Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology
Online ISSN : 2424-0516
Print ISSN : 1349-0648
ISSN-L : 1349-0648
Historical Changes of the Indonesian State and a Floresian Traditional Village in the Post-utopian Era
Eriko AOKI
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2008 Volume 72 Issue 4 Pages 445-465

Details
Abstract

Communism used to be adhered to by many nation-states as the most scientific theory of utopia. However, in the post-utopian age that came after the end of the Cold War, democracy has taken over as the privileged political concept. Indonesia initiated a free-market policy in the late 1980s, and since the collapse of the anti-communist regime of Suharto in 1998, it has implemented decentralization and democratization. Along with such historical changes, the global market economy has come to influence the country rapidly and widely. This article aims to understand the experiences of the Wolosoko people on Flores Island in eastern Indonesia as a contemporaneous matter with those of other people, including those of former socialist nation-states. It further aims to anthropologically clarify the changes in the Wolosoko lifeworld in the context of the global market economy from a perspective of modern systems. Decentralizaion and democratization in Indonesia were promoted by the central government in the system of global hegemony, not only to make Indonesia suitable for that hegemony, but also to prevent the internal disruption of the Indonesian nation-state. After the Cold War, a regime so despotic and anti-communist as Suharto's lost its entire raison d'etre. For the 32 years of his regime, regions were politically oppressed. Hostility towards the Indonesian state was especially high in those areas where the army violently demolished any opposition. The level of dissatisfaction within the regions whose lucrative natural resources were taken away by the central government grew so much that it could not be ignored. Although decentralization has brought beneficial results to those regions, little change has occurred in places such as Flores, which lack both extreme hostility and natural resources. Globalization and nationalization through decentralization and democratization have not necessarily created preferable conditions for the people of Wolosoko, who have enjoyed indigenous democracy and autonomy due to the relative lack of interference by the colonial government in the past, and the Indonesian central government after independence. The modern historical experiences of the people of Flores have been quite different from those of the Javanese people. While the Javanese were oppressed, they were also enlightened by the colonial government, having produced most of the political elite in the independence movement and in national politics. Although the Wolosoko had been involved in the colonial and national administration to some extent, it was not until the massacre of communists and suspects by the army led by Suharto in 1965 that they felt the state's power. In 1994, for the first time in Wolosolo history, the state appeared as a provider of benefits, providing development funds for undeveloped administrative villages, including those in the central mountainous area of Flores. Under the influence of decentralization, the regional governments in Flores came to treat their local cultures and traditions as important heritages. The traditional village of the Wolosolo is basically composed of its rituals, along with ritual leaders, domains (tana) and the village (i.e., the physical structure). The authority of the village is based on rituals for ancestors and tana (land, domain, earth and world). The lifeworld is embedded in the tana by rituals, metaphor and everyday activities, including cultivation. Bodies and the environment are interwoven with each other. While people once used to depend on swidden agriculture (clearing an area for temporary cultivation by cutting and burning vegetation), wet rice and cash crops became the main products in the 1980s and 1990s. Concurrently, the following changes were also experienced in the lifeworld; some land has become owned, whereas previously only usufruct (the right to use and enjoy the profits and advantages of something

(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

Content from these authors
2008 Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top