2011 Volume 48 Issue 4 Pages 367-391
This paper examines how a sense of value for balanced reciprocity and dyad affects the style of circular migration for people from a specific part of Solo region, Central Java, using several case studies based on field research conducted in Village “A,” Jatipurno Subdistrict, Wonogiri Regency, Central Java, Indonesia.
People tend to consciously avoid patron-client relations (impartial relations) with other people, and prefer mutual even relations. This inclination reveals itself in the case of their “arisan” (a regular social gathering for savings and loans) and wedding ceremonies. It also emerges in their style of circular migration. For them, all dyads except those with their own nuclear family members are very fragile. Thus they always try to very carefully maintain dyads with other people (for example, with relatives, neighbors, friends and so on) for which they have much difficulty in building. Actors separate fragile dyads from their business matters probably generating conflicts, mainly in relation to money matters. For these reasons they rarely cooperate with relatives, neighbors and friends in business.
