Paper short abstract:

Prompted by a public screening of historical footages in an Asmat village, this essay explores the double role of nostalgia, both in recalling memories but also in manifesting a moral critique of the modern state.

Paper long abstract:

This essay explores the double role of nostalgia, both in recalling memories but also in manifesting a moral critique of the modern state. Prompted by a public screening of historical footages in the Asmat village of Amanamkai (West Papua, Indonesia), I focus on the widespread sense of nostalgia for their mytho-historical pasts in which their ancestors were stronger, bigger, healthier, and braver, "kinds of Goliaths" (wosten). I will discuss local desires for accessing visual memories of their community to recall and find evidence of mythical times. At the same time, I will examine the tension between pasts that are perceived to become more remote and pasts that are necessary to envision future scenarios. I will eventually shed light on local envisioned attempts to counter a seemingly relentless entropic decline, which, I argue, is the main cause for the current escalation of nostalgia for past times in this community.