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Social Restraints on Food Production in Indonesian Subsistence Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Ronald E. Seavoy
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Extract

In 1968 David E. Bell, vice-president of the Ford Foundation, said: “Fifteen years ago, many thought it was a relatively simple matter to raise farm output in less-developed countries. All that was needed was to make U.S. technology available to the farmers in those countries by establishing extension services or their equivalent. This notion rapidly proved to be a monumental misconception.” The monumental misconception was that peasants in less-developed countries would be eager to maximize food production in order to overcome perennial food shortages, if they had the opportunity to learn the techniques of Western agriculture. This did not happen. Indonesian peasants, after learning of the techniques of the Green Revolution, rejected full participation in it. Why? Many observers in Indonesia and elsewhere have partially explained this rejection but in my opinion they missed the main reason because they failed to recognize that peasant cultures have social values and institutions that act as strong restraints on food production.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 1977 , pp. 15 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1977

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References

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16 I have used three sources to shape the generalizations of this article: (1) the scholarly literature of economics, sociology, geography, and anthropology; (2) my own extensive travels as an exploration geologist through the archipelago; and (3) early accounts of travellers through the Netherlands Indies, especially those of naturalists who visited parts of Java which today are densely populated but were then nearly vacant. The descriptions of old vacant areas of Java resemble conditions that are now found on many of the outer islands. The naturalists' accounts usually described the agricultural technology that was being used in the districts they passed through because this information was directly related to the kinds of plants and animals that were available for collecting. See especially Bartlett, Harley H., Fire in Relation to Primitive Agriculture and Grazing in the Tropics (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1955, 1961)Google Scholar, an annotated bibliography in 3 volumes. The following observers were consulted: F.M. van Asbeck, W. W. Feither, and A.T. A. van den Unen (1915); A. Ballot (1904); H. A.B. Bunnemeyer (1918); Henry O. Forbes (1878–1883); Julius Jacobs (1894); Franz Junghuhn (1847–1854); William Marsden (1783); Alfred R. Wallace (1869).

17 Freeman, J. D., Iban Agriculture (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1955), p. 81Google Scholar. It is highly likely that when observers of peasant societies make the statement ‘agricultural labour is considered to be woman's work’, it means that such labour has a low social value while hunting, herding, and war have a high social value.

18 Koentjaraningrat, “The Village in Indonesia Today”; Andrea W. Palmer, “Siturdja: A Village in Highland Priangan”; and Koentjaraningrat, “Tjelapar: A Village in South Central Java,” in Koentjaraningrat, ed., Villages in Indonesia, pp. 394–397, 320, 274.

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22 A slametan consists mostly of rice so that no person leaves without satisfying his hunger. The condiments for a group of twenty men consists of four or five small bowls of spiced vegetables, chili peppers, and chopped fish or meat so that everyone present gets a little sauce to put on his rice and a small mouthful of meat. For an excellent description, see Jay, Robert R., Javanese Villagers: Social Relations in Rural Modjokuto (Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1969), pp. 206–216.Google Scholar

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37 Ibid., p. 122.

38 Ibid., p. 110.

39 Ibid., p. 142.

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