reading of Morrison's Kelabit notebooks, where he recorded his daily thoughts during a one month trip on food through the Kelabit Highlands in 1953. Whereas Morrison's published memoir (1993: 86-88) summaries in just over two pages the main issues encountered on the journey, the original notebooks provide much additional information.

Language, Charisma, and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious Movement:Language, Charisma, and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious Movement

American Anthropologist, 2002

It’s Not Easy being Apolitical: Reconstruction and Eclecticism in Danish Asatro (2015)

In Kathryn Roundtree (ed.) Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Europe: Colonial and Nationalist Impulses. London: Berghahn.

Animism and anxiety: religious conversion among the Kelabit of Sarawak (2016)

In Animism in Southeast Asia, Kaj Arhem and Guido Sprenger (eds.). London: Routledge.

The returning urbanite (2014)

In Joshua Barker, Erik Harms, and Johan Lindquist (Editors), Figures of Southeast Asia Modernity. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, pp. 190-192.

Portable Potency: Christianity, Mobility and Spiritual Landscapes among the Kelabit (2009)

Anthropological Forum, Nov 1, 2009

In this paper I explore religious conversion and Christian identity among the Kelabit, an indigen... more In this paper I explore religious conversion and Christian identity among the Kelabit, an indigenous group from the interior of Borneo. The main thesis of the paper is that Christianity facilitates wider geographic mobility and urban migration and, over time, has led to a re-inscription of spiritual meanings in the local landscapes of rural homelands in the Kelabit Highland region. Beginning with a brief sketch of contemporary Kelabit life, presented through the lens of two individuals, I offer a history of Kelabit conversion and the ways that pre-and post-conversion beliefs are linked to issues of mobility and place. To illustrate how conversion has led to reinscription of new spiritual meanings in the local landscape, the paper highlights the emergence of Christian revival movements in and around the Kelabit Highlands, including worship on nearby Mount Murud, which has become a highly significant site of spiritual practice.

Borderland Tactics: Cross-border marriage in the highlands of Borneo (2010)

In Hastings Donnan and Thomas M. Wilson, eds. Borderlands: Ethnographic approaches to security, power and identity, pp. 93-107. Lantham, MD: University Press of America.

Where Spirit and Bulldozer Roam: Environment and Anxiety in Highland Borneo (2008)

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and …, Jan 1, 2008

This paper explores changing perceptions of the natural environment among the Kelabit, an indigen... more This paper explores changing perceptions of the natural environment among the Kelabit, an indigenous people of the Borneo interior. It considers both traditional and post-Christian conversion understandings about forest spaces. The former animistic ritual practices of the Kelabit centered on a spiritual dialogue with the natural world and this dialogue was often marked by active efforts to avoid or mitigate danger through ritual practice. One key example presented here is the former ceremony of 'calling the eagle' (nawar keniu), a ritual employed in times of crisis that exemplifies the dialogical and entwined relationship Kelabit had to the natural world. Such former animistic beliefs are contrasted with contemporary Christian practices, including a local mountain retreat on Mount Murud and presentday political and economic anxieties over logging in the Kelabit Highlands, as a means to consider relationships between religion and attitudes toward the environment among the Kelabit.

The Social Optics of Space (2008)

Space and Culture, Jan 1, 2008

The aim of this article is to show, through a detailed ethnographic case, how social space can be... more The aim of this article is to show, through a detailed ethnographic case, how social space can be viewed as consisting of superimposed layers. Building on theoretical frameworks of Lefebvre and Foucault in terms of their approaches to space, power, and visibility, the article looks at the Kelabit people, a small, indigenous group whose homelands lie in the interior highlands of Borneo along an international frontier. Examining various facets of the Kelabit social life, and focusing on different forms of social optics that can be identified in Kelabit social spaces, the article shows how concerns about visibility, surveillance, privacy, and control are intimately linked in this community, both with regard to life in the rural borderlands-where transnational movement and migrants pose new dilemmas in terms of community belonging-and in terms of the relationships within and between rural and urban Kelabit.

