Kumpulan esei Shaharuddin Maaruf ini merenungi hubung kait antara Tradisi, pemodenan dan perubahan sosial dalam dunia Melayu-Islam Asia Tenggara. Persoalan Tradisi yang sungguh kompleks ini diamati dalam aspek-aspek khusus seperti persoalan kesinambungan sejarah, nilai-nilai, jati diri dan peranan orientasi agama dalam menentukan sifat dan hala tuju perubahan sosial ini. Etos-etos sejarah yang penting, seperti feudalisme dan kolonialisme, dan kesinambungannya dikaji dalam mencoraki pandangan hidup Asia Tenggara kontemporari. Ada diandaikan salah satu faktor terpenting dalam membentuk dan mencoraki Tradisi ialah elit dan nilai-nilai mereka. Justeru esei-esei juga meninjau asal-usul dan latar belakang sosial pembentukan mereka. Sementara menentukan kesinambungan Tradisi-tradisi dan sistem nilai-nilai mereka, kumpulan-kumpulan elit ini sendiri ditentukan sifat dan pandangan hidup mereka oleh kesinambungan-kesinambungan sejarah dari zaman lampau hingga ke hari ini. Dalam memperkatakan permainan antara Tradisi dan pemodenan, sudah tentunya perbincangan mencerahkan juga rintangan-rintangan terhadap pemodenan dan perubahan sosial yang berkemajuan. Aspek-aspek ini memang sentiasa menarik prihatin dan renungan mendalam tokoh-tokoh intelektual dan reformasi dari Tradisi Asia Tenggara. Sehubungan ini karya-karya Ibn Khaldun, Multatuli, Jose Rizal, Pramoedya Ananta Toer dikaji dalam kerangka tema besar esei-esei.

An Autobiography of a Rebel is the final biographical writing of Kassim Ahmad, completed shortly before his passing in October 2017. Within he tells the story of his transition from a leader of Parti Rakyat Malaysia to a scholar of the Quran and Hadith, and a member of UMNO. Brought up in rural Kedah, Kassim Ahmad became politically aware in the period of Malaya’s independence struggle. Participating in the University Socialist Club, he would go to make his name with a radical analysis of the figures of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat in the Hikayat Hang Tuah. Yet by the 1980s he had become both a staunch critic of socialism, and an Islamic thinker who set out to challenge orthodoxy and reinterpret dominant interpretations, most notably in his Hadis – Satu Penilaian Semula, before later championing a political system based upon the Charter of Medina. Through a series of short reflective essays, An Autobiography of a Rebel tells the story of a man whose intellectual journey from socialism to Islam was rooted in his belief that philosophical inquiry was vital to the production of a better governed and more prosperous country. Autobiography of a Rebel forms then not only the final account of Kassim Ahmad’s life, but also his final intellectual statement.

How to Read Ethnography is an invaluable guide to approaching anthropological texts. Laying bare the central conventions of ethnographic writing, it helps students to develop a critical understanding of texts and explains how to identify and analyse the core ideas in order to apply these ideas to other areas of study. Above all it enables students to read ethnographies anthropologically and to develop an anthropological imagination of their own. Combining lucid explanations with selections from key texts, this excellent guide is ideal reading for those new to the subject or in need of a refresher course. Includes excerpts from key ethnographies Offers balanced and progressive reader activities and exercises Provides reading exercises, a glossary and full chapter summaries Teaches an independent approach to the study of anthropology

While Muslims in Indonesia have begun to turn towards a strict adherence to Islam, the reality of the socio-religious environment is much more complicated than a simple shift towards fundamentalism. In this volume, contributors explore the multifaceted role of Islam in Indonesia from a variety of different perspectives, drawing on carefully compiled case studies. Topics covered include religious education, the increasing number of Muslim feminists in Indonesia, the role of Indonesia in the greater Muslim world, social activism and the middle class, and the interaction between Muslim radio and religious identity.

Indonesia's quasi-military dictatorship has sought since 1965 to mould Indonesian society into a male-oriented, capitalist, Javanese-dominated national framework. Cinema and television are the most closely-controlled mass media in Indonesia, and films for mass consumption have played an important role in the government's vast socio-political engineering project.Krishna Sen describes the background and present-day Indonesian film industry and explores how the country's society and history are represented in its film culture. From a critique of four films, she concludes that Indonesian cinema privileges the military against the civilian, the middle class against the popular classes, and men against women. Backed by careful documentation from cinema literature, this is a radical, in-depth perspective on film - its implications, its vulnerability to manipulation and its artistic and propagandist value.