Installing the 'outsider' inside: The exploration of an epistemic Austronesian cultural theme and its social significance

This paper examines ten narratives of the 'outsider' who is received and installed inside, thus reordering precedence among an autochthonous population that has received him into their midst. Based on an opposition between the categories of 'inside' and 'outside', these diverse narratives are drawn from across the Austronesian-speaking world from Sumatra through Timor to Fiji. They illustrate one, among several, distinctive Austronesian epistemologies of origin - one often relied upon to distinguish a ruler from those who are ruled.