"Over the course of a thousand years, from 600 to 1600 C.E., the Java Sea was dominated by a ring of maritime kingdoms whose rulers engaged in long-distance raiding, trading, and marriage alliances with one another. And the Sun Pursued the Moon explores the economic, political, and symbolic processes by which early Makassar communities were incorporated into this regional system." "Gibson uses anthropological, mythological, textual, and historical analysis to show that Makassar symbolic knowledge does not constitute a seamless whole. It is composed of a complex set of competing models, each with a unique historical genealogy and geographic source. His book will appeal to those interested in the established fields of anthropology, folklore, history, and comparative political science; the emerging interdisciplinary fields of cultural, subaltern, and post-colonial studies; and the origins of globalism and transnationalism."--BOOK JACKET.