Abstract

For the Orang Rimba of Sumatra – and tropical foragers in general – life in the forest engenders a kind of “connectedness” that is contingent not only on harmonious relations between people, but also between people and the non-human environment, including those supernatural agencies of the forest that people depend on for their spiritual and emotional wellbeing. Exploring this world, anthropologist Ramsey Elkholy treats embodied action and perception as the basis of shared experience and shows how various forms of embodied experience constitute the very foundations of human culture. In a unique methodological contribution, Elkholy adopts a set of body-centered approaches that reflect and capture the day-to-day, moment-to-moment ways in which people engage with the world. Being and Becoming is an important contribution to phenomenological anthropology, hunter-gatherer studies, and to Southeast Asian ethnography more generally.

“Being and Becoming perfectly represents the present-day anthropological focus on bodies, senses, and the construction of persons (human and otherwise), as well as the replacement of textual emphases with phenomenological ones.” • Anthropology Review Database

“This is the perfect introduction to phenomenological anthropology, brilliantly combining theoretical insight with ethnographic analysis.” • Gillian Evans, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester

“The book provides a well-written ethnography from a phenomenological approach of a small hunter-gatherer group in Sumatra, known as Orang Rimba. This is a good ethnography, and a good contribution to hunter-gatherer studies and to phenomenological anthropology. It includes some delightful and perceptive discussions.” • Nurit Bird-David, University of Haifa

“This is an interesting and rich ethnography of the Orang Rimba, about whom little published material is available.” • Isabell Herrmans, University of Helsinki

Ramsey Elkholy, PhD, University of Manchester, is an entrepreneur, musician, and writer based in New York City.