
Spectres of Affinity
The Social Life of Comparison at a Southeast Asian Border
Andrew M. Carruthers(Author)
University of Toronto Press
Will be published approx. on 23. June 2026
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-4875-6582-4 (ISBN)
Description
Undocumented immigrants are generally assumed to exhibit clear signs of their so-called outsider status. In the absence of such signs, however, how is the "illegal immigrant" made legible or policed? How might migrants negotiate their statuses as objects of state surveillance by exploiting their similarities or affinities with those who seek them out? Spectres of Affinity explores these issues in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, a scene of some of the largest clandestine cross-border flows in the world, and a place where migrants are widely assumed to look, talk, and otherwise behave like locals.
In Sabah, the ability of outsiders to pass as insiders has long animated public anxieties about the boundaries of citizenship, ethnicity, race, religion, labour, and language. Against this backdrop of social indeterminacy and political uncertainty, migrants and Malaysians are now jointly evaluating and adjudicating the ways they are sama, tapi berbeza - "the same, but different" - to sometimes devastating effect. In exploring the social life of comparison in the shadow of a notoriously porous Southeast Asian border, Spectres of Affinity calls for renewed attention to comparison not merely as a rarefied social scientific method or mode of inquiry, but as part of people's everyday equipment for living in increasingly uncertain and unsettling times.
In Sabah, the ability of outsiders to pass as insiders has long animated public anxieties about the boundaries of citizenship, ethnicity, race, religion, labour, and language. Against this backdrop of social indeterminacy and political uncertainty, migrants and Malaysians are now jointly evaluating and adjudicating the ways they are sama, tapi berbeza - "the same, but different" - to sometimes devastating effect. In exploring the social life of comparison in the shadow of a notoriously porous Southeast Asian border, Spectres of Affinity calls for renewed attention to comparison not merely as a rarefied social scientific method or mode of inquiry, but as part of people's everyday equipment for living in increasingly uncertain and unsettling times.
Reviews / Votes
"Specters of Affinity is a fascinating invitation to archipelagic anthropology, revealing deep historical, social, cultural, economic, and linguistic affinities between maritime sites. Rigorous and ethnographically grounded throughout, Andrew M. Carruthers's insightful portrait of the seafaring Bugis people is a must-read for scholars of Southeast Asia and an important contribution to studies of migration." - Charles L. Briggs, University of California, Berkeley"As migrants and the borders they cross become ever more central to our political moment, the need for ethnographic insight is critical. This volume draws on both the hard-earned intimacies of on-the-ground fieldwork and the scholarly erudition to put them in broad perspective." - Webb Keane, University of Michigan
"Brilliantly bringing together a sophisticated semiotics of language and a nuanced ethnography of identity/alterity across borders in Southeast Asia, Specters of Affinity is a must-read for scholars concerned with the politics and pragmatics of migration, and language's absolutely central role in it." - Constantive V. Nakassis, University of Chicago
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
35 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 158 mm
Width: 238 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
498 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4875-6582-4 (9781487565824)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Andrew M. Carruthers is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Content
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface: On "Will-O'-the Wisps" and the Problem of BA(HA)SA
Introduction: Spectres of Affinity
Chapter 1: Wanderers beyond the Water's Edge
Chapter 2: Migrant Mobilities and the Value of "Moreness"
Chapter 3: Discipline and (Dis)orderliness in the Domain of the Plantation
Chapter 4: Passing, Policing, and the Problem of Excess
Conclusion: Cosmographies of Comparison in an Archipelagic World
Appendix: Linguistic Resources in Malay and Bugis
Literature Cited
Endnotes
Index
List of Tables
Preface: On "Will-O'-the Wisps" and the Problem of BA(HA)SA
Introduction: Spectres of Affinity
Chapter 1: Wanderers beyond the Water's Edge
Chapter 2: Migrant Mobilities and the Value of "Moreness"
Chapter 3: Discipline and (Dis)orderliness in the Domain of the Plantation
Chapter 4: Passing, Policing, and the Problem of Excess
Conclusion: Cosmographies of Comparison in an Archipelagic World
Appendix: Linguistic Resources in Malay and Bugis
Literature Cited
Endnotes
Index