Douglas Kammen
Biographic Data
| ID | 251065 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Douglas Kammen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Douglas |
| FAMILY NAME | Kammen |
| SIGNATURE | KAMMEN D |
| AFFILIATIONS | National University of Singapore |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9054-9045 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Periodic markets in Portuguese Timor
No institution in Portuguese Timor had a greater impact on relations between Timorese peoples and the state than periodic markets. This article explores colonial policy and where markets were established, imports and what products made it into periodic markets, and the impact that imported goods had on everyday displays of social status.
Conflict and Peace Studies in Post-Suharto Indonesia
Expectations that the end of Suharto’s thirty-two years of authoritarian rule in Indonesia in 1998 would usher in an era of political reform, including the end to separatist rebellions, human rights abuses, and military impunity, were dashed by the intensification of old conflicts and outbreak of new forms of violence. Despite initial optimism, efforts to address human rights violations during the New Order stalled. This article surveys the vario…
Polygamy in Timor-Leste
Demographic studies of polygamy have focused overwhelmingly on the so-called ‘polygamy belt’ in Africa and the Muslim world, and temporally on the past five decades, for which demographic and health surveys are available. Despite a wealth of anecdotal historical evidence, Southeast Asia has been overlooked in the study of polygamy. Drawing on unusually detailed colonial statistics on the collection of a polygamy tax introduced in 1923 and colonia…
A Season of Youth in Timor-Leste
Twenty years after gaining independence, following a violent exit from Indonesian rule that succeeded centuries of Portuguese imperial neglect, Asia’s youngest country is thriving in some ways and struggling in others. Its democracy is vibrant, yet power remains in the hands of an aging cohort of former anticolonial fighters. Rich oil and gas deposits have funded a growing state budget, but there are not enough jobs for the youthful population
Trouble and strife
Marital exchange between origin ‘houses’ is central to Timorese narratives and has been a central concern of anthropological study of Portuguese Timor and independent Timor-Leste. This article challenges the notion of stable patterns of marital exchange between named houses across time. Drawing on data from the colonial census, this paper finds a severe imbalance in the sex ratio during the first half of the twentieth century. Starting from subsi…
Independent Timor-Leste
This Element explores the primary modes by which rulers have exercised power and shaped political relations in Timor-Leste across four distinct periods. The contrast between coercion under colonial rule and consent expressed through the 1999 referendum on independence exerted a powerful influence on scholarship on Timor-Leste's politics and future. Since the restoration of independence in 2002, however, politics in Timor-Leste are best understood…
World Turned Upside Down
Benedict Anderson and Ruth McVey's legendary publication, A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965, Coup in Indonesia, was completed in January 1966 and shared at that time with fewer than two dozen individuals. It was not published formally until 1971. Nevertheless, the paper's contents leaked in early 1966 and its line of analysis elicited great interest worldwide among diplomats, journalists, and academics, long before most observers coul…
Metaphors of Slavery in East Timor
Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor
One of the most troubling but least studied features of mass political violence is why mass violence often recurs in the same place over long periods of time. Douglas Kammen explores this pattern in Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor, studying East Timor's tragic past, and focusing on the small district of Maubara. This book combines an archival trail and rich oral interviews to reconstruct the history of the leading families of Maubara fr…
The contours of mass violence in Indonesia, 1965-68
305
Queens of Timor
Reines de Timor. La recherche sur Timor Oriental dépeint généralement les organisations socio-politiques indigènes en terme de division dualiste du pouvoir avec d’un côté la sphère rituelle «féminine » et d’un autre côté la sphère politique «masculine » . Cette conception, qui a pris corps dans les travaux anthropologiques, a aussi guidé une grande partie de la recherche historique sur Timor Oriental durant le XIXe siècle, ainsi que les discussio…
Where Are They Now? The Careers of Army Officers Who Served in East Timor, 1998–99
Triumph of Self‐Determination
Subordinating Timor
In 2006, a mere seven years after the overwhelming vote in opposition to Indonesia's final offer of 'broad autonomy' and only four years after the restoration of independence, communal violence erupted in Dili, the capital of East Timor. This violence was framed in terms of tensions between westerners, known as kaladi, and easterners, known as firaku. This essay seeks to answer two basic puzzles. First, what are the origins of these communal labe…
Fragments of utopia
Six months after the historic August 1999 referendum in which the people of East Timor voted to reject Indonesia's offer of broad autonomy, the newly appointed chief of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, commented to CNN on the enormous challenge of setting the territory on the road to independence: ‘It is a test case, therefore it is even a laboratory case where we can transform utopia into real…
Rice and Circus in East Timor
With the regional and global spike in food prices it is naturally imperative that East Timor corner crucial sources of food, joining a queue of food deficit countries from the Philippines to Singapore. But how and why has East Timor - a land of subsistence agriculturalists and one of the world's poorest nations- been turned into a net food importer? And what is the future of East Timor's agriculture? The answers are complex but we are reminded of…
Legitimizing Military Rule
Indonesia's Unknown War and the Lineages of Violence in West Kalimantan
