Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia

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Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba: Multispecies Relationships and Environmental Variations in Indonesia examines biosocial change in the Austronesian community of the Kodi by examining multispecies interactions between select biota and abiota. Cynthia T. Fowler describes how the Kodi people coordinate their mundane and ritual practices with polychaetes and celestial bodies, and how this synchrony encourages and is encouraged by social and ecological variations. Fowler grounds her anthropogenic environmental research with information from geospatial science, marine ecology, astronomy, physics, and astrophysics.

Reviews

Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba is an innovative, fascinating, and original take on a society we thought we knew quite well. Cynthia T. Fowler provides revealing and insightful passages that reflect on the relation of space and time, on the periodicity of sea worms and moon phases, and on rituals which try to recover lost souls from celestial bodies. -- Janet Hoskins, University of Southern California
In this lively and innovative book, with its engaging prose style, Cynthia Fowler takes us on a journey across radically different scales of understanding. Fowler suggests new ways of looking at the relationship between biological and non-biological entities and provocatively addresses some enduring concerns in the anthropology of cosmology. -- Roy Ellen, University of Kent

Author Bio

Cynthia T. Fowler is associate professor of anthropology at Wofford College.