Dr Bill Watson

Dr. C.W. Watson

Teaching

I teach a first-year course on Social Anthropology to students in which the principal

aim is to introduce them to an anthropological way of looking at their own direct and indirect experience. I suggest to them that the anthropological insights which they obtain from reading anthropological texts can be used to look afresh at their own daily lives in relation to both what they and their family and friends do and what they read in newspapers and see on television.

At a more advanced level I teach courses on the history and theory of Social Anthropology,

and I teach a course on the Anthropology of the British Isles which builds upon some of the ideas to which students have been exposed in their first year.

Research

Most of my research relates to Indonesia and Malaysia. I have lived in both countries

for several years and speak the language of the countries fluently. The research for my PhD was conducted in central Sumatra. Among the subjects in which I have an especial interest are: rural development and the impact of the Green Revolution, the practice and politics of Islam, local politics and gender issues. I also have a long-standing interest in the relationship between anthropology and literature and have written extensively on Malay and Indonesian novels. More recently I have examined a number of important autobiographies of Indonesians and Malays and have demonstrated how a critical reading of such works can lead to a deeper understanding of the culture and history of Malay and Indonesian society.

Brief List of Publications

a) Kinship, Property and Inheritance in Kerinci, Central Sumatra, Centre

for Computing and Anthropology, University of Kent at Canterbury (1992) (252pp)

(Editor with R.F. Ellen) Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in South-East

Asia, University of Hawaii Press (1993) (248pp)

b) Muslims and the State in Indonesia in Hussin Mutalib and Taj ul-Islam

Hashmi (eds.), Islam, Muslims and the Modern State, London: St. Martins Press, Macmillan 1994, pp.174-196

Childhood in Abdullah Hussains Autobiography: Sebuah Perjalan in Sahlan

Mohd. Saman (ed.), Pengarang dan Kepengarangan Melayu, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1994, pp.318-336.

c) Islamic Family Law and the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Cambridge Anthropology,

Vol.16, No.2, 1992/93, pp.69-84

A Shot at the Preacher, Times Higher Education Supplement, 22 July 1994,

p.14

The location of my research is Kerinci in Sumatra, about 200 miles South East of Padang which is on the west coast of Sumatra.

Articles