Website Rationale

2009 comments:

After years of neglect (in my defence, I’ve moved on to other things), and as the time the website has been available approaches 10 years, let me re-contextualize what this website is about. I’m doing this mainly because the information is becoming dated—it relates to the final decade of the 20^th century and a month or two of the first year of the 21^st. Hence everything here has to be regarded, from the vantage point of almost a decade on, as a part of the historical record. It is no longer—and has not been for quite some time—a “critique or critical evaluation of not only populist perspectives such as those presented within the commercial and populist sites but also professional perspectives on the islands' indigenous inhabitants.”(see below) Nor can it be said to represent an attempt to “outline a direction in which anthropological/ethnographic research needs to head”, although it may serve that function for an interested researcher. Still, hopefully interested parties will find something of value in what is a fairly considerable collection of information. And, if anyone has anything of value that they might like to have put up here, just let me know (don’t hold your breath, Glenn).

2001 original comments:

This website is dedicated to the academic study of the Mentawai Islands. Whilst this specific focus (academic; anthropology) may have the effect of marginalising a proportion of its potential audience it is, nonetheless, intended to be a focal point, or a point of departure, for all those with an interest in the region. It is being offered as a counterpoint to the variety of internet sites that currently exist having the Mentawai islands as their subject matter, and which largely present superficial and misleading images of the nature of the social and cultural beliefs and practices of the indigenous inhabitants.

The appearance of these sites would appear to be partly a function of the growing interest in this part of the world due to the opening up of tourist ventures taking advantage of the high-quality surf that has recently been revealed to exist in the area, which comes on the heels of a longer history of backpacker or adventure-tourism/cultural tourism traffic to the islands. They therefore represent a response to a growing demand for high-quality surfing experiences that the area can consistently provide.

This site could generally be characterised, then, as engaging in a sustained critique or critical evaluation of not only populist perspectives—such as those presented within the commercial and populist sites—but also professional perspectives on the islands' indigenous inhabitants. Apart from making available empirical material it also attempts to outline a direction in which anthropological/ethnographic research needs to head. It is overall, however, dedicated to the goal of public education. Whilst the disciplinary focus of the materials either posted on this site or accessible through links is that of social/cultural anthropology, it is the intention of the author to post articles or embed links to material from a broad disciplinary base as these become available. It will, hence, be subject to ongoing modifications.

The author also invites contributions in the form of short essays, reports, or commentary from any person(s) with substantial experience and knowledge of social, political, economic, or cultural events, currently occurring or which have occurred in the past, with a view to publishing these @ mentawai.org.

The author would finally like to acknowledge the valuable assistance of the following in pointing out inaccuracies, oversights, and omissions in the information available at this site:
Christie Carter, Charles Lindsay, Jess Ponting.