This book analyes the arrangements of relationships through which food, shelter and care are provided on the island of Ambon, famous spice island in eastern Indonesia. It also shows how relations of support tie Ambonese migrants in the Netherlands to their home villages, and how normative conceptions of need and care among kinsmen and villagers change over time.

How are time-honored tenets of faith, different ritual sensibilities, and newly emerging eschatological imaginaries articulated with other normative registers and moral susceptibilities in disputes? This book examines such questions through cases in Europe, the United States, Israel, Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.