Papers

• The Reawakening of Identity: Kinship, Democracy, and Trans-Ocean Network within Ba-‘Alawi Group Geradi Yudhistira University of Amsterdam

  After the re-establishment of a trans-oceanic network connecting Southeast Asia and Yemen in the late 20th century, there has been a notable re-awakening of the traditional identity of the Hadhrami’s Ba-‘Alawi community in Indonesia. Several studies reveal that the re-establishment of the trans-oceanic network played a major contribution in the transformation of the Ba-‘Alawi’s identity in Indonesia during the decade following the 1990s. However, this study argues the contribution of trans-national and domestic clannish networks and kinship connections in the dissemination of traditional ‘Alawiya values, which have the potential to foster group feelings within young Ba-‘Alawi. Based on fieldwork conducted between January and December 2022, I observed that kinship networks and familial relations played a pivotal role in the transmission of traditional values among the younger Ba-‘Alawi, as evidenced by some instances observed in the regions of Depok, Solo, and Yogyakarta.

• Shaping communities through language practices, ideologies, and mobility: the case of the Arab-descent communities in Surakarta and Jakarta Luigi Sausa University of Naples "L'Orientale"

  Speakers of diaspora languages are often categorized into those who learn the diaspora language in their households (L1 speakers) and those who, despite not using it at home, have a strong cultural connection with their diaspora language and frequently re-learn it as L2. What happens in terms of language use and variation when a diaspora language is not used as L1, still represents the in-group language, and holds a high-valued position among the wider national context? This contribution aims to address this question by providing a preliminary description of verbal interactions within Arab-descent communities in two districts of Surakarta and Jakarta, Indonesia. Different Indonesian communities of Arab origins imagine and create their belonging to a unified social group through shared linguistic practices. The contribution aims to highlight how the intersection between localized linguistic practices, ideologies related to the Arabic language and trajectories of transregional, transnational, and local mobility, shape what in this first analysis I describe as a lexical variety of vernacular Indonesian. The research is grounded on 40 hours of conversations recorded in the field, partially transcribed, and analyzed through the software ELAN, already existing lexicographic material, and interviews.

Abstract