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.

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

List of Illustrations

Foreword
Tim Ingold

Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART I: INTERSUBJECTIVITY

Chapter 1. Into the Field: The Orang Rimba at Sungai Gelumpang
Chapter 2. Sociality and the Negotiation of Self and Other
Chapter 3. Touch and the Mutual Constitution of Selves and Others
Chapter 4. Forest, Village and the Significance of Movement

PART II: BODY AND WORLD

Chapter 5. Becoming a Hunter
Chapter 6. Hunting
Chapter 7. Becoming in the forest
Chapter 8. Shamanism and the textures of the universe
Chapter 9. Melangun

Epilogue

Orthography and glossary
Bibliography
Index