L3 - The Case Of Indonesia Flashcards
Indonesia background And Clifford Geertz
This is a country making the transition from a traditional economy to a modern one.
Their national level exchanges came as a result of the Cold War (capitalism vs. communism). There was worry over where the new governments would impose their political ideologies.
Historical changes:
Controlled by the Dutch in 1602 for trading purposes and settled as a colony called the ‘Dutch west indies’
1947-49 - Japanese invasion ends colonial era and its ruled by nationalists.
1953 - communist insurrection, but the leaders aren’t back and 1/2 a million people die.
Nationalist revolution 1965 to make sure the next party isn’t communist and the US hope to make it democratic.
Economists and anthropologists view on making a modern economy
“If Indonesia is a society stuck in transition between traditional society and modern society, how can it create a modern economy?”
Economics answer:
They beloved that by controlling the economy you could have control of the political and social changes too. But also wanted anthropological help.
Anthropological answer:
Anthropologists understood the economists but wanted to explore further: “are we just casting shadows over a complex situation?”
‘Take off theory’
This was a theory which tried to explain how one could make great leaps through the development stage via the intensification of technology, capital investment and attention to the social aspects which would carry that capital, innovation and new technology best.
Neo - colonial period
A period framed by the global era of Cold War:
This was full of diplomatic warfare, propaganda campaigns and the fear of nuclear destruction that had everyone paranoid.
It ended in 1988 with the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
Take off theory was important because post war people worried about what type of government would proceed over them, and the 5 stages of growth to change their economy. Take of theory helped to take economies into modernity.
Stratified society
Before colonialism took place Indonesia had a stratified society:
Nobility and princes, artisans, small market traders and landless farmers in the countryside.
Colonial administrators disrupted this type of society. Workers pay is falling and they can’t trade regionally. Plantation work was introduced and believed to be able to take up a lot of the population. Workers were now allocated jobs that became increasingly smaller and more repetitive.
This system is called agricultural involution: an intensification of agriculture. Their wage is not a living wage just enough to be subsistent - the work reflects their standard of living.
Clifford Geertz Modjokotu
Geertz analysed the agricultural involution.
He saw that not only were people getting poorer and
The collapse and upheaval after WW2 the Dutch eventually returned to Europe.
Class stratification didn’t matter, no one inhabited the class into which they were born.
People then joined political parties that were described as ‘currents of change’ not social organisations. It was better to understand the parties as social movements because there membership was young and ever changing. Membership was passionate and society changed.
The ‘bazaar’ economy
Social economic life changed.
Geertz said that there is a ‘bazaar economy’ in which people made a living by buying and selling, buying and selling etc.
The habit of buying and selling in the market unites the people.
Geertz wanted to know how he could turn this economy work as a modern economy.
Social processes as the key to growth and take off theory
One way to transform the bazaar economy into a modern one was too have belief in the centrality of social processes.
In theory economic transformation occurs with the introduction of technology and capital but there are no institutions and a strange market place - the bazaar!
So economists focused on the bazaar economy and tried to make it modern and employed a model called ‘take-off theory of development” by Rostow.
It suggests that any country can go from a traditional one too modernity, if it follows the 5 stages and has the addition of technology, expertise and capital.
Anthropological (Clifford Geertz) Observations
- Agricultural involution
- Haggling is the norm - there is no fixed price system
- Everyone buys to sell
- Risk: people buy goods and ask the sellers to give them credit. They run on a system of trust that the loans to the buyer will be returned to the creditor and will all settle out at some date… but it never does. The control is im the hands of the debtor who never pays the creditors back.
- Geertz believes that by creating firms and bookkeeping you could manage risk effectively and transform Indonesia into a modern economy.
Features of development in a firm-type economy in Indonesia
Geertz recognised that a firm-type economy has to be built up. But there is a problem of innovation - how can you organise Indonesians to create these firms when they are not used to this type of industry?
Geertz Appleseed naive and there were lots of potential misunderstandings in Indonesia not accounted for. Rostow’s take-off model was in tune with the values and social interactions of Indonesia.
The Wayang Theatre
This is a metaphor for the work of social scientists and its social effects.
When we perform research we are playing with the ‘shadows of our beliefs’.
When we look back at anthropologists research we may be able to see things clearer than they did.
