Andrew Beatty
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology
Social Anthropology
Brunel University
Uxbridge, UB8 3PH
United Kingdom
Biography
Qualifications
- DPhil Anthropology (Oxford)
- MSc Anthropology (Oxford)
- English Literature (York)
Personal Biography
I became interested in anthropology after spending a couple of years travelling in Asia; conducted several years’ fieldwork in Indonesia in two contrasting settings: tribal Nias and Muslim Java; British Academy Postdoc 1990-3; worked at Brunel since 1998; in 2007 launched the first Masters in psychological anthropology outside the USA.
Research
Research Overview
Like many anthropologists who have worked in tribal societies, I started as a generalist, covering kinship, religion, ritual, and politics. Fieldwork in Java developed interests in Islam, syncretism, mysticism and tolerance. I also have a longstanding interest in emotion: what is it? does anthropology have any special contribution? how should we write about it?
Recent work has explored narrative ethnography and literary techniques of presentation within a broadly humanistic agenda. The aim is twofold: to render the flow of experience more precisely and to capture a wider audience for anthropology.
Current Projects
Anthropology of emotion (Cambridge University Press)
‘After the Ancestors’, a narrative ethnography of Nias, Indonesia
Recently Completed Projects
British Academy (R30062)
Emotion in two Indonesian societies
£4000
March - May 2011
Andrew Beatty (PI)
PhD Supervision
Ana Mourao: Space and identity in a migrant settlement in Lisbon
Adnan Khan: Pukhtun sorrows and joys, NW PakistanTeaching
Undergraduate Programmes
Module convenor
- Contemporary Theory in Anthropology
- Kinship and New Directions in Anthropology
- Themes in Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology
Module contributor
- Fieldword Encounters
Postgraduate Programmes
Programme convenor
- MSc Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology
Module convenor
- Themes in Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology
- Ethnographic Research Methods 2
Administration
- Director PG studies
- LSUG
- Library Rep
- Departmental REF co-ordinator
External Activity
- External examiner, BSc Human Sciences, Oxford
- Member RAI, AAA
Publications
Publications
Journal Papers
(2012) Beatty, AW., Return to the field, Anthropology of This Century (4)
(2012) Beatty, A., Kala defanged: managing power in Java away from the centre, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 168 (2/3) : 173- 194
(2012) Beatty, A., The tell-tale heart: conversion and emotion in Nias, Ethnos 77 (3) : 1- 26
(2011) Beatty, A., Fieldwork's fictions, Anthropology of This Century (2)
(2010) Beatty, A., Debate, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 166 (2&3) : 299- 303
(2010) Beatty, A., How did it feel for you: emotion, narrative, and the limits of ethnography, American Anthropologist 112 (3) : 360- 376
(2006) Beatty, A., The Pope in Mexico: syncretism in public ritual, American Anthropologist 108 (2) : 324- 335
(2005) Beatty, A., Aid in faraway places: the context of an earthquake, Anthropology Today 21 (4) : 5- 7
(2005) Beatty, A., Emotions in the field: what are we talking about?, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 11 (1) : 17- 37
(2005) Beatty, A., Feeling your way in Java: an essay on society and emotion, Ethnos 70 (1) : 53- 78
(2002) Beatty, A., Changing places: relatives and relativism in Java, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 8 (3) : 469- 491
(1996) Beatty, A., Adam and Eve and Vishnu: syncretism in the Javanese slametan, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2 271- 288
(1992) Beatty, A., Variations in Nias Kinship: a View from the Centre, Anthropos 87 1- 7
(1990) Beatty, A., Asymmetric Alliance in Nias, Indonesia, Man,JRAI 25 454- 471
(1990) Beatty, A., Ovasa: Feasts of merit in Nias, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 147 216- 235
Book Chapters
(2009) Beatty, A., Emotion. In: Barnard, A. and Spencer, J. eds. Encyclopedia of Cultural and Social Anthropology. Routledge 223- 226
(2005) Beatty, A., Javanese Shamanism. In: Shamanism. Berkshire, US : ABC-Clio
(2004) Beatty, A., Javanese. In: Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals and festivals. London : Routledge/Taylor and Francis.
(2004) Beatty, A., Nias. In: Encyclopedia of the Southeast Asian Ethnography: Communities and Tribes. Delhi : Global Visions Publishing House
(2004) Beatty, A., Ritual. In: Encyclopedia of Social Sciences. Routledge/Taylor and Francis
(2000) Beatty, A., Quoting God: Islamic and non-Islamic prayer in Java. In: Inside and outside the mosque: Muslim prayer across the Indian Ocean. Richmond, Surrey : Curzon Press
(1999) Beatty, A., On ethnographic experience: the formative and informative. In: Being There:fieldwork in anthropology. London : Pluto Press
(1990) Beatty, A., Nias. In: Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Yale, US : Human Relations Area Files
Books
(2009) Beatty, A., A shadow falls: in the heart of Java. Faber and Faber Ltd
(2001) Beatty, A., Variasi agama di Jawa: suatu pendekatan antropologi. Murai Kencana
(1999) Beatty, A., Varieties of Javanese religion: an anthropological account. Cambridge University Press
(1992) Beatty, A., Society and exchange in Nias. Oxford University Press
