The work combines anththropological fieldwork and archival research in order to study the historical trajectories of Savu, an island in the Indonesian province Nusa Tenggara Timur. Savunese society is marked by a tight genealogically defined social system which has been able to allocate scarce natural resources. The island, traditionally divided into five domains or princedoms, was included in the political network of the Dutch VOC in the 1640s. The Savunese had importance for the Dutch as providers of auxiliaries, and later as exporters of horses, textiles, etc. The book follows the vicissitudes of Savu over the colonial period, Japanese occupation, revolution, and the postcolonial era.