A scholar's love affair with Indonesia<\/p>\n
YOGYAKARTA (JP): For many Indonesian scholars, he is a living
\nlegend. For the international academic circle, he is their
\nreference on Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Clifford Geertz, a 70-year old American anthropologist, has
\nbeen associated with Indonesia for almost four decades.<\/p>\n
He is one foreign scholar who has brought Indonesia to the
\nworld's attention. The San Francisco-born Geertz is renowned as
\nan ardent researcher of Indonesian, and Javanese society in
\nparticular. His books and theories on Indonesian society have
\nbecome important references for those who want to gain an insight
\ninto the country and its people.<\/p>\n
Noted Indonesian scholar Ignas Kleden said, \"Geertz has made
\nIndonesia a fertile land for the concepts of social sciences,
\nanthropology and sociology in particular\".<\/p>\n
Among his famous books are The Religion of Java, Agriculture
\nInvolution and Negara: The theater State in Nineteenth Century
\nBali.<\/p>\n
\"Don't ask me anything about the Indonesia's current social
\nand political situation. I know nothing about it,\" Geertz said
\nduring his recent visit to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Geertz was the star at the International Conference of Tourism
\nand Heritage Management held in Yogyakarta late last month.<\/p>\n
\"I am extraordinarily pleased to be back here in Yogyakarta
\nwhere forty-four years ago I started my studies,\" Geertz
\nrecalled.<\/p>\n
Between the l950s and the late l960s, Geertz and his then wife
\nHilda Geertz conducted intensive research which he called the
\nMojokuto project. His in-depth research resulted in several basic
\nsocial science theories. Though many contemporary scholars regard
\nhis theory as outdated, Geertz is still respected worldwide.<\/p>\n
The 70-year old scholar is now a professor at the Institute
\nfor Advanced Studies at Princeton University in New Jersey, the
\nUnited States. He received a prestigious Fukuoka Asian Cultural
\nPrize from the Japanese government for his contribution in
\nconducting thorough comparative studies on Asian and American
\ncultures.<\/p>\n
Surrounded by journalists eager to get his comments on the
\nrecent religious conflict in Situbondo, East Java and other
\npolitical issues, Geertz chose to keep silent. Geertz's previous
\ntheory focused on Islam Society in Java.<\/p>\n
\"The government and the involved parties should restrain from
\nfurther conflicts, otherwise they will spread elsewhere in the
\ncountry. More understanding and tolerance is needed,\" said
\nGeertz.<\/p>\n
He deliberately turned the political topic into the cultural
\nand tourism issues which brought him to the conference.<\/p>\n
Geertz recalled the explosion of international tourism in
\nIndonesia occurred around him as he studied in the fifties and
\nsixties.<\/p>\n
\"I am so amazed by the present development of Indonesian
\ntourism,\" he said cynically.<\/p>\n
But he still wondered how Indonesian people viewed tourism.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, Geertz was asked by an American magazine to
\nwrite a piece on the extraordinary 250 events included in the
\nFestival of Indonesia (KIAS) which was held in fifty cities
\nacross the United States from l991 to l992.<\/p>\n
He said the festival was both enormous and enormously
\nexpensive. It was an Indonesian government effort to promote
\ntourism and present authentic, Indonesian concepts of their
\nculture.<\/p>\n
Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, Indonesia's former foreign minister,
\ncalled it 'cultural diplomacy'. The festivals included a large
\nvariety of art exhibitions and cultural performances from
\nIndonesia's 27 provinces.<\/p>\n
\"To me, the most novel thing about it was that the objects of
\ntourists' interest were being brought to them, rather than the
\nother way around,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The situation was no longer one of active tourists searching
\nout passive \"objects\" to look at. The active party deciding what
\nthe tourist was to witness.<\/p>\n
\"I just wonder whether the message was received by the
\nAmericans. How should the culture of a nation as diverse as this
\none is be summed up for foreigners. The worry is that the inner
\nsignificance of Indonesian cultural forms would be lost. Their
\nmeaning would be distorted,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The festival reflects the organizers' lack of understanding
\nabout their own cultural heritages. \"The Indonesian heritages
\nwere presented at the festival as ancient artifacts and art
\nobjects,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to Geertz, the cultural heritages of people, places
\nand a nation are not solid, immovable blocks. It is something
\nconstantly changing in response to new circumstances and emerging
\nneeds.<\/p>\n
\"I call my theory an 'anti-essentialist' view of heritage,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The so-called \"museum\" or \"culture park\" view of heritage as
\nsomething that has only to be preserved is not only utopian but
\nmischievous, he said. Heritage does not stand still, it is always
\na complex integration of the old and the new, the domestic and
\nthe foreign.<\/p>\n
People should also change their view of tourism and its
\nrelationship to culture.<\/p>\n
\"We should not make tourism just an economically productive
\nforce, but a culturally productive force as well,\" he said.<\/p>\n
To make a better tourism plan, archaeologists, site managers,
\ntour planners and the like, should provide decision makers with
\nthe necessary information.<\/p>\n
\"They need to see themselves as engaged in a project of
\nrethinking the whole idea of what tourism is, what it consists
\nof, how it works, what its effects are, and what its goals should
\nbe,\" he explained.<\/p>\n
Many people find Geertz's theory on tourism and heritage quite
\ndifficult to understand.<\/p>\n
Ignas Kleden commented that Geertz's theories and arguments
\nwere often complicated but contained clear and bold ideas.<\/p>\n
So what does Kleden think should be expected from a man like
\nGeertz? His theories on Indonesian society could be wrong or no
\nlonger relevant to modern Indonesia, but Geertz has been trying
\nhard to learn, to dig up all available information on Indonesia
\nto support his studies.<\/p>\n
\"As I knew more about Indonesia, I deeply fell in love with
\nthe country,\" Geertz once said.<\/p>\n
Indonesian could learn from Geertz how to understand and
\nappreciate their own cultures. (raw)<\/p>",
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