Thomas Reuter

Prof Thomas Reuter is a Future Fellow of the Australian Research Council, located at the Asia Institute of The University of Melbourne. After obtaining a PhD in anthropology from ANU in 1997, he taught at Heidelberg University, held post-doctoral and QElI Fellowships at Melbourne, and a Research Fellowship at Monash University. He was President of the Australian Anthropological Association (2002-2005), served as chair of the World Council of Anthropological Associations (2008-2012), and Vice President of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (2008-). Research has focused on Indonesian culture and society, and has been continuous over the last two decades. The main topics of his research and publications include Religion, New Social Movements, Political Anthropology, Elites, Status, Social Organization, Climate Change, Globalisation and General Social Theory. Thomas has authored more than seventy articles and the following eight books: Custodians of the Sacred Mountains: Culture and Society in the Highlands of Bali. Honolulu: Hawaii UP, 2002. The House of Our Ancestors: Precedence and Dualism in Highland Balinese Society. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002. Inequality, Crisis and Social Change in Indonesia: The Muted Worlds of Bali. London: Routledge, 2003. Budaya dan Masyarakat di Pegunungan Bali. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor, 2005. Sharing the Earth, Dividing the Land: Land and Territory in the Austronesian world. Canberra: ANU Press, 2006. Global Trends in Religion, and the Reaffirmation of Hindu Identity in Bali. Clayton: MAI Press, 2008. The Return to Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, Caulfield: MAI Press, 2010. Faith in the Future: Understanding the Revitalization of Religions and Cultural Traditions in Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Two further books on international food security and on political elites are in preparation (in 2013).

Shooting for the film THE JAVA SPIRIT began in 2010, with a second shoot in 2011, and post-production completed in 2013. The director, Agus Purwanto, has been a long-term collaborator in Prof Reuter's research, and worked in tangent with the producer and the Indonesia-focused ethnomusicologist Dr Christopher Basile (camera, second editing) to create the film. A second film by this team, on an Indonesian spiritual teacher, is in preparation (in 2013).

Filmography

JAVA SPIRIT, THE: Religious Diversity in Indonesia » The Java Spirit is an exploration of changing attitudes to religion and spirituality in Java, Indonesia. Java is home to a diverse array of spiritual traditions, influenced by all the world religions but building also on its own unique heritage...