Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8254
Title: | To know or not to know? Practices of knowledge and ignorance among Bidayuhs in an “impurely” Christian world |
Authors: | Chua, L |
Keywords: | Epistemology;Anthropology;Sarawak, Malaysia;Christianity |
Issue Date: | 2009 |
Publisher: | Royal Anthropological Institute |
Citation: | Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 15(2), 332 - 348, 2009 |
Abstract: | This article seeks to render ignorance analytically and ethnographically productive by exploring practices and tropes of knowing and not-knowing among young Christian Bidayuhs in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. It argues that these Bidayuhs' professed ignorance of the old ‘religion’, adat gawai, cannot be dismissed as a simple lack of knowledge or reflection of sheer indifference. Instead, their invocations of ignorance could be understood as a productive, empowering device for dealing with the dangers of living in a world in which religious conversion remains an ongoing, incomplete process. Through this ethnographic analysis, the article also offers a reflexive critique of the knowledge-centred impulses that often shape anthropology's epistemological and methodological projects. |
Description: | © Royal Anthropological Institute 2009. This is the accepted version of the following article: Chua, L. (2009), To know or not to know? Practices of knowledge and ignorance among Bidayuhs in an ‘impurely’ Christian world. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 15: 332–348, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2009.01556.x/abstract. |
URI: | http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2009.01556.x/abstract http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/8254 |
DOI: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2009.01556.x |
ISSN: | 1359-0987 |
Appears in Collections: | Anthropology Publications Dept of Social and Political Sciences Research Papers |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fulltext.pdf | 324.05 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Items in BURA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.