The desire to be desired: magic spells, agency, and the politics of desire among the Petalangan people in Indonesia

The Petalangan people in Indonesia practice beauty and love spells to evoke othersʹ desire. This article explores (1) the linguistic features and devices that are available for Petalangans to represent and recognize specific attributes of desires and (2) the metalinguistic dimensions of the language practice. The analysis demonstrates that Petalangan notions of desire are not necessarily associated with sexuality, but rather with the differences in agency and power between subjects and objects of desire. I discuss how a performer of the spells acquires agency by denying oneʹs own power and intentions, thus critiquing the conventional Western ideas of agency that emphasize individual will and intentions.