Hierarchies of Power

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Imam Ardhianto

   Pages 1-36

3. The End of Headhunting and the Globalizing Mission of Evangelical Christianity in Borneo

   • Imam Ardhianto

   Pages 37-60

4. The Fall of Adat Pu’un and the Politics of Church Making

   • Imam Ardhianto

   Pages 61-88

5. The Spirit Went Upriver: Disenchanted Adat and the Politics of “Culture”

   • Imam Ardhianto

   Pages 89-108

6. Inter-Denominational Relations, Hierarchy, and Schism

   • Imam Ardhianto

   Pages 109-134

7. Conclusion

   • Imam Ardhianto

   Pages 135-147

8. Back Matter

   Pages 149-153

   PDF

This book focuses on a Pentecostal-Evangelical Kenyah community in central Borneo, a region that crosses the border between Malaysia and Indonesia. The book argues that the Pentecostal-Evangelical (P/e) mode of religious authority and organization has the capacity to adapt to both the pre-existing hierarchical traditional institution such as Adat and modern egalitarian social forms. It has been necessary within the context of Kenyah’s experience of religious change as it enabled many actors from various social classes to obtain and perceive religious authority in a specific local and regional political-religious situation while promoting their identity as egalitarian and autonomous modern subjects. In contrast with other studies on the P/e church that emphasize its egalitarian spirit as a factor that supports its impressive growth, the book contends that its adaptive structural characteristics have enabled the development of this specific Christian denomination to expand rapidly and play a dominant position in contemporary social life in various parts of the world.

The book thus provides novel findings in the study of religious change in Southeast Asia by enriching the discussion of historical transformation in the region, and analyzing the articulation of global and regional Christian movements, with the socio-political characteristics of Bornean society.

• Religious Change and Christianity
• Cultural Revitalization in Asia
• Evangelical Christianity
• Kenyah in Central Borneo
• Social Hierarchy in Asia
• Colonialism in Asia
• Egalitarian Church-Making
• Adat in Asia
• Church Institutions in Asia
• Schism among Christian Kenyah
• Christian Kenyah
• Calvinist Kenyah Community
• Religion in Borneo
• Kenyah Ethnic Group
• Borneo Studies

“This highly original book takes readers on a journey into the history of religious conversion to Christianity as well as adat revitalization movements among the Kenyah of North Kalimantan, Indonesia. However, it is relevant far beyond its particular case study, as it offers inspiring theoretical reflections on the relationship between hierarchy and egalitarianism. New perspectives on religious change and its socio-political effects are combined with vivid ethnographic descriptions and critical questions about the continuous influences of hierarchical religious authority and local elites.

- Judith Schlehe, Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology, University of Freiburg, Germany

“The author and this book deserves to receive respect and high appreciation. The book very clearly shows how the author’s competency and expertise in anthropology, and in combining this with the study of missions as part of theology. The book enriches and helps many people to understand the encounter, dialogue, and collaboration between culture (esp. adat) and Christianity, with socio-political and historical approaches. The book will be of benefit to not only the Apokayan people in Central Borneo and the Pentecostal-Evangelical churches (esp, GKII), but also for many others around the world."

- Jan S. Aritonang, Professor of History of Christianity, Jakarta Philosophical & Theological School.

"This important ethnographic and ethnohistorical study of the interactions of Adat and Pentecostal-Evangelical Christianity among the Kenyah of Central Borneo cuts through the underbrush of now overfamiliar debates about Christian conversion and individualism to ask challenging new questions about how egalitarianism and hierarchy are negotiated by means of complex religious and political struggles.  Opening up a fresh analytic perspective and posing a novel set of questions about religion and cultural change, this book is a major contribution to the anthropology of Christianity."

 - Joel Robbins, Sigrid Rausing Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge

• Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia

  Imam Ardhianto

Imam Ardhianto is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Universitas Indonesia. His research interests include religious change, Adat transformation, globalization, anthropology of Christianity and Borneo studies.