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Olaf Haraldsøn Smedal

Olaf Haraldsøn Smedal

Position

Emeritus, Professor Emeritus

Affiliation

E-mail
olaf.smedal@uib.no
Phone number
+47 55589262
Visitor address
Fosswinckels gate 6
5007 Bergen
Room: 812
Postal address
P.O. Box 7802
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway

Olaf Haraldsøn Smedal

Position

Emeritus, Professor Emeritus

Affiliation

Research

Kinship, ritual, symbolization, economy, material culture

These fields of research have crystallized in part during field investigations, in part as a result of the analytical work that follows. To take one example, my first fieldwork (1983-84), among a small ethnic minority – the Lom in the island Bangka in western Indonesia – made me interested in kinship. The Lom have developed rules for whom one can (not) marry that struck me as unusual, something that turned out to be the case. This led to my first (anthropological) international publication (Smedal 1991). During my second fieldwork (1990-91) – among the Ngadha in Flores, eastern Indonesia – it was easy to follow up this interest in kinship: the Ngadha are organized in kin-based “houses”, something that made me wonder how they might be understood in light of, say, classical “British” descent theory (Smedal 2002b). Moreover, these houses are conspicuous buildings lavishly decorated with intricate symbolic wood carvings (Smedal 2000d). The Ngadha also have a rich ritual life characterized by frequent exchange of chicken, pig, and water buffalo, subsequently sacrificed, and I have devoted much time to analysing the cosmological foundation for these practices (Smedal 1996, 2009c).

Parallel with the analyses in kinship and ritual/symbolic practices, I have researched the economic adaptations of the Lom and the Ngadha. In my book on the Lom (Smedal 1989), the chapter on economy is by far the largest. Later, I have repeatedly visited oil palm plantations in Borneo, to which many Ngadha migrated in the 1990s. In 2007 I was back among the Lom where an oil palm plantation was under construction, in strong competition with tin mining. In the summer of 2009 I spent a couple of weeks in Flores (with Rolf Scott) in order to film a rare ritual. Looking forwards, I expect to study the variant experiences of the Lom and the Ngadha as plantation workers comparatively, while I also wish to follow up on my research on ritual among the Ngadha in Flores.

Teaching

SANT 301 Anthropological research methods and theory development

SANT 302 Pre-fieldwork project development

SANT 102 Social life in global perspective
 

Publications
2023
1996
2012
2000
1994
2002
2015
2004
2007
2011
2009
2016
2001
1990
1987
1991
1992
2014
2005
2008
2021
2013
2025
1998
1983
2003
2020
2017
2019
1999
1997
2006
1989
2010
2018

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

Books, chapters in books, articles

2016a Demotion as Value: Rank infraction among the Ngadha in Flores, Indonesia. Social Analysis 60 (4): 114-133.

2016b Ngadha house society origins: The miniature evidence. I J.C.H. Lee, J.M. Prior & T.A Reuter (eds.): Trajectories: Excursions with the anthropology of E.D. Douglas, s 81-102. New York: Peter Lang Publishers.

2016c Uten 'de andre', ingen ting som helst [Without 'the other', nothing at all]. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift 26 (1): 42-47.

2015. Asal usul masyarakat rumah Ngadha: Bukti miniatur. In Julian C.H. Lee and John M. Prior (eds): Pemburu yang cetakan. Anjangsana bersama karya-karya E. Douglas Lewis. Maumere: Penerbit Ledalero, pp. 131-162.

2013. Courage and trust: From penniless transmigrant to affluent smallholder (and back) in Indonesian Borneo. In Eldar Bråten (ed.): Embedded entrepreneurship: Market, culture, and micro-business in insular Southeast Asia. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 167-193.

2011a. Unilineal descent and the house--again: The Ngadha, eastern Indonesia. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 167(2-3):270-302.

2011. Sosialantropologisk metode: en innføring [Method in social anthropology: an introduction]. KulaKula, 1:25-29.

2010. Makt, motstand og motstandskritikk. En etnisk minoritetsgruppe i post-Suharto Indonesia [Power, resistance, and critique of resistance: An ethnic minority group in post-Suharto Indonesia]. Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift, 21(2-3):80-96.

2009a. [ed. with Knut M. Rio) Hierarchy: Persistence and transformation in social formations. Oxford & New York: Berghahn Books.

2009b. [with Knut M. Rio) Hierarchy and its alternatives: An introduction to movements of totalization and detotalization. In Knut M. Rio and Olaf H. Smedal (eds.) Hierarchy: Persistence and transformation in social formations, pp. 1-63. Oxford & New York: Berghahn Books.

