This book was in fact written about a decade ago, while the New Order was still at its height. No one predicted that the New Order would end by plunging several areas of Indonesia into bloody ethnic conflict. The Kei Islands were among them. Hundreds were killed in vicious fighting in and around Tual beginning on 31 March 1999. Those wanting to understand the conflict in this and other remote areas (though remote only in relation to Jakarta!) turned to the anthropological literature with a new sense of urgency. Political analysts came to this literature with questions it was often not designed to answer