Lambard's opus dissects Indonesian mentalities<\/p>\n
Nusa Jawa: Silang Budaya (Javanese Crossroads);
\nVol 1: Batas-Batas Pembaratan (The Limits of Occidentalization), 309 pages;
\nVol 2: Jaringan Asia (The Asia Network), 498 pages;
\nVol 3: Warisan Kerajaan-Kerajaan Konsentris (Heritage of the
\nConcentric Kingdoms), 346 pages;
\nBy Denys Lombard;
\nPublished by Gramedia, Jakarta, December 1996<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): This three-volume, 1,027-page work originated in
\na post-doctoral dissertation (These d'Etat) defended at the
\nSorbonne (University of Paris IV) in 1990.<\/p>\n
One already gets the impression of \"globality\" from the 63-
\npage list of references (including those in Dutch, German,
\nPortuguese, and even Russian and Chinese), the 2,489 footnotes
\nand 138 maps and illustrations.<\/p>\n
Javanese Crossroads is not Lombard's first book. Some of his
\nearlier works that have already been translated into Indonesian
\nand published by Balai Pustaka, Aceh under Iskandar Muda and The
\nKingdom of Champs, which he edited, received very little
\npublicity.<\/p>\n
To Indonesian scholars who have studied social sciences in
\nFrance, the name of Lombard must be familiar. He has helped some
\n35 of them to graduate in the last 20 years at the Ecole the
\nHautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) of Paris.<\/p>\n
EHESS was founded and initially directed by prominent
\nhistorian Fernand Braudel and still hosts a large part of the
\nleaders of the New History (Nouvelle Histoire) school.<\/p>\n
In its original form as a dissertation, the title used by the
\nauthor was Recherches sur l'histoire des mentalites a Java:
\nSociete insulaire ou carrefour maritime? (Research on the History
\nof Mentalities in Java: Insular Society or Maritime Crossroad?).
\nWhen becoming a three-volume book, it received a completely new
\ntitle: Le Carrefour Javanais: Essai d'Histoire Global (Javanese
\nCrossroads: An Essay in Global History). It is interesting to
\nnote that Lombard uses the expression \"global history\", not
\nnouvelle histoire, coined by his colleagues some 15 years ago.
\nWhat does \"global history\" mean? Is it different from nouvelle
\nhistoire?<\/p>\n
Approach<\/p>\n
The writer recounts his research by the original approach of
\n\"cultural geology\". The earth's layers are called strata and
\neach stratum should be examined beginning with the one above it
\nand gradually downwards.<\/p>\n
Cultural layers (Lombard uses the expression \"mental
\nconstellations\") are studied and described according to their
\ntime of influence: First the latest one, western culture, also
\nthe more significant according many people; then, the culture
\nformed by the double impact of Islam and China on trading harbors
\nsince the fifteenth century; and finally, the deepest, the Indian
\nculture reminiscent of agrarian kingdoms.<\/p>\n
The first volume of Javanese Crossroads investigates the
\nlimits of the influences of western culture (occidentalization)
\nby making use of Dutch and Indonesian sources. It tries to show
\nthe impact of Western culture since the 17th century.<\/p>\n
After describing the image of the \"Beautiful Indies\" (Les
\nBelles Indes) as the view that everything eastern is exotic, the
\nfirst chapter explains the important stages of colonial history
\nup to the development era after independence (Les Terre de
\nColonisation); the second chapter (Les Cellules Occidentalisees)
\ndeals with the social groups that were directly influenced by
\nWestern thoughts and culture (Christian converts, the priyayi,
\nmembers of the colonial army, etc.).<\/p>\n
The third chapter analyzes in detail the elements of the
\nWestern conceptual heritage (technology transfer), the role of
\nexploitation technique (encadrement, costume change and political
\ndiscourse). The fourth chapter deals with the influence of the
\nwestern model on literature, architecture and other arts. The
\nfifth chapter discusses the various standpoints taken by
\nIndonesians in the face of Western culture: ranging from the wish
\nto assimilate to a blunt rejection of that foreign culture,
\nfeeling it as a big threat.<\/p>\n
The second volume of Javanese Crossroads investigates the
\n\"Asia network\", that is the urban and trade milieu (clearly
\nmarked by Islamic and Chinese influences) of those groups that
\nbecame opponents of the Europeans who often underestimated their
\nskills and perseverance.<\/p>\n
Two sources are used: Classic Malay literature to study the
\nstimulating role of Islam and an ethnohistoric study of the
\nChinese community.<\/p>\n
The first chapter describes chronologically the maritime
\nnetwork in Nusantara from the beginning. This reverse long-term
\nstudy provides an opportunity to focus on the intensification of
\ntrade from the 13th century onwards and to stress the importance
\nof the apogee of the Islamic sultanates beginning in the
\nsixteenth century. The emergence of several trade cities is
\ndiscussed and aspects of them are compared with Venice and Genoa
\nand other places in Europa where very important social and mental
\nchanges occurred.<\/p>\n
The first Europeans (Portuguese and Dutch) who arrived plunged
\nthemselves into this newly formed network. It should be
\nemphasized that it was only after some time that the Europeans
