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Antropologi Indonesia

Antropologi Indonesia Vol. 46 No. 2 2025 (Special Issue: Values and Others)

Introduction

Values, or things we think are worthwhile to pursue in life, are inherently social. Even individualist values, such as individualism and liberalism, emerge and are fostered by the presence of others who affirm our values. Whether others are sharing or challenging our values, or simply being a part of our dynamic lives, their presence establishes the reasons for our values. Others may be our competitors in pursuing certain values, emphasizing their significance. They may become the audience to whom we attempt to demonstrate our values. They may become our examples when we try to illustrate or argue our values. They may also become the backward or erroneous others we attempted to instill with our values, such as Indigenous peoples who become the target of proselytization. In the end, others are unavoidable and inseparable from the realization of values.
On the other hand, values are central to the dynamics of our social lives. Our interactions with others are governed by values. We use certain values to subjugate others, implying that they are inferior to us as human beings and require our guidance. We occasionally subscribe to certain values in order to distinguish ourselves from others or to connect with them. There are numerous ways in which values are related to others and vice versa, and we believe that this is an intriguing subject to investigate from an anthropological standpoint. Ethnographic materials and theorizing should provide us with valuable insights into how values and others correspond, which can be both expected and unexpected, reflecting universal as well as specific human experiences.