A Pilgrimage to the past: Civil War reenactors at Gettysburg (2008)

In Clare L. Boulanger, editor, Reflecting on America: Anthropological Views of US Culture, pp. 15-27. Allyn & Bacon.

Narrating the Border: Perspectives from the Kelabit Highlands of Borneo (2006)

Centering the margin: agency and narrative in …, Jan 1, 2006

Cross‐Border Marriage in the Kelabit Highlands of Borneo (2005)

Anthropological forum, Jul 1, 2005

In this paper I examine the role of cross-border marriage in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Ma... more In this paper I examine the role of cross-border marriage in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia, and the social, economic and political conditions in this border zone that motivate such marriages. 1 Cross-border marriages are a key strategy for rural Kelabit; they fill a void created by out-migration to urban areas and are central to the reproduction of the Kelabit rural household and family farm. Focusing on two specific cases of cross-border marriage, I illustrate the local forms of agency that emerge in response to the permeable frontier and, more specifically, how these marriages flourish in a political-economic context marked by a tacit collaboration between local and state interests.

Frontiers, sovereignty, and marital tactics: Comparisons from the borneo highlands and the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore growth triangle (coauthored with J. Lindquist, 2005)

The Asia Pacific journal of anthropology, Jan 1, 2005

This article considers transnational relationships between men and women from two Southeast Asian... more This article considers transnational relationships between men and women from two Southeast Asian border zones, the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia, and the Indonesian island of Batam, part of the growth triangle that connects Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It expands on Aihwa Ong's discussion of 'graduated zones of sovereignty' by examining how social relations are being reconfigured along these two international frontiers in the context of changing economic processes and state practices. The case studies, and the comparison between them, illustrate how men in Malaysia and Singapore, who are increasingly marginalised in the globalising economy, become involved with Indonesian women from the other side of the border in order to reproduce patriarchal structures that are connected to 'traditional' family forms.

The Rhetoric of the State: Dependency and Control in a MalaysianIndonesian Borderland (2005)

Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Jan 1, 2005

This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international front... more This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international frontier in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo) and some local efforts to restrict outsiders. The international border in this remote region of Borneo is highly permeable, and border-crossing activities, including seasonal migrant wage labor and cross-border marriage, are crucial both to the local political economy and to the reproduction of the Kelabit family and farm. This article explores the unique position of the Kelabit as they attempt to appropriate aspects of state power or use the rhetoric of state power in their efforts to maintain a status quo with regard to neighboring, and closely related, migrant workers from across the border.

The Diary of a District Officer: Alastair Morrison’s 1953 Trip to the Kelabit Highlands (2005)

Borneo Research Bulletin Vol. 36: 91-107.

Fishing, Hunting and Headhunting in the Former Culture of the Ngaju Dayak in Central Kalimantan (review, 2005)

American Anthropologist, Jan 1, 2005

Innermost Borneo: Studies in Dayak Cultures. By Bernard Sellato. (review, 2005)

The Journal of Asian Studies, Jan 1, 2005

Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambr... more

The Many Mouths of Community: Gossip and Social Interaction among the Kelabit of Borneo (2004)

Asian Anthropology, Jan 1, 2004

New sacred lands: The making of a Christian prayer mountain in Highland Borneo (2003)

In Ronald A. Lukens-Bull, editor, Sacred Places and Modern Landscapes: Sacred Geography and Social-Religious Transformations In South and Southeast Asia, pp. 131-160. Southeast Asian Studies Monograph Series, Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University. , Jan 1, 2003

Animism and Anxiety: Religious Conversion Among the Kelabit of Sarawak

The Diary of a District Officer: Alastair Morrison's 1953 Trip to the Kelabit Highlands

