 Catherine Allerton is a specialist in the anthropology of Southeast Asia, particularly Eastern Indonesia, and has conducted fieldwork in rural Manggarai, in the west of the island of Flores. Her primary theoretical interest is in the significance of place and landscape, particularly with regard to processes of kinship and social change. She is currently completing a book manuscript on this research, entitled Potent Landscapes: Place, Kinship and Agency in Eastern Indonesia. Beginning with the most intimate places of dwelling and moving outwards to marriage paths, fields, forests and satellite villages, the book offers an account of both the agency and the politics of the landscape, and describes in detail what difference this makes to everyday life. Dr Allerton is also working on a Special Journal Edition, ‘Spiritual Landscapes in and beyond Southeast Asia’. This seeks to examine what has happened to the varied spiritual landscapes of the region in the context of new religious forms, migration and varied political and military projects. In addition to her work on landscapes, travel and kinship, Dr Allerton has also written on the lives of unmarried women, cosmetics, sarongs, tourism and schooling. Her other major research interest is the anthropology of children and childhood, on which she intends to conduct more research in the future.
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