Provisional Notes on How “Hilarious” Living Under Sharia Law (The Case of Aceh)

Reza Idria (Department of Anthrology, Harvard University)

Kawalu: Journal of Local Culture
Vol 5 No 2 (2018): July - December 2018

Abstract Drawing upon anthropological theory of resistance and testing its limits, I will present a closer observation on how dissenting voices to the state project of Sharia in contemporary Aceh look on the ground. Without thereby renouncing its violent effects, some ethnographic stories I recount in this writing will reveal how the implementation of Sharia in contemporary Aceh has created inherently amusing situations and how it has occasionally become a humor producing machine.