Harper, T. N. 1999. The end of empire and the making of Malaya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hobsbawm, Eric and Terence Ranger (eds.). 1983. The invention of tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Milner, Anthony. 1995. The invention of politics in colonial Malaya: Contesting national- ism and the expansion of the public sphere. New York: Cambridge University Press. Roff, William. 1967. The origins of Malay nationalism. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. CATHERINE ALLERTON. Potent Landscapes: Place and Mobility in Eastern Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2013. 221pp. This book provides new insights into the anthropological study of place. It chal- lenges the Leiden School of thought which examined Eastern Indonesia by fo- cusing on the cosmological order, but overlooked everyday life and mobility. The book also critically contests Levi-Strauss’ concept of a house-based society. Through the cases of Wae Rebo, a highland area which recently attracted world-wide attention, and Kombo, a village comprising people from Wae Rebo, this book demonstrates that landscapes, mobility, and paths are equally im- portant as elements for analysis and yet have often been ignored by anthropolo- gists. As such the author has attempted to open up new areas of anthropological research by acknowledging the works of Ingold (2000), Clifford (1997), and others. Based on two years of fieldwork and subsequent visits to the research sites, the book is well-organised and written in accessible language. Allerton leads the reader on a narrative journey through individual spaces in Wae Rebo and Kombo. She shows in detail how the residents engaged spiritually with the rooms and other parts of the house. By taking a closer look at path, landscapes, and the trajectories of migration, Allerton demystifies the common view of a house-based society, which treats the house as a single unit, by focusing on the rooms of the house. The book engages in theory that is constructed on the basis of observation. In this regard, it serves as a good model for those who are interested in grounded theory. In each chapter, the author clearly presents and discusses her findings toward reconsidering and contesting various established disciplinary positions. Allerton suggests that it is essential for anthropologists to employ a multi- faceted approach; she also utilises the phenomenological method to analyse ev- eryday life. In Chapter 2, she critically explains the permeability of the house through the use of the audio and olfactory senses to perceive voices and smoke. In contrast, the use of the tactile sense is not explored equally well. Allerton usefully approaches ritual from an everyday perspective. She dis- cusses how the memory of eating together with one’ s father is significant, as a married daughter can no longer eat with her father. This reveals the importance 426 Book Reviews at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2016.13 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 34.228.24.229, on 27 May 2020 at 04:33:44, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available