Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Robin Bush, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

ABSTRACT

The Indian Ocean tsunami that struck the Indonesian province of Aceh on the 26th of December 2004 left a trail of death and destruction. It also effected social changes and its aftermath brought hopes for a better future. In this talk I will discuss two normative narratives for the improvement of self and society that figured strongly in the lives of ordinary Acehnese in the post-tsunami years, namely moral and religious improvement on the one hand and socio-economic development on the other hand. These “improvement narratives” were shaped by different temporalities: whereas the narrative on moral improvement builds on an apocalyptic concept of time in which the expectation of the future end of the world influences present actions, the narrative on socio-economic development builds on a temporality of never-ending growth. In the aspirations and expectations of both kinds of improvement that run through the stories of my Acehnese interlocutors, the tsunami figures as a starting point for change, opening up possibilities for social and personal improvement.

Focusing on religious explanations for the tsunami and their related future imaginaries, as well as on dominant discourses of post-disaster development that were exemplified by the slogan of “building back better”, I argue that in the efforts of remaking everyday life in Aceh the two improvement narratives were closely intertwined. This can perhaps be seen most clearly in the frequent use of the Islamic concept of hikmah; divine wisdom. Many Muslims in Aceh pointed out that the hikmah in the tsunami could both be seen in the religious lessons, such as the awareness of the approach of the Day of Judgment, that the tsunami provided and in the social, political and economic developments that it effected. Finally, in this talk I hope to draw attention to the ways in which religion and development became entangled in the future imaginaries that inspired processes of post-disaster remaking of everyday life in Aceh.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Annemarie Samuels is a postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam. She is currently conducting ethnographic research on HIV/AIDS and morality in Aceh and North-Sumatera, Indonesia. Her previous research addressed the remaking of everyday life after the Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh. Publications resulting from this research have appeared in, amongst others, the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and Anthropology Today. Annemarie is also co-editor (with Michael Feener and David Kloos) of the forthcoming volume Islam and the Limits of the State: Reconfigurations of Ritual, Doctrine, Community and Authority in Contemporary Aceh.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Mr Jonathan Lee via email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg