A Coincidence of Desires
A Coincidence of Desires: Anthropology, Queer Studies, Indonesia Tom Boellstorff,
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822339919
DDC: 306.766209598
Edition: Paperback; 2007-05
Summary:
In A Coincidence of Desires, Tom Boellstorff considers how
interdisciplinary collaboration between anthropology and queer
studies might enrich both fields. For more than a decade he has
visited Indonesia, both as an anthropologist exploring gender and
sexuality and as an activist involved in HIV prevention work. Drawing
on these experiences, he provides several in-depth case studies,
primarily concerning the lives of Indonesian men who term themselves
gay (an Indonesian-language word that overlaps with, but does not
correspond exactly to, the English word “gay”). These case studies
put interdisciplinary research approaches into practice. They are
preceded and followed by theoretical meditations on the most
productive forms that collaborations between queer studies and
anthropology might take. Boellstorff uses theories of time to ask how
a model of “coincidence” might open up new possibilities for
cooperation between the two disciplines. He also juxtaposes his own
work with other scholars’ studies of Indonesia, Thailand, the
Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore to compare queer sexualities
across Southeast Asia. In doing so, he asks how comparison might be
understood as a queer project and how queerness might be understood
as comparative.The case studies contained in A Coincidence of Desires
speak to questions about the relation of sexualities to nationalism,
religion, and globalization. They include an examination of zines
published by gay Indonesians; an analysis of bahasa gay—a slang
spoken by gay Indonesians that is increasingly appropriated in
Indonesian popular culture; and an exploration of the place of warias
(roughly, “male-to-female transvestites”) within Indonesian society.
Boellstorff also considers the tension between Islam and sexuality in
gay Indonesians’ lives and a series of incidents in which
groups of men, identified with Islamic fundamentalism, violently
attacked gatherings of gay men. Collectively, these studies insist on
the primacy of empirical investigation to any queer studies project
that wishes to speak to the specificities of lived experience.
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