Borneo Research Bulletin, 2005

In 1953, Alastair Morrison, then acting District Officer for the Bara, traveled to the Kelabit Hi... more In 1953, Alastair Morrison, then acting District Officer for the Bara, traveled to the Kelabit Highlands along with his wife, photographer Hedda Morrison, and ever changing entourage of 'coolie" porters and guides. This journey was part of his regular responsibilities as a District Officer. During such tours, Morrison surveyed longhouse communities and collected information about the local population and spoke to people about government policies, school fees, taxes, the registering of guns, and often sought to resolve local disputes. Such journeys were summarized in formal reports. However, Morrison also kept travel notebooks, which he later used to write his memoir, which summarized the highlights of his life in Sarawak (Morrison 1993). These handwritten travel notebooks from his journeys are preserved, along with his wife's photographs, in the Kroch Rare Book and Manuscript Collection at Cornell University. This article is based on a close reading of Morrison's Kelabit notebooks, where he recorded his daily thoughts during a one month trip on food through the Kelabit Highlands in 1953. Whereas Morrison's published memoir (1993: 86-88) summaries in just over two pages the main issues encountered on the journey, the original notebooks provide much additional information.

Language, Charisma, and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious Movement:Language, Charisma, and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious Movement

American Anthropologist, 2002

It’s Not Easy being Apolitical: Reconstruction and Eclecticism in Danish Asatro (2015)

In Kathryn Roundtree (ed.) Modern Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Europe: Colonial and Nationalist Impulses. London: Berghahn.

Animism and anxiety: religious conversion among the Kelabit of Sarawak (2016)

In Animism in Southeast Asia, Kaj Arhem and Guido Sprenger (eds.). London: Routledge.

The returning urbanite (2014)

In Joshua Barker, Erik Harms, and Johan Lindquist (Editors), Figures of Southeast Asia Modernity. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, pp. 190-192.

Portable Potency: Christianity, Mobility and Spiritual Landscapes among the Kelabit (2009)

Anthropological Forum, Nov 1, 2009

In this paper I explore religious conversion and Christian identity among the Kelabit, an indigen... more In this paper I explore religious conversion and Christian identity among the Kelabit, an indigenous group from the interior of Borneo. The main thesis of the paper is that Christianity facilitates wider geographic mobility and urban migration and, over time, has led to a re-inscription of spiritual meanings in the local landscapes of rural homelands in the Kelabit Highland region. Beginning with a brief sketch of contemporary Kelabit life, presented through the lens of two individuals, I offer a history of Kelabit conversion and the ways that pre-and post-conversion beliefs are linked to issues of mobility and place. To illustrate how conversion has led to reinscription of new spiritual meanings in the local landscape, the paper highlights the emergence of Christian revival movements in and around the Kelabit Highlands, including worship on nearby Mount Murud, which has become a highly significant site of spiritual practice.

Borderland Tactics: Cross-border marriage in the highlands of Borneo (2010)

In Hastings Donnan and Thomas M. Wilson, eds. Borderlands: Ethnographic approaches to security, power and identity, pp. 93-107. Lantham, MD: University Press of America.

Where Spirit and Bulldozer Roam: Environment and Anxiety in Highland Borneo (2008)

Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and …, Jan 1, 2008

This paper explores changing perceptions of the natural environment among the Kelabit, an indigen... more This paper explores changing perceptions of the natural environment among the Kelabit, an indigenous people of the Borneo interior. It considers both traditional and post-Christian conversion understandings about forest spaces. The former animistic ritual practices of the Kelabit centered on a spiritual dialogue with the natural world and this dialogue was often marked by active efforts to avoid or mitigate danger through ritual practice. One key example presented here is the former ceremony of 'calling the eagle' (nawar keniu), a ritual employed in times of crisis that exemplifies the dialogical and entwined relationship Kelabit had to the natural world. Such former animistic beliefs are contrasted with contemporary Christian practices, including a local mountain retreat on Mount Murud and presentday political and economic anxieties over logging in the Kelabit Highlands, as a means to consider relationships between religion and attitudes toward the environment among the Kelabit.

The Social Optics of Space (2008)

Space and Culture, Jan 1, 2008

The aim of this article is to show, through a detailed ethnographic case, how social space can be... more The aim of this article is to show, through a detailed ethnographic case, how social space can be viewed as consisting of superimposed layers. Building on theoretical frameworks of Lefebvre and Foucault in terms of their approaches to space, power, and visibility, the article looks at the Kelabit people, a small, indigenous group whose homelands lie in the interior highlands of Borneo along an international frontier. Examining various facets of the Kelabit social life, and focusing on different forms of social optics that can be identified in Kelabit social spaces, the article shows how concerns about visibility, surveillance, privacy, and control are intimately linked in this community, both with regard to life in the rural borderlands-where transnational movement and migrants pose new dilemmas in terms of community belonging-and in terms of the relationships within and between rural and urban Kelabit.

