Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T06:56:56.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Political Construction of Tradition: Gotong Royong in Indonesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

John R. Bowen
Get access

Abstract

The idea of “mutual assistance” (gotong royong) in Indonesia has been the basis for political discourse concerning the nature of authority, the characteristics of village society, and the legitimacy of demands for labor by the state. This article traces the way in which both changing political ideologies and state-village relations have been mediated by the term gotong royong, and suggests that its multiple meanings have been central to its semantic, political, and economic roles. Local interpretations of national doctrine and reactions to state policy are examined in two cases: East Java and Gayo (Aceh). The wide variety of local strategies is perceived as depending on preexisting political traditions and power relations vis-à-vis the state.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , May 1986 , pp. 545 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. 1966. “The Languages of Indonesian Politics.” Indonesia 1:89–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. 1972. “The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture.” In Culture and Politics in Indonesia, ed. Claire, Holt, pp. 1–69. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict R. O'G. 1983. “Old State, New Society: Indonesia's New Order in Comparative Historical Perspective.” Journal of Asian Studies 42:477–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boileau, Julien M. 1983. Golkar: Functional Group Politics in Indonesia. Jakarta: Centre for Strategic and International Studies.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1972. Esquisse d'une Theorie de la Pratique [Outline of a Theory of Practice]. Geneva: Droz.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, John. 1983. “Cultural Models for Historical Genealogies: The Case of the Melaka Sultanate.” In Melaka: the Transformation of a Malay Capital c. 1400–1980, ed. Sandhu, K. S. and Wheatley, P., pp. 162–79. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bowen, John. 1984. “The History and Structure of Gayo Society: Variation and Change in the Highlands of Aceh.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Breman, Jan. 1980. The Village on Java and the Early-Colonial State. Rotterdam: CASPI.Google Scholar
Brown, C. C. 1952. “Sejarah Melayu or ‘Malay Annals.’” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 25:1–276.Google Scholar
Feith, Herbert, and Lance, Castles, eds. 1970. Indonesian Political Thinking, 1945–1965. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Garnaut, Ross, and Peter, McCawley, eds. 1980. Indonesia: Dualism, Growth, and Poverty. Canberra: Australian National University, Research School of Pacific Studies.Google Scholar
Hansen, Gary E. 1973. The Politics and Administration of Rural Development in Indonesia. Berkeley: University of California, Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies (Research Monograph no. 9).Google Scholar
Hart, Gillian. 1986. Power, Labor, and Livelihood: Processes of Change in Rural Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatta, Muhammad. 1981. Kumpulan Pidato [Collected Speeches]. Jakarta: Yayasan Idayu.Google Scholar
Jay, Robert. 1969. Javanese Villagers. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Kato, Tsuyoshi. 1982. Matriliny and Migration.Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Koentjaraningrat, . 1961. Some Social Anthropological Observations on Gotong Royong Practices in Two Villages of Central Java. Ithaca, N.Y.:Cornell University, Modern Indonesia Project.Google Scholar
Koentjaraningrat, . 1967a. “Villages in Indonesia Today.” In Villages in Indonesia, ed. Koentjaraningrat, , pp. 386–405. Ithaca, N.Y.:Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Koentjaraningrat, , ed. 1967b. Villages in Indonesia. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Koentjaraningrat, 1974. Kebudayaan, Mentalitet dan Pembangunan [Culture, Mentality, and Development]. Jakarta: Gramedia.Google Scholar
Kumar, Ann. 1980. “The Peasantry and the State on Java: Changes of Relationship, Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries.” In Indonesia: Australian Perspectives, ed. Fox, James J., pp. 577–99. Canberra: Australian National University, Research School of Pacific Studies.Google Scholar
Mortimer, Rex. 1982 (1969). “Class, Social Cleavage, and Indonesian Communism.” In Interpreting Indonesian Politics: Thirteen Contributions to the Debate, ed. Anderson, Benedict and Audrey, Kahin, pp. 54–68. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, Modern Indonesian Project (Interim Report Series, no. 62).Google Scholar
Moy, Timothy J. 1975. “The ‘Sejarah Melayu’ Tradition of Power and Political Structure: An Assessment of Relevant Sections of the ‘Tuhfat al-Nafis.’” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 48:64–78.Google Scholar
Mubyarto, . 1982. “A Fixation of Agricultural Policy in Indonesia.” In Village-Level Modernization in Southeast Asia, ed. Geoffrey, B. Hainsworth, , pp. 27–42. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
Panitia, Lima. 1977. Uraian Pancasila [The Composition of the Pancasila]. Jakarta: Mutiara.Google Scholar
Piekaar, A. J. 1949. Atjeh en de Oorlog met Japan [Aceh and the War with Japan]. The Hague and Bandung: W. van Hoeve.Google Scholar
Prasadja, Buddy. 1980. Pembangunan Desa dan Masalah Kepemimpinannya [Village Development and Village Leadership], Jakarta: Rajawali Pers.Google Scholar
Prawiroatmodjo, S. 1981. Bausastrajaiva-Indonesia [Javanese-Indonesian Dictionary]. Jakarta: Gunung Agung. 2nd ed.Google Scholar
Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah. 1982. Sistim Gotong Royong dalam Masyarakat Pedesaan Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta [The Gotong Royong System in the Rural Society of the Yogyakarta Special Area], Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.Google Scholar
Proyek Inventarisasi, dan Dokumentasi Kebudayaan Daerah. 1982b. Sistim Gotong Royong dalam Masyarakat Pedesaan Daerah Bali [The Gotong Royong System in the Rural Society of Bali]. Jakarta: Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.Google Scholar
Republik Indonesia. 1969. Keputusan bersama Menteri Dalam Negeri dan Menteri Keuangan No. 43 Tahun 1969 [Joint Declaration of the Ministers of Interior and Finance no. 43, 1969]. Jakarta.Google Scholar
Robison, Richard. 1981. “Culture, Politics, and Economy in the Political History of the New Order.” Indonesia 31:1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sahlins, Marshall. 1972. Stone Age Economics. New York: Aldine.Google Scholar
Siegel, James T. 1969. The Rope of God. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Slamet, Ina. 1963 “Youth and Village Development.” In Indonesian Political Thinking, 1945–1965, ed. Herbert, Feith and Lance, Castles, pp. 404–10. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Soekarno, Ir. 1965. Dibawah Bendera Revolusi [Under the Flag of Revolution]. Vol., 2. Jakarta: Panitya Penerbit.Google Scholar
Van Niel, Robert. 1983. “Nineteenth-Century Java: Variations on the Theme of Rural Change.” Paper delivered at the Indonesian Studies Institute conference,Athens, Ohio,August 4–7.Google Scholar
Williams, Raymond. 1977. Marxism and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar