The Temiars of peninsular Malaysia have long lived at the nexus of the local and the global, responding to interactions ranging from those with precolonial Malay lowland court cultures, to the British colonialists, to the Japanese Occupation during World War II and its postcolonial aftermath. The A. suggests that Temiar spirit mediums are mediators and song ceremonies are sites for mediating social change. Songs, received during dreams from the animated spirits of entities with whom Temiars have interacted during daily life, both encapsulate and reproduce the continuity of a cosmological system and incorporate the radical social, environmental, and political changes that Temiars have undergone from precolonial times through to the present global economy. From songs received from fresh river fish spirits to those from canned sardines, the A. traces a trajectory of musical and religious vitality amidst environmental devastation and social reorganization in the Malaysian rainforest. Through their musical and spiritual practices, he suggests, Temiars craft their dance of survival as they grapple with displacement and stake their place in the nation-state
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