Rutten - Anthropological Encounters

Rutten Anthropological Encounters
  
Anthropological Encounters
Mario Rutten
 
AMB Diemen 2015
(isbn 97890-79700-80-6, 120 pp., rijk geïllustreerd, paperback, € 25,00)
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In this collection of columns Mario Rutten shows how his training in anthropology has shaped his interpersonal relationships and how he learns from everyday encounters. He describes people from the state of Gujarat in north-west India whom he befriended as a young researcher. He has continued to follow them and their children over the years – first in India, later also in London when they temporarily migrate there, and in the Netherlands when they visit him. With some his relationships are so close that they call each other brother, sister, uncle or cousin. In other columns, he discusses his colleagues and people he got to know during his research in Malaysia and Indonesia.
This anthropological view of the world around him is not confined to his work. Almost imperceptibly it carries over into his personal life and daily activities. For  Mario Rutten, personal experiences are a source of professional reflection, and vice versa. Time and again his stories attest to this, whether they concern comments made by his Indian ‘brother’ or his son, or the lessons in observation learned from behind a camera.
 
Mario Rutten is professor of Comparative Anthropology & Sociology of Asia at the Department of Anthropology and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam (UvA). He has been conducting fieldwork in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Britain since 1983.
 
 
CONTENTS
 
Preface
Family
my wife Rienke
my brother Santudas
my daughter Lisa
my nephew Vishal
my son Daan
my sister Utpala
my brother Huib
Migrants
Darshan: ambivalent feelings
Pinal: tenacity
Komal: coming of age
Sohang: going back
Sohang: changing plans
Dhruti: fulfilling dreams
Jignesh: future plans
Haresh: going East
Maruthani: crossing borders
Sheela: on the move
Dixit: desire for independence
Colleagues
Hein: a Dutch collegial coach
Carol: an Indian scholar of foreign origin
Keiko: a Japanese cosmopolitan researcher
Amrapali: an independent Indian colleague
Erwan: a democratic Indonesian dean
Jojada: a creative Dutch colleague
Alakh: a multi-task Indian director
Ambalal: an Indian farmer and sociologist
Miscellaneous
Guan: social background
Vipulbhai: marriage arrangements
Santudas: social science upside down
Sanderien and Isabelle: film and research
Ignace: shared anthropology
References