Building on the ethnographic and historical studies of R.H. Barnes and Cynthia Chou, and operating within the larger context of the problematics of nationhood, national development, and the creation of a “national identity,” this paper focuses on the dynamics of continuity and change as experienced by two groups of Orang Laut (sea nomads) within the Indonesian State. While both groups are for the most part similar in tradition and culture, their encounters with global modernizing processes and the integrative forces of the nation-state are mostly divergent. Continue reading →