The preeminent feature of the post-Suharto Indonesian state is its extensive and intensive regional violence.Few observers have been surprised by the locations in which the worst of this violence has erupted.Three of these were home to long standing rebellions against Indonesian rule.Aceh, the last territory subdued by the Dutch and home to a long-term, albeit low-intensity, independence movement, is now site of daily arson attacks and armed clas…
Generating Reforms and Reforming Generations
This article examines the importance of the internal structural dynamics of the military in the analysis of transitions from nondemocratic rule and in democratic consolidation. The authors argues that factors endogenous to the military—including variations in the size of the officer corps, solidarity among graduating classes from the military academy, and promotional prospects—are important determinants of the political behavior of militaries. As…
A Country in Despair
Notes on the Transformation of the East Timor Military Command and Its Implications for Indonesia
Rehearsals for Employment
Strikes by high school students were a common feature of Old Order Indonesia.These "aksi," whether in response to problems within the school or to national political issues, helped define high school students (siswa) as part of the amorphous yet politically charged category "youth" (pemuda).But under the New Order "youth" has been all but expunged from the Indonesian vocabulary.1 In its place, school students are more likely to be called "pelajar…
Indonesia's Unknown War and the Lineages of Violence in West Kalimantan
The preeminent feature of the post-Suharto Indonesian state is its extensive and intensive regional violence.Few observers have been surprised by the locations in which the worst of this violence has erupted.Three of these were home to long standing rebellions against Indonesian rule.Aceh, the last territory subdued by the Dutch and home to a long-term, albeit low-intensity, independence movement, is now site of daily arson attacks and armed clas…
Fragments of utopia
Six months after the historic August 1999 referendum in which the people of East Timor voted to reject Indonesia's offer of broad autonomy, the newly appointed chief of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, commented to CNN on the enormous challenge of setting the territory on the road to independence: ‘It is a test case, therefore it is even a laboratory case where we can transform utopia into real…
Generating Reforms and Reforming Generations
This article examines the importance of the internal structural dynamics of the military in the analysis of transitions from nondemocratic rule and in democratic consolidation. The authors argues that factors endogenous to the military—including variations in the size of the officer corps, solidarity among graduating classes from the military academy, and promotional prospects—are important determinants of the political behavior of militaries. As…
Subordinating Timor
In 2006, a mere seven years after the overwhelming vote in opposition to Indonesia's final offer of 'broad autonomy' and only four years after the restoration of independence, communal violence erupted in Dili, the capital of East Timor. This violence was framed in terms of tensions between westerners, known as kaladi, and easterners, known as firaku. This essay seeks to answer two basic puzzles. First, what are the origins of these communal labe…
Queens of Timor
Reines de Timor. La recherche sur Timor Oriental dépeint généralement les organisations socio-politiques indigènes en terme de division dualiste du pouvoir avec d’un côté la sphère rituelle «féminine » et d’un autre côté la sphère politique «masculine » . Cette conception, qui a pris corps dans les travaux anthropologiques, a aussi guidé une grande partie de la recherche historique sur Timor Oriental durant le XIXe siècle, ainsi que les discussio…
Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor
One of the most troubling but least studied features of mass political violence is why mass violence often recurs in the same place over long periods of time. Douglas Kammen explores this pattern in Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor, studying East Timor's tragic past, and focusing on the small district of Maubara. This book combines an archival trail and rich oral interviews to reconstruct the history of the leading families of Maubara fr…
World Turned Upside Down
Benedict Anderson and Ruth McVey's legendary publication, A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965, Coup in Indonesia, was completed in January 1966 and shared at that time with fewer than two dozen individuals. It was not published formally until 1971. Nevertheless, the paper's contents leaked in early 1966 and its line of analysis elicited great interest worldwide among diplomats, journalists, and academics, long before most observers coul…
Notes on the Transformation of the East Timor Military Command and Its Implications for Indonesia
Rehearsals for Employment
Strikes by high school students were a common feature of Old Order Indonesia.These "aksi," whether in response to problems within the school or to national political issues, helped define high school students (siswa) as part of the amorphous yet politically charged category "youth" (pemuda).But under the New Order "youth" has been all but expunged from the Indonesian vocabulary.1 In its place, school students are more likely to be called "pelajar…
Notes on the Transformation of the East Timor Military Command and Its Implications for Indonesia
A Country in Despair
Indonesia's Unknown War and the Lineages of Violence in West Kalimantan
The preeminent feature of the post-Suharto Indonesian state is its extensive and intensive regional violence.Few observers have been surprised by the locations in which the worst of this violence has erupted.Three of these were home to long standing rebellions against Indonesian rule.Aceh, the last territory subdued by the Dutch and home to a long-term, albeit low-intensity, independence movement, is now site of daily arson attacks and armed clas…
Generating Reforms and Reforming Generations
This article examines the importance of the internal structural dynamics of the military in the analysis of transitions from nondemocratic rule and in democratic consolidation. The authors argues that factors endogenous to the military—including variations in the size of the officer corps, solidarity among graduating classes from the military academy, and promotional prospects—are important determinants of the political behavior of militaries. As…
