Latrell has received funding for research trips to Southeast Asia from the Mellon Foundation and Christian Johnson Foundation. Last year he visited the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah, Malaysia (the northern part of Borneo Island), Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Latrell's purpose was to visit a number of tourist "villages" to study the role of performance in constructing representations of local cultures, and to see how they relate to other national and global identities.
He later returned to Sarawak for the harvest festival Gawai Dayak, for the purpose of comparing the tourist version of the festival as performed at Sarawak Cultural Village with its practice in the native longhouses.
According to the publisher's Web site: "Indonesia comprises more than 17,000 islands stretching on either side of the equator for nearly 4,000 miles and hundreds of ethnic groups with almost 300 languages spoken. This book reveals the remarkable social, religious, and geographical differences that exist from island to island. Because of such variety, Indonesia defies simple categorizations. Europeans have produced most of the written histories of this region, although Indonesians have contributed much.
"Culture and Customs of Indonesia reveals something of local people's ideas of their identities and pasts as well.Indonesian cultures covered include those of forest-dwelling hunters, rice growers, fisherfolk, village artisans, urban office and factory workers, intellectuals, artists, wealthy industrialists, street vendors, and homeless people. Readers will learn about the amazing range of belief systems, material culture, and arts that enliven Indonesia. Forshee describes the majestic temples, complex poetry and literature, lavish theatrical performances, and splendid
visual arts and more that have distinguished Indonesia for centuries and continue into the present. Indonesians are shown to be constantly reinterpreting and refining their cultures in the modern world."
