Etc Indonesia: The Pearl Lost by the Gods

Author's Profile

Elizabeth Pisani, multilingual in Indonesian and French, with degrees in ancient Chinese, medical demography, and infectious epidemiology, worked as a special correspondent for Reuters and The Economist in Indonesia from 1988 to 1991, as an epidemiologist with the Indonesian Ministry of Health from 2001 to 2005, and as a traveler to the Indonesian archipelago from 2011 to 2012, as well as author of The Wisdom of Bureaucrats and the Business of AIDS. He traveled to the Indonesian archipelago from 2001 to 2005 as an epidemiologist and from 2011 to 2012, and is the author of The Wisdom of Prostitutes: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS.

Description

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country in the world, comprising 13,500 islands, inhabited by 360 ethnic groups and speaking 719 languages. It is not only rich in natural resources, but also a country of unparalleled cultural diversity and heterogeneity. Ravaged by years of colonial exploitation and wars of conflict, Indonesia has had a complex colonial experience and an arduous process of modernization, and its geography makes it difficult to understand its multiracial, multilingual, and multireligious character. Elizabeth Pisani has traveled around the islands of Indonesia as a foreign correspondent and AIDS epidemiologist to gain a deeper understanding of this enigmatic and volatile country, at a strange crossroads between modernity and tradition, and to analyze Indonesia's recent history, its political system, its ethnic and religious identities, its bureaucratic rigidity, and its traditional "sticky" culture. The book also provides an in-depth analysis of Indonesia's recent history, political system, ethno-religious identity, bureaucratic rigidity, and traditional "sticky" culture, gradually piecing together the bits and pieces of what we have seen and heard during our travels into a complete portrait of Indonesia.

Recommended Reasons

Elisabeth Pisani's book "Indonesia Etc. Pearls Lost by the Gods" is a comprehensive and objective book that delves into the religion, mythology, history, and culture of Indonesia through an in-depth look at and understanding of this mysterious and ever-changing country that is at the marvelous crossroads of modernity and tradition, with Pisani as the point of view of her travelogue writings, experiences over different periods of time, showing how the various cities of Indonesia have changed over different periods of time, in-depth exploration of the religion, myths, history, and culture of the country, in-depth exploration of Indonesian culture and religion.