How a travelling society totalizes itself : Hybrid polities and values in Maluku, Eastern Indonesia

Abstract

This article applies Dumont’s view of ideology to an Eastern Indonesian society with intense trade connections to other ethnic groups and the larger political economy. In spite of their commercial importance, these connections are framed as long-distance kinship. My question is whether this encompassment of economic by social values is part of a totalizing ideological order. I discuss the values of personhood and exchange to show that long-distance commerce is the source of social differentiation expressed in them. Ultimately, however, the test of Dumont’s methodology is not whether it helps explain the resilience of local social orders, but whether it can deal with historical complexity and change. I argue that Dumont’s answer – hybrid ideology – is a good description for the encompassment of both kin-based totalities and political-economic stratification