2009c. On the value of the beast or the limit of money: Notes on the meaning of marriage prestations among the Ngadha, Central Flores (Indonesia). In Knut M. Rio and Olaf H. Smedal (eds.) Hierarchy: Persistence and transformation in social formations, pp. 269-297. Oxford & New York: Berghahn Books.

2009d. Hierarchy, precedence, and values: scopes for social action in Ngadhaland, central Flores, in Michael P. Vischer (ed.) Precedence: Processes of differentiation in the Austronesian world, pp. 209-227. Canberra: ANU E Press.

2009e En paradoksal antropolog. Jan-Petter Blom intervjuet av Olaf H. Smedal [A paradoxical anthropologist: Jan-Petter Blom interviewed by Olaf H. Smedal]. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 20 (3):191-206.

2008 [with Knut M. Rio) Totalization and detotalization: Alternatives to hierarchy and individualism. Anthropological Theory, 8(3):233-254.

2005. Denne gaven [This gift]. Norsk Antropologisk tidsskrift, 16(1):6-17.

2002a. Ting, tekst – og tanke [Thing, text – and thought]. In Anne Ågotnes and Else Mundal (ed.) Ting og tekst [Thing and text], pp. 7-31. Bergen: Senter for europeiske kulturstudier [Centre for European Cultural Studies].

2002b. Ngadha relationship terms in context: Description, analysis, and implications. Asian Journal of Social Science, 30(3):493-524.

2001a. Innledning: Modeller, fenomener og realiteter [Introduction: Models, phenomena and realities]. In Signe Howell and Marit Melhuus (eds.) Blod – tykkere enn vann? Betydninger av slektskap i Norge [Blood –thicker than water? Meanings of kinship in Norway], pp. 9-44. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

2001b. Antropologi ved årtusenskiftet: Om verden, hodejakt og universitetet [Anthropology at the new millennium: On the world, headhunting and the university]. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 12 (1-2):130-136.

2000a. [ed. with Finn Sivert Nielsen] Mellom himmel og jord: Tradisjoner, teorier og tendenser i sosialantropologien [Between heaven and earth: Traditions, theories and tendencies in social anthropology]. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

2000b. Blod, sæd, moral og teknologi: Hva slektskap brukes til [Blood, semen, morality and technology: The uses of kinship]. In Finn Sivert Nielsen and Olaf H. Smedal (eds.) Mellom himmel og jord: Tradisjoner, teorier og tendenser i sosialantropologien, pp. 115-159. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

2000c. [with Finn Sivert Nielsen] Tillegg: Antropologi på Internett [Appendix: Anthropology on the internet]. In Finn Sivert Nielsen and Olaf H. Smedal (eds) Mellom himmel og jord: Tradisjoner, teorier og tendenser i sosialantropologien, pp. 393-421. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.

2000d. Sociality on display: The aesthetics of Ngadha Houses. RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 37:106-126.

1999. Antropologiske perspektiver på slektskap og samfunnsliv [Anthropological perspectives on kinship and social life]. In Gudmund Moren (ed.) Historikerens rolle i samfunnet [The role of the historian in society], pp. 68-74. Lillehammer: Høgskolen i Lillehammer.

1998a. Slekt og lokalsamfunn: noen sosialantropologiske på minnelser [Kin and community: Some anthropological reminders]. In Harald Winge (ed.) Slekt og lokalsamfunn [Kin and community], pp. 7-30. Oslo: Norsk lokalhistorisk institutt.

1998b. Rapport fra et seminar om komparasjon [Comparison: Report from a seminar]. Antropolognytt 1/98:13-19.

1997. Symboler og symbolforskning slik en antropolog ser det [Symbols and the study of symbols as seen by an anthropologist]. In Ann Christensen, Else Mundal and Ingvild Øye (eds.) Middelalderens symboler [Symbols in the Middle Ages], pp. 7-22. Bergen: Senter for europeiske kulturstudier [Centre for European Cultural Studies].

1996. Conquest and comfort: the Ngadha 'bad death' ritual. In Signe Howell (ed.) For the sake of our future: Sacrificing in Eastern Indonesia, pp. 43-72 Leiden: CNWS.

1994. Indonesia. In Signe Howell and Marit Melhuus (eds.) Fjern og nær: Sosialantropologiske perspektiver på verdens samfunn og kulturer [Far and Near: Anthropological perspectives on societies and cultures of the world], pp. 439-459. Oslo: Ad Notam Gyldendal.

