UNC Research Collaborator Affiliate
Sociocultural Anthropologist
aragon2@email.unc.edu
919-962-1243
Alumni Building 409A
Research Interests
Anthropology of Religion, Arts, Material Culture, Law, Society-nature Relations, Intellectual Property Models, Global Connections, Minorities and State Relations, Pluralism and Exchange, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Sulawesi
Research Background
I am a sociocultural anthropologist (Ph.D. University of Illinois; M.A., Communications, Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania) with broad interests in human worldviews and values as they are classified and communicated through the institutions of religion, customary practices, law, and arts. My research focuses on Indonesia’s (post)colonial development, ethnoreligious pluralism, and material culture.
Education
PhD, Anthropology, University of Illinois, 1992; MA in Communications, University of Pennsylvania
Publications
022, “Pluralities of Power in Indonesia’s Intellectual Property Law, Regional Art, and Religious Freedom Debates” Anthropological Forum 32(1):20-40. https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/C7QRAKBAVVYS8RZD5FQQ/full?target=10.1080/00664677.2022.2042793
2021, “Regulating Religion and Recognizing ‘Animist Beliefs’ in Indonesian Law and Life.” In Religious Pluralism in Indonesia: Threats and Opportunities for Democracy, Chiara Formichi, ed., Pp. 135-162. Ithaca, NY: SEAP, Cornell University Press.
2021, “Sulawesi,” In Textiles of Indonesia: The Thomas Murray Collection, pp. 256-269; 280-313; 322-347. Munich and London: Prestel Verlag.
2021 [1996], “Masa Jepang dan Tambang Mika: Pengalaman-pengalaman Pendudukan di Dataran Tinggi Sulawesi Tengah” Arianto Sangadji, trans. LOBO 1(3): 99-115. https://lobo.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/default/issue/view/7.
2021 Lorraine V. Aragon and Susan Long, “Clark E. Cunningham’s Cutting-Edge Contributions to Research on Biomedical Appropriation in Southeast Asia” Moussons 38: 193-202, Special Issue on: The Appropriation of Biomedicine in Southeast Asia, Meriem M’Zoughi, ed.
2018, “Who Owns the World? Recognizing the Repressed Small Gods of Southeast Asia.” In Fairies, Demons, and Nature Spirits: ‘Small Gods’ at the Margins of Christendom, Michael Ostling, ed., Pp. 277-299. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
2014, “Law versus Lore: Copyright and Conflicting Claims about Culture and Property in Indonesia,” Anthropology Today 30(5): 15-19.
2014, “Uncovering the Trauma of Indonesia’s Cold War Killing Fields,” Film review of 40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy directed by Robert Lemelson. Current Anthropology 55(4): 493-494.
2013, “Development Strategies, Religious Relations, and Communal Violence in Central Sulawesi: A Cautionary Tale,” In Development Strategies, Identities, and Conflict in Asia, William Ascher and Natalia Mirovitskaya, ed., Pp. 153-182. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
2012, “Copyrighting Culture for the Nation? Intangible Property Nationalism and the Regional Arts of Indonesia.”International Journal of Cultural Property 19(3): 269-312.
2011 “Living without Please or Thanks in Indonesia: Cultural Translations of Reciprocity and Respect,” In Everyday Life in Southeast Asia, Kathleen Adams and Kate Gillogly, ed., Pp.14-26. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
2011 “Where Commons Meet Commerce: Circulation and Sequestration Strategies in Indonesian Arts Economies”Anthropology of Work Review 32(2): 63-76.
2011 “Distant Processes: The Global Economy and Outer Island Development in Indonesia,” In Life and Death Matters: Human Rights, Environment, and Social Justice, Barbara Rose Johnston, ed. Revised 2nd Ed. Pp.29-54. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
2011 Essays on Sulawesi artifacts, in Paths of Origins: The Austronesian Heritage in the Collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, The Museum Nasional Indonesia, and The Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Purissima Benitez-Johannot, ed. Pp. 226-235. Singapore: ArtPostAsia.
