Abstract

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 193 waiting—unbridled capitalist additions and ‘improvements’ to the city have their brutally mortal limits. CHAND SOMAIAH Asia Research Institute aribcs@nus.edu.sg © 2019 Chand Somaiah https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2019.1683301 GENEVIÈVE DUGGAN &HANS HÄGERDAL Singapore, NUS Press, 2018 Savu: History and Oral Tradition on an Island of Indonesia is an unusual book, whose authors, anthropologist Geneviève Duggan and historian Hans Hägerdal, have pro- duced a uniquely comprehensive account of Savu society, analysing the dual perspec- tives afforded by comparing Savunese oral traditions, genealogy and social memory with written European accounts dating from the early sixteenth century. Both authors have devoted decades to the study of Savu. Duggan’s thirty years of fieldwork here have made her the only anthropologist to have worked in all five domains of the island, while Hägerdal has spent twenty years in archival study of Dutch and Portu- guese sources. The book’s originality lies in its interdisciplinary contribution to the study of social memory, for Savu provides the rare opportunity to triangulate between oral and written sources. Names and events embedded in indigenous genealogy and memory can often be matched with evidence from written records, extending over several cen- turies. The Portuguese made their first