This study of justice and morality among the Dou Donggo, a highland
people in Indonesia, offers an innovative approach to understanding the
workings of law and dispute settlement in small communities. Peter Just
argues that the operation of any legal system is best understood in the
context of its moral ontology: the fundamental culture assumptions that
the people have about the nature of the world, the beings that inhabit
it, and their relationships to one another, as well as ideas about
causation, liability, etc. The author takes Dou Donggo beliefs in evil
spirits and tutelary gods, theories of conception and bodily humors, and
the magical prowess of judges who are also healers and links them to the
guiding principles and day-to-day operation of a consensual system of
justice. The first part of the book provides contextualizing material on
current debates about ethnography and the anthropology of law, a lively
account of the author's field experiences, and a history of the Dou
Donggo. Two subsequent chapters use anecdotes and examples to explicate
the constitution of the village as a moral community and the moral
ontology on which that community is based. Concluding chapters provide a
thick description of three real disputes witnessed by the author.