Sebastian Hope

A glance at the map of South East Asia reveals more blue than green, more sea than land. By separating the islands of the Malay Archipelago the sea has created diversity; by joining them together it has enabled trade and laid them open to influences from China, India and the Middle East. All Malays were sailors once - their ancestors reached the islands by boat - and the sea holds a central place in the Malay experience and imagination.
The author tells the story of the poor fisher-people show more who live, work and die on their small boats between Borneo and the Phillipines. They are essentially Stateless, living according to fading traditions in an increasingly untenable economic and ecological environment. They are not, however naive or unaware of the forces of modernisation. Hope does not downplay how his efforts to gain an 'authentic' experience were intrusive and disruptive to the people who took him in. This is a classic story of how the lives of those subjected to athropological inquiry are changed by the experience, as the author honestly observes. Hope's real achievement here however, beyond the wonderful portrait of these peoples and their vanishing lifestyle, is his acknowledgement of how the experience changed his own life. show less

The author tells the story of the poor fisher-people who live, work and die on their small boats between Borneo and the Phillipines. They are essentially Stateless, living according to fading traditions in an increasingly untenable economic and ecological environment. They are not, however naive or unaware of the forces of modernisation. Hope does not downplay how his efforts to gain an 'authentic' experience were intrusive and disruptive to the people who took him in. This is a classic show more story of how the lives of those subjected to athropological inquiry are changed by the experience, as the author honestly observes. Hope's real achievement here however, beyond the wonderful portrait of these peoples and their vanishing lifestyle, is his acknowledgement of how the experience changed his own life. show less