1992a. [with Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Randi Kaarhus] Antropologisk vitenskapsteori: en innledning. [Anthropological theory of science: An introduction.] Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift, 3 (1):3-5.

1992b. [ed. with Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Randi Kaarhus] Temanummer: Antropologisk vitenskapsteori. [Special issue: Anthropological theory of science.] Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift, 3 (1).

1992c. Social anthropology, radical alterity, and culture. Canberra Anthropology, 15(1):58-74.

1991. Affinity, consanguinity, and incest: The case of Orang Lom, Bangka, Indonesia.Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde, 147(1):96-127.

1990. Hva har postmodernismen å tilby sosialantropologer? [What does postmodernism have that it can offer social anthropologists?] Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift, 1(1):29-44.

1989. Order and difference: An ethnographic study of Orang Lom of Bangka, West Indonesia. Occasional Papers in Social Anthropology no. 19, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo. [See also 2003 under web publications below.]

1987. Lom - Indonesian - English & English - Lom wordlists: accompanied by four Lom texts. NUSA: Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and Other Languages in Indonesia 28/29, Jakarta. viii, 165 pp.

1983. Power: A critical digest. Antropolognytt, 5(2/3):13-35.

 

Book reviews, debate
2002d. New directions in anthropological kinship. (Linda Stone, ed). American Ethnologist, 29(4):1052-1054.

2002c. Grandchildren of the Ga'e ancestors: Social organization and cosmology among the Hoga Sara of Flores. (Andrea Katalin Molnar.) Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 33 (2):365-366.

2001d. [with Finn Sivert Nielsen] Når utgangspunktet er som galest... Replikk til Peter Hervik. Tidsskrift for Samfunnsforskning, 42(3):453-458.

2001c. The forest of taboos: Morality, hunting and identity among the Huaulu of the Moluccas. (Valerio Valeri.) Ethnos. 66(2):269-271.

2000e. Headhunting and the social imagination in southeast Asia (Janet Hoskins, ed.). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 31(1):182-184.

1994. Inside Indonesian houses: Perspectives on domestic designs for living (James J. Fox, ed.). Ethnos, 59(3-4):271-274.

 

Encyclopedia entries
1995-1998, 2004-. some 80 entries, chiefly on ethnic groups in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Store Norske Leksikon, vols. 1-15. Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget.

2001. Signe Howell, in Norsk Biografisk Leksikon, vol. 4, pp. 408-409. Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget.


Translations
[2004] Robert W. Hefner: Fredrik Barth og demokratiseringsantropologien [Fredrik Barth & the anthropology of democratization]. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 2004 15 (4): 202-214.

[1996] Ladislav Holy: Det østlige Sentral-Europa [Eastern Central Europe]. In Signe Howell and Marit Melhuus (eds.) Fjern og nær: Sosialantropologiske perspektiver på verdens samfunn og kulturer [Far and Near: Anthropological perspectives on societies and cultures of the world], pp. 513-532. Oslo: Ad Notam Gyldendal.

[1996] Howard Morphy: Australia. In Signe Howell and Marit Melhuus (eds.) Fjern og nær: Sosialantropologiske perspektiver på verdens samfunn og kulturer [Far and Near: Anthropological perspectives on societies and cultures of the world], pp. 81-101. Oslo: Ad Notam Gyldendal.

[1994] Dan W. Forsyth: Kan praktisk talt all menneskelig handling forklares ved hjelp av fire modeller? [Can practically all human action be explained by four models?] Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 1994 3(2):82-95.

 

Web publications
2004. [with Finn Sivert Nielsen] Antropologi på Internett [Anthropology on the internet]. [See also 2000c above].

2003. Order and difference: An ethnographic study of Orang Lom of Bangka, West Indonesia. Revised edition [see 1989 above].

2001f. Why write: On the study of anthropological texts. (trial lecture for the PhD degree, self-selected topic, 1994).

2001e. An interview with Bruce Kapferer - Part Two: Thinking about anthropology. Also in Antropolognytt nr. 1 – February: 4-10.

2000f. An interview with Bruce Kapferer - Part One: Growing up politically. Also in Antropolognytt nr. 3 – October: 1-6.

 

Projects

Ongoing: Social, cultural political and economic consequences of internal migration in Indonesia (Flores and Kalimantan)

Ongoing: Economic, political and ecological consequences of political decentralisation in Indonesia with empirical emphasis on mining and plantations (Bangka)