Paper short abstract:

Conventionally, a newspaper is defined by the way it enables deliberation about public issues. In Indonesia, newspapers are Islamic in the way they mediate routines of embodied worship. Newspapers mediate, encourage, inform and represent public commitment to embodying the Islamic calendar.

Paper long abstract:

The newspaper is considered paradigmatic of a certain idealisation of publicness, namely the one constituted by the circulation of ideas between readers detached from their private interests. Recent anthropology has recognised that this ideal corresponds to only one of a number of ways in which publics cohere around ties of publicity, exchange and affect. West Java's 'Pikiran Rakyat' is a heritage newspaper in the traditional mould that dedicates enormous resources to covering the embodied celebration and commemoration of the feast dates of the Islamic calendar. In a number of modes, it participates in its readership's struggle to properly honour the ritual obligations of the calendar, paying attention to worship and ritual styles popular amongst the readership's population. Conclusions suggest that the newspaper is less of an organ of detached exchange as traditionally thought, and in fact fits into a public ecology of bodily practice.