2011 “Masalah Kepemilikan Budaya: Hak Kekayaan Intelektual Global dan Kesenian Masyarakat Adat di Indonesia” (Problems of Cultural Ownership: Global Intellectual Property Law and Traditional Community Arts in Indonesia). InKegalauan Identitas: Agama, Etnisitas, dan Kewarganegaraan pada Masa Pasca-Order Baru, (Contested Identities: Religion, Politics of Rights, and Citizenship in Post-New Order Indonesia), Fadjar Thufail and Martin Ramstedt, ed., Pp.195-217. Jakarta, Indonesia: Grasindo.
2010 “O commons local como o meio-termo ausente nos debates sobre conhecimentos nativos e leis de propriedade intellectual” (The Local Commons as a Missing Middle in Debates over Indigenous Knowledge and Intellectual Property Law,)” in Do Regime de Propriede Intelectual: Estudos Antropológicos (Anthropological Studies of Intellectual Property Regimes), Ondina Fachel Leal and Rebeca Hennemann Vergara de Souza, ed. Pp. 243-261. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Tomo Editorial (ISBN 978-85-86225-65-9).
2008 Lorraine V. Aragon and James Leach, “Arts and Owners: Intellectual Property Law and the Politics of Scale in Indonesian Arts” American Ethnologist 35(4): 607-631, (Nov issue.)
2008 “Reconsidering Displacement and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from Poso,” in Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Indonesia: Dynamics, Patterns, and Experiences, Eva-Lotta Hedman, ed. Pp.173-205. Ithaca: Cornell University SEAP Publications.
2007 “Elite Competition in Central Sulawesi,” in Renegotiating Boundaries: Local Politics in Post-Soeharto Indonesia, Henk Schulte Nordholt and Gerry Van Klinken, ed. Pp.39-66. Leiden: KITLV.
2006 “Bird Omens and Metaphors in Central Sulawesi Ritual Songs,” in Les Messagers Divins: Aspects Esthétiques et Symboliques des Oiseaux en Asie du Sud-Est / Divine Messengers: Bird Symbolism and Aesthetics in Southeast Asia, Pierre LeRoux and Bernard Sellato, ed. Pp. 613-635. Paris and Marseilles: Connaissances et Savoirs / SevenOrients / IRASEC.
2005 “Mass Media Fragmentation and Narratives of Violent Action in Sulawesi’s Poso Conflict,” Indonesia 79 (April 2005): 1-55.
2003 “Missions and Omissions of the Supernatural: Indigenous Cosmologies and the Legitimisation of ‘Religion’ in Indonesia,” Anthropological Forum 13(2): 131-140.
2003 “Expanding Spiritual Territories: Owners of the Land, Missionization, and Migration in Central Sulawesi.” InFounder’s Cults in Southeast Asia: Ancestors, Polity, Identity, Nicola Tannenbaum and C.A. Kammerer, ed. Pp.113-133. New Haven: Yale SEAP Monograph Series.
2002 “In Pursuit of Mica: The Japanese and Highland Minorities in Sulawesi.” In Southeast Asian Minorities in the Wartime Japanese Empire, Paul H. Kratoska, ed. Pp.81-96. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
2001 “Communal Violence in Central Sulawesi: Where People Eat Fish and Fish Eat People.” Indonesia 72 (October 2001): 45-79.
2000 Fields of the Lord: Animism, Christian Minorities, and State Development in Indonesia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press).
1999 “The Currency of Indonesian Regional Textiles: Aesthetic Politics in Local, Transnational, and International Emblems.” Ethnos 64(2): 151-169.
1996 “Suppressed and Revised Performances: Raego’ Songs of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.” Ethnomusicology 40(3): 413-439.
1996 “Twisting the Gift: Translating Precolonial into Colonial Exchanges in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.” American Ethnologist 23(1): 43-60.
1996 “Reorganizing the Cosmology: The Reinterpretation of Deities and Religious Practice by Protestants in Central Sulawesi.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 27(2): 350-373.
1996 “`Japanese Time’ and the Mica Mine: Experiences of the Occupation in the Western Central Sulawesi Highlands.”Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 27(1): 49-63.
1991 Paul M. Taylor and Lorraine V. Aragon, Beyond the Java Sea: Art of Indonesia’s Outer Islands. 1991 Wash, D.C. and N.Y.: National Museum of Natural History and Abrams Press.