Gibson, Thomas 1956-

views updated

Gibson, Thomas 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born June 7, 1956. Education: London School of Economics, B.Sc., 1978, Ph.D., 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of Rochester, Department of Anthropology, Lattimore 439, Rochester, New York, 14627-0161. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Anthropologist, educator, and writer. University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, chair of the department of anthropology, 1995-2001, 2005-08; Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, visiting fellow, 2001-02. Previously taught at Manchester University and Cambridge University, both in England.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright fellowship; grant from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.

WRITINGS:

Sacrifice and Sharing in the Philippine Highlands: Religion and Society among the Buid of Mindoro, Athlone Press (Dover, NH), 1986.

And the Sun Pursued the Moon: Symbolic Knowledge and Traditional Authority among the Makassar, University of Hawaii Press (Honolulu, HI), 2005.

Islamic Narrative in Southeast Asia: From the 16th to the 21st Century, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2007.

Also author of monographs and articles for professional journals.

SIDELIGHTS:

Thomas Gibson is an anthropologist who has carried out extensive fieldwork in the Philippines and in Indonesia, and has written articles and books about his research. The author's first book, Sacrifice and Sharing in the Philippine Highlands: Religion and Society among the Buid of Mindoro, focuses on the relationship between the value system of the Buid, a group of shifting cultivators inhabiting the highlands of Mindoro, and their resistance to the economic, political, and ideological systems of the lowland Philippines.

In his next book, And the Sun Pursued the Moon: Symbolic Knowledge and Traditional Authority among the Makassar, the author examines how local communities in Ara, Indonesia, became incorporated into regional and political economic systems between 600 and 1600 CE. During this period, the Java Sea was ruled by a group of maritime kingdoms, some interrelated by trading and marriage. "The title of this fascinating book refers to a Makassarese version of an Austronesian dualism in which after a period of devastating conflict the sun and the moon find that the world cannot be sustained unless they share power, each ruling one half of the day," wrote William Cummings in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. Gibson presents his thesis that the regional political and economic system developed because of the existence of the common Austronesian symbolic system that is believed to have coexisted.

The author incorporates anthropological, mythological, textual, and historical analysis to show that the symbolic knowledge of Makassar is not a seamless whole but rather a complex set of competing models. According to Gibson, each model has a unique historical genealogy and geographic source. "The focus of the book is the relationship between forms of symbolic knowledge and political power," noted Cummings in his review in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. According to the author, both myths and rituals play a critical role in connecting symbolic knowledge and power because the symbolic world interconnects with the peoples' day-by-day experiences and beliefs, from the different roles of men and women to economics.

In his analysis, the author examines the relationship of myths to such things as agricultural practices and trade. The influence of myths is also applied to the building of the area's famous seafaring wooden boats that were able to travel long distances to achieve trade in a global market. "In chapters three to nine, Gibson substantiates his analysis with a sequential description of the major stages of South Sulawesi history, as he sees them, and their echoes in contemporary myth and ritual," noted David Bulbeck in the Australian Journal of Anthropology. In the book's final chapter, "Knowledge, Power, and Traditional Authority," Gibson provides an overall summary of six different Makassarese ideal political models according to the author's understanding of their myths and rituals.

Writing in Pacific Affairs, Kathryn Robinson noted that the author "provides a fresh perspective on the ethnographic analysis of the region which draws on anthropological structuralist traditions but interestingly reflects the conventions of indigenous anthropological scholarship in South Sulawesi …, whose interpretive strategies have relied on the indigenous textual tradition and its exegesis, as well as ethnographic data." In his review in the Australian Journal of Anthropology, Bulbeck noted: "Overall, there is an enormous wealth of value and interesting material in Gibson's book. The writing style is clear and thoroughly engaging, and the arguments are cleverly presented. The text is full of intriguing suggestions for the interpretation of South Sulawesi's long-term history, and the description of Ara's recent history and ethnography is impressive."

Gibson is also the author of Islamic Narrative in Southeast Asia: From the 16th to the 21st Century. In this anthropological treatise, the author examines the origins of contemporary Islamic militancy in Southeast Asia, tracing it back to the sixteenth century when Christian Europeans initially tried to dominate Indian Ocean trade.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Australian Journal of Anthropology, December, 2006, David Bulbeck, review of And the Sun Pursued the Moon: Symbolic Knowledge and Traditional Authority among the Makassar, p. 361.

Choice, November, 2005, M.L. Hattari, review of And the Sun Pursued the Moon, p. 533.

Journal of Asian Studies, August, 2006, Susan Rodgers, review of And the Sun Pursued the Moon, p. 651.

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, June, 2006, William Cummings, review of And the Sun Pursued the Moon, p. 361.

Pacific Affairs, spring, 2006, Kathryn Robinson, review of And the Sun Pursued the Moon, p. 157.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 2005, review of And the Sun Pursued the Moon, p. 54.

Social Anthropology, October, 2006, Martin Slama, review of And the Sun Pursued the Moon, p. 410.