Legitimizing Military Rule
Rice and Circus in East Timor
With the regional and global spike in food prices it is naturally imperative that East Timor corner crucial sources of food, joining a queue of food deficit countries from the Philippines to Singapore. But how and why has East Timor - a land of subsistence agriculturalists and one of the world's poorest nations- been turned into a net food importer? And what is the future of East Timor's agriculture? The answers are complex but we are reminded of…
Fragments of utopia
Six months after the historic August 1999 referendum in which the people of East Timor voted to reject Indonesia's offer of broad autonomy, the newly appointed chief of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, Sérgio Vieira de Mello, commented to CNN on the enormous challenge of setting the territory on the road to independence: ‘It is a test case, therefore it is even a laboratory case where we can transform utopia into real…
Triumph of Self‐Determination
Subordinating Timor
In 2006, a mere seven years after the overwhelming vote in opposition to Indonesia's final offer of 'broad autonomy' and only four years after the restoration of independence, communal violence erupted in Dili, the capital of East Timor. This violence was framed in terms of tensions between westerners, known as kaladi, and easterners, known as firaku. This essay seeks to answer two basic puzzles. First, what are the origins of these communal labe…
The contours of mass violence in Indonesia, 1965-68
305
Queens of Timor
Reines de Timor. La recherche sur Timor Oriental dépeint généralement les organisations socio-politiques indigènes en terme de division dualiste du pouvoir avec d’un côté la sphère rituelle «féminine » et d’un autre côté la sphère politique «masculine » . Cette conception, qui a pris corps dans les travaux anthropologiques, a aussi guidé une grande partie de la recherche historique sur Timor Oriental durant le XIXe siècle, ainsi que les discussio…
Where Are They Now? The Careers of Army Officers Who Served in East Timor, 1998–99
Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor
One of the most troubling but least studied features of mass political violence is why mass violence often recurs in the same place over long periods of time. Douglas Kammen explores this pattern in Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor, studying East Timor's tragic past, and focusing on the small district of Maubara. This book combines an archival trail and rich oral interviews to reconstruct the history of the leading families of Maubara fr…
World Turned Upside Down
Benedict Anderson and Ruth McVey's legendary publication, A Preliminary Analysis of the October 1, 1965, Coup in Indonesia, was completed in January 1966 and shared at that time with fewer than two dozen individuals. It was not published formally until 1971. Nevertheless, the paper's contents leaked in early 1966 and its line of analysis elicited great interest worldwide among diplomats, journalists, and academics, long before most observers coul…
Metaphors of Slavery in East Timor
Independent Timor-Leste
This Element explores the primary modes by which rulers have exercised power and shaped political relations in Timor-Leste across four distinct periods. The contrast between coercion under colonial rule and consent expressed through the 1999 referendum on independence exerted a powerful influence on scholarship on Timor-Leste's politics and future. Since the restoration of independence in 2002, however, politics in Timor-Leste are best understood…
Trouble and strife
Marital exchange between origin ‘houses’ is central to Timorese narratives and has been a central concern of anthropological study of Portuguese Timor and independent Timor-Leste. This article challenges the notion of stable patterns of marital exchange between named houses across time. Drawing on data from the colonial census, this paper finds a severe imbalance in the sex ratio during the first half of the twentieth century. Starting from subsi…
A Season of Youth in Timor-Leste
Twenty years after gaining independence, following a violent exit from Indonesian rule that succeeded centuries of Portuguese imperial neglect, Asia’s youngest country is thriving in some ways and struggling in others. Its democracy is vibrant, yet power remains in the hands of an aging cohort of former anticolonial fighters. Rich oil and gas deposits have funded a growing state budget, but there are not enough jobs for the youthful population
Conflict and Peace Studies in Post-Suharto Indonesia
Expectations that the end of Suharto’s thirty-two years of authoritarian rule in Indonesia in 1998 would usher in an era of political reform, including the end to separatist rebellions, human rights abuses, and military impunity, were dashed by the intensification of old conflicts and outbreak of new forms of violence. Despite initial optimism, efforts to address human rights violations during the New Order stalled. This article surveys the vario…
Polygamy in Timor-Leste
Demographic studies of polygamy have focused overwhelmingly on the so-called ‘polygamy belt’ in Africa and the Muslim world, and temporally on the past five decades, for which demographic and health surveys are available. Despite a wealth of anecdotal historical evidence, Southeast Asia has been overlooked in the study of polygamy. Drawing on unusually detailed colonial statistics on the collection of a polygamy tax introduced in 1923 and colonia…
Periodic markets in Portuguese Timor
No institution in Portuguese Timor had a greater impact on relations between Timorese peoples and the state than periodic markets. This article explores colonial policy and where markets were established, imports and what products made it into periodic markets, and the impact that imported goods had on everyday displays of social status.
Political science (16 works) · History (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Peacebuilding and International Security (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Geography (9 works) · Asian Studies and History (8 works) · Economics (7 works) · History (7 works) · Law (7 works)