Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to analyse the logico-linguistic aspect of the religion of Adam in Java, which is usually called Saminism and known as an indigenous peasant movement against the Dutch colonial government.
Most studies of this movement have tended to neglect its symbolic (including linguistic) peculiarity, owing to a lack of first-hand research on that topic. The field research done by the author in the Samin communities, which still exist around the Pati regency, reveals that their apparently bewildering usage of language, which has been believed to be merely a way to upset outsiders, is indeed based on a consistent philosophical world-view about the relationship between language and the nature of man, which they symbolize by the phrase ‘Adam kuwi ucap’ (Adam is utterance).
By using arbitrary folk-etymology and special terminology, they construct a peculiarly closed linguistic sphere where every outer element that does not fit their belief is forcibly re-interpreted and reconstructed so as to harmonize with their Weltanschauung. Thus they build up their own linguistic world around the notion of centrality of man in this universe.