\nsucceeded in taking control of this Asian network.<\/p>\n
The second chapter analyzes \"the locomotive effect of Javanese
\nIslam,\" and discusses successively the \"seafarers,\" the middle
\nclass of traders (bourgeoisie d'affaires) and the agrarian
\nIslamic network (with an emphasis on the pesantren network).<\/p>\n
The third chapter recounts the major transformation that swept
\nthe Nusantara trading towns in the 16th century, with the
\nemergence of a cash economy and a new type of dependence on the
\nindividual (and new reflection on death), and the concept of
\nspace (centered on Mecca) and linear time.<\/p>\n
Along the same lines, the fourth chapter discusses the Chinese
\ncultural contribution to \"technology transfer\" (in the fields of
\nmetallurgy, agricultural engineering, introduction of new
\ncultigens, handicraft techniques, etc). The fifth chapter,
\nFanaticism or Tolerance, looks at the problems that arose when
\nthe mental constellation of Islam came into contact with, first,
\nlocal superstitions, second, Christianity, and third, the Chinese
\nmilieu.<\/p>\n
The third volume of Javanese Crossroads tells us about the
\n\"heritage of the Concentric Kingdoms\" that is, the weight of the
\n\"notion\" that existed in Central Java, then moved to East Java
\nonly to return to Central Java (Mataram). The sources used for
\nthis chapter are epigraphs (concerning ancient times) and another
\ncorpus in Javanese.<\/p>\n
In the first chapter of the final volume, the author attempts
\nto describe the agrarian history of Java, a rather difficult
\nendeavor, as he himself acknowledges, because of the lack of
\ndocuments concerning the 16th to 18th centuries. Private property
\ndevelops and sikep appears by the turn of the 19th century.<\/p>\n
In the following chapter, Lombard studies the kingdom's
\nhierarchical society, with attention to: 1) the concept of
\nKingdom, 2) the role of the nobility, and 3) the dependence of
\nthe desa.<\/p>\n
The third chapter analyzes this society's ideology, its desire
\nfor harmonious life, a \"system of correspondence\" and \"arrested
\ntime\" (le temps immobile).<\/p>\n
The fourth chapter stresses the possible opposition of this
\nideology to \"modern\" ideas of development.<\/p>\n
In the final chapter, the author states that he was tempted,
\nprimary in a mythological way, to show how the \"Javanese case\"
\ncan empirically contribute to shed light on a few questions: The
\nimportance of the concept network (reseaux) and space, the
\ndichotomy between the agrarian center and the trade-oriented
\npesisir (seashores) and the importance of the concept of
\ncrossroads (carrefour).<\/p>\n
Ideas<\/p>\n
It is impossible to discuss all aspects of such a thick book
\nin a short review. I tended to look at Lombard's book as a
\nhistory of mentalities in Indonesia and a spring of ideas that
\nwill be endlessly discussed.<\/p>\n
First, Lombard disagrees with Clifford Geetrz on population
\ngrowth in 19th century Java. Geetrz sees it as a reaction to the
\nForced Plantation System. The Javanese were obliged to spend an
\nexcessive amount of time on government plantations and the
\nfarmers had no choice but to intensify work on their private
\nplots. As this required a larger workforce, they had to have more
\nchildren.<\/p>\n
Lombard concedes that the Forced Plantation System might have
\nhad this effect, but only on a local scale, not island-wide. One
\nphenomenon with wider effects, that must be taken into
\nconsideration, was due to a long-lasting special conjunction of
\ntwo long-term \"revolutions.\"<\/p>\n
Lombard also compares Java to China and Europe. China
\nunderwent its first revolution during the Han dynasty and the
\nsecond in the 18th century. Java saw both occur in the 19th
\ncentury.<\/p>\n
Second, Lombard splits his study into three layers, Western
\ninfluences, Islamic and Chinese influences (with a trade oriented
\npesisir) and Indian influences (agrarian kingdom).<\/p>\n
The Islamic and Chinese mental constellations, dealt with in
\none volume, obviously display cultural values that are
\nappropriate for development, whereas in the older layer we find
\nelements that contradict \"modern\" ideas of development.<\/p>\n
In volume one, Lombard writes: \"The blow that killed the
\n\"capitalistic\" dynamics of the pesisir was not struck by the VOC
\nbut by Mataram. Even though, by the time we are ready to accuse
\nMataram of this \"historical mistake,\" another reflection comes to
\nus: Is it actually not due to the \"federative\" values of this
\nagrarian Mataram that Indonesia, which was at that time as large
\nas it is now, still exists?\"<\/p>\n
Third, Lombard discusses the island of Java from a reverse
\nlong-term view; nevertheless, his analysis echoes the future, in
\nthe form of the following comment: \"For administrative purposes,
\nthe colonial government had to induce the emergence of a group of
\nintellectuals who proved later to be the foremost actors in the
\nnational revolution. In today's system, a homogeneous class of
\nworkers has been brought into existence for the purpose of
\neconomic development. Will they become the actors of a future
\nrevolution?\"<\/p>\n
-- Asvi Warman Adam<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/lambards-opus-dissects-indonesian-mentalities-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }