Landscapes of Emotion: Mapping Three Cultures of Emotion in Indonesia

In this book, Karl G. Heider studies the cultural constructions of emotions, examining how different cultures shape ideas and talk about emotion. The main subjects of the study are the Minangkabau, a matrilineal Muslim culture of three million people in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Comparative data come from the Central Javanese, also of Indonesia and reference is made to studies of American emotions. The Minangkabau have two different 'cultures of emotion', used depending on whether they are speaking their own regional language or the national language. And the Central Javanese have yet another culture of emotion when they are speaking the 'same' national language. Landscape of Emotion will appeal to a range of readers in anthropology, psychology, sociology and Asian studies who want to understand how different cultures shape emotion.