A Pilgrimage to the past: Civil War reenactors at Gettysburg (2008)

In Clare L. Boulanger, editor, Reflecting on America: Anthropological Views of US Culture, pp. 15-27. Allyn & Bacon.

Narrating the Border: Perspectives from the Kelabit Highlands of Borneo (2006)

Centering the margin: agency and narrative in …, Jan 1, 2006

Cross‐Border Marriage in the Kelabit Highlands of Borneo (2005)

Anthropological forum, Jul 1, 2005

In this paper I examine the role of cross-border marriage in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Ma... more In this paper I examine the role of cross-border marriage in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia, and the social, economic and political conditions in this border zone that motivate such marriages. 1 Cross-border marriages are a key strategy for rural Kelabit; they fill a void created by out-migration to urban areas and are central to the reproduction of the Kelabit rural household and family farm. Focusing on two specific cases of cross-border marriage, I illustrate the local forms of agency that emerge in response to the permeable frontier and, more specifically, how these marriages flourish in a political-economic context marked by a tacit collaboration between local and state interests.

Frontiers, sovereignty, and marital tactics: Comparisons from the borneo highlands and the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore growth triangle (coauthored with J. Lindquist, 2005)

The Asia Pacific journal of anthropology, Jan 1, 2005

This article considers transnational relationships between men and women from two Southeast Asian... more This article considers transnational relationships between men and women from two Southeast Asian border zones, the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia, and the Indonesian island of Batam, part of the growth triangle that connects Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. It expands on Aihwa Ong's discussion of 'graduated zones of sovereignty' by examining how social relations are being reconfigured along these two international frontiers in the context of changing economic processes and state practices. The case studies, and the comparison between them, illustrate how men in Malaysia and Singapore, who are increasingly marginalised in the globalising economy, become involved with Indonesian women from the other side of the border in order to reproduce patriarchal structures that are connected to 'traditional' family forms.

The Rhetoric of the State: Dependency and Control in a MalaysianIndonesian Borderland (2005)

Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Jan 1, 2005

This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international front... more This article examines dependency on cross-border labor and marriage along the international frontier in the Kelabit Highlands of Sarawak, Malaysia (Borneo) and some local efforts to restrict outsiders. The international border in this remote region of Borneo is highly permeable, and border-crossing activities, including seasonal migrant wage labor and cross-border marriage, are crucial both to the local political economy and to the reproduction of the Kelabit family and farm. This article explores the unique position of the Kelabit as they attempt to appropriate aspects of state power or use the rhetoric of state power in their efforts to maintain a status quo with regard to neighboring, and closely related, migrant workers from across the border.

The Diary of a District Officer: Alastair Morrison’s 1953 Trip to the Kelabit Highlands (2005)

Borneo Research Bulletin Vol. 36: 91-107.

Fishing, Hunting and Headhunting in the Former Culture of the Ngaju Dayak in Central Kalimantan (review, 2005)

American Anthropologist, Jan 1, 2005

Innermost Borneo: Studies in Dayak Cultures. By Bernard Sellato. (review, 2005)

The Journal of Asian Studies, Jan 1, 2005

Download a branded Cambridge Journals Online toolbar (for IE 7 only). What is this? ... Add Cambr... more

The Many Mouths of Community: Gossip and Social Interaction among the Kelabit of Borneo (2004)

Asian Anthropology, Jan 1, 2004

New sacred lands: The making of a Christian prayer mountain in Highland Borneo (2003)

In Ronald A. Lukens-Bull, editor, Sacred Places and Modern Landscapes: Sacred Geography and Social-Religious Transformations In South and Southeast Asia, pp. 131-160. Southeast Asian Studies Monograph Series, Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University. , Jan 1, 2003