The Memory of Trade

“[T]he ethnographic results of Spyer’s meticulous research are well worth contemplating. She offers abundant information on such features of Barakai existence as hunting the cassowary, diving for pearls, the pairing of two community ritual figures called ‘Prow’ and ‘Stern,’ the ambivalent status of the headman, and the annual cycle of seasonal activities, all of which are described with a scrupulous attention to detail. They have the advantage of being invariably presented in a gendered perspective, a balance that adds conviction and authority to Spyer’s ethnographic portrait of a people whose lives she describes with insight and sympathy.” - David Hicks , Journal of Asian Studies

“The book provides a richly textured and well-crafted narrative of the experiences, memories and imaginings of the Aruese confronted by what others might prefer to call globalisation, modernisation or uneven development, but which Spyer refers to as ‘modernity’s entanglements.’ What is especially admirable about this study is the way in which the author imaginatively and skillfully weaves the themes of market exchange, colonial incorporation of marginal communities, European commentary on both the native and the natural environment, local rituals and changing dress sense, recent religious conversion and nationalist politics into a story which is at once comprehensible and illuminating and yet full of uncertainties and open-ended futures.” - Victor T. King , Asian Affairs

“The Memory of Trade is one of the most compelling works—ethnographic or otherwise—that I have read in Indonesian studies.” - John Pemberton, author of On the Subject of “Java”

“With profound insight, empathy, and theoretical sophistication, Patricia Spyer traces out the complex intertwinings among identity, global commerce, local ritual, and national politics. This book is a masterful demonstration of how much of modernity's paradoxes, romance, and uncanny displacements best come into sight when viewed from the perspective of the supposed margins.” - Webb Keane, author of Signs of Recognition: Powers and Hazards of Representation in an Indonesian So