Media and Nation Bulding ― How the Iban Became Malaysian

Malaysia was formed from the British colonies Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah in 1963 in that era's wave of state formation in Africa and Asia. Singapore seceded about two years later, but the rest remained united, despite a deeply divided multiethnic population and an economy completely dependent on export commodities. The Iban people of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, is one of those ethnic groups, and here Postill (media, Sheffield Hallam U.) examines the anthropology of the media that made Iban a nation of "longhouse villages" into part of the Malaysian nation. He shows how perceptions of nationality were consciously merged into each other over time, bringing the Iban into the perception of also being, if not wholly being, Malaysian. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John Postill is a Research Fellow at the University of Bremen. He is currently studying e-government and ethnicity in Malaysia. Trained as an anthropologist at University College London, he has published a range of articles on the anthropology of media, with special reference to Malaysian Borneo.