Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University
LDE Centre for Global Heritage and Development
My research focuses on how ethnicity, heritage and religion are of relevance in defining relations to place. I have published extensively on the uplands of eastern South Asia, focussing on the challenges people face with respect to cultural change and economic development. I am currently finalising a multi-national cooperative research project on landscape, environment and climate change in the eastern Himalayas, which has been conducted in partnership with the Himalayan University Consortium and ICIMOD. Recently, I have joined the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Global Heritage and Development, and have begun to extend my research to the Netherlands. I have been trained as a Visual Anthropologist, and the use of video as a research tool is central to my research. I have made ethnographic DVDs, as well as ethnographic films (one of which received the Award for Excellence of the American Anthropological Association). I have won several research grants from NWO, and from Leiden University’s erstwhile profile area Asian Modernities and Transitions.
Last publications
Reworking Culture: Relatedness, Rites, and Resources in Garo Hills, North-East India. Oxford & New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2022.
https://academic.oup.com/book/56215
Environmental Humanities in the New Himalayas: Symbiotic Indigeneity, Commoning, Sustainability (edited volume, with Dan Smyer Yü). Routledge series Environmental Humanities. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
https://www.routledge.com/Environmental-Humanities-in-the-New-Himalayas-Symbiotic-Indigeneity-Commoning-Sustainability/SmyerYu-deMaaker/p/book/9780367699819?srsltid=AfmBOopNXZI_4PtRNaEcIaUUVWuR_OqrRvZX-AYu1n9SgP9Ey3LeB14H
Grasseni, Cristina, Bart Barendregt, Erik de Maaker, Federico De Musso, Andrew Littlejohn, Marianne Maeckelbergh, Metje Postma and Mark R. Westmoreland (2021), Audiovisual and Digital Ethnography: A Practical and Theoretical Guide. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
https://www.routledge.com/Audiovisual-and-Digital-Ethnography-A-Practical-and-Theoretical-Guide/Grasseni-Barendregt-deMaaker-DeMusso-Littlejohn-Maeckelbergh-Postma-Westmoreland/p/book/9780367676995?srsltid=AfmBOooNHy3D-D-0Yj_Xp2DCLsgWcpBrkAf6kKO5o2wIrJH3ojzuAWwE
Proceedings of the LDE Heritage Conference (with Uta Pottgiesser, Sandra Fatoric, Carola Hein and Ana Pereira Roders). Delft: TU Delft Open, 2020.
https://books.bk.tudelft.nl/press/catalog/book/781
Unequal Land Relations in North East India: Custom, Gender and the Market (edited volume, with Meenal Tula). Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre, 2020 (open access).
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/binaries/content/assets/sociale-wetenschappen/ca-os/unequal-land-relations-in-north-east-india-custom-gender-and-the-market.pdf
‘Who Owns the Hills? Ownership, Inequality, and Communal Sharing in the Borderlands of India’, contribution to a special issue on ‘Agrarian Change in Zomia’, guest-edited by Erik de Maaker and Deborah E. Tooker. Asian Ethnology 79(2):357-375, 2020 (open access).
https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/3134930
De Maaker, Erik (2020) Rites of Inheritance: Assessing Gifts, Mothers, and Marriages, in: Marak, Queenbala and Sarit K. Chaudhuri, The Cultural Heritage of Meghalaya. New Delhi: Routledge, 329-350 https://www.routledge.com/The-Cultural-Heritage-of-Meghalaya-1st-Edition/Marak-Chaudhuri/p/book/9780367499600
Schleiter, Markus & Erik de Maaker (2019) Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia. Routledge series: 'Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia’ Abingdon: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Media-Indigeneity-and-Nation-in-South-Asia-1st-Edition/Schleiter-de-Maaker/p/book/9781138354678
De Maaker, Erik (2019) ‘Cultural Records, Stereotypes, and the Conflation of Past and Present in the Creation of Garo Documentary Films’, in: Markus Schleiter & Erik de Maaker (eds.): Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia. Routledge series: 'Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia’ Abingdon: Routledge, 196-212. https://www.routledge.com/Media-Indigeneity-and-Nation-in-South-Asia-1st-Edition/Schleiter-de-Maaker/p/book/9781138354678
De Maaker, Erik & Markus Schleiter (2019) ‘Introduction: Screening Indigeneity and Nation’, in: Markus Schleiter & Erik de Maaker (eds.): Media, Indigeneity and Nation in South Asia. Routledge series: 'Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia’ Abingdon: Routledge, 1-25. https://www.routledge.com/Media-Indigeneity-and-Nation-in-South-Asia-1st-Edition/Schleiter-de-Maaker/p/book/9781138354678
De Maaker, Erik (2019) ‘Garo: The Garo Ethnic Community’. in: Marine Carrin (Editor-in-Chief); and Tanka Subba (Section Editor), Brill’s Encyclopedia of the Religions of the Indigenous People of South Asia Online. Leiden: Brill. https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/browse/brill-s-encyclopedia-of-the-religions-of-the-indigenous-people-of-south-asia-online
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