Indonesia Javanese
Javanese court dancers with gamelan orchestra in
background
Courtesy Rachel Cooper and Festival of Indonesia
There were approximately 70 million Javanese in the
early
1990s, the majority of whom lived in East Java and Central
Java and
the rest of whom lived on Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi,
and other
islands. Altogether, some 100 million people lived on
Java.
Although many Javanese expressed pride at the grand
achievements of
the illustrious courts of Surakarta and Yogyakarta and
admired the
traditional arts, most Javanese tended to identify not
with that
elite tradition, or even with a lineage or a clan, but
with their
own villages
(see Early History;
The Coming of Islam
, ch.
1). These
villages, or kampung, were typically situated on
the edge of
rice fields, surrounding a mosque, or strung out along a
road.
Most Javanese villages in the early 1990s were
differentiated
into smaller units known as either rukun kampung
(village
mutual assistance association) or rukun tetangga
(neighborhood association). Rukun is an important
Javanese
word describing both "state of being and a mode of
action.... a
state in which all parties are at least overtly at social
peace
with one another," according to anthropologist Robert Jay
"a
process of sharing through collective action."
Anthropologist
Patrick Guinness, in 1989, wrote that the neighborhood was
the
"largest social grouping whose members participate in
household
rituals, gather for rituals, organize working bees, whose
youth
band together for sports teams and organizations, who
conduct
arisan (rotating credit associations) and who hold
certain
property such as funeral equipment." In rural areas, these
groups
also sometimes collaborated on harvesting their rice. The
rukun associations were rooted in the ideal
associations of
the family. Many of these local communities had organized
security
arrangements, called ronda malam (night watch), in
ways that
reflected the special concerns of their community.
Neighbors
watched closely for any suspicious activity and
participated
vigorously in the apprehension of thieves, even exacting
immediate
justice on their own. The heads of these organizations
were
considered elected or appointed officials of the
government.
The differences in social class in the early 1990s were
less
elaborate and pronounced in Javanese rural villages than
in urban
areas, in part because rural people shared the basic
patterns of
making a living by growing rice. In villages where land
was more
evenly divided, some form of mutual labor exchange was
common; in
villages where there were large numbers of landless
peasants,
however, there also were clear patron-like relationships
with
landowners, who themselves rarely owned more than two
hectares. In
urban centers and the sultans' courts, the distinctions
among a
refined, traditional elite, an intermediate-level
bourgeoisie
sharing patterns of consumption, and a more collectivist
peasantry
were more apparent.
In both the village and the urban neighborhood, leaders
were
usually male. Although some leaders were political
appointees--
appointed by the military or other powerful groups--these
leaders
were theoretically elected by popular consensus. This
consensus
system proceeded--ideally--through a discussion of
different points
of view, after which a senior-level participant made a
final
decision
(see Political Dynamics
, ch. 4).
Within the Javanese family, kinship ties are
traditionally
reckoned through both the mother and father equally. Upon
marriage,
the nuclear family of mother, father, and children is more
or less
independent. Formal obligations between kin groups are not
much
greater than in the West, but the high divorce rate (over
50
percent in some areas) in the early 1990s made the
shifting of
responsibility for children--particularly among the
mother's kin--
quite likely. There are no clans, or lineages, or other
kin-based
social groupings that on some other islands form the basis
of
corporate entities like a family business. Sons tend to
treat their
fathers with great formality and deference. Although the
mother is
the focus of the family in many respects--she handles the
finances-
-she is often depicted as suffering the most when the
family
experiences any loss. She is usually the one who
disciplines the
children, while the father is mostly occupied outside the
home.
From the Javanese standpoint, childhood is viewed as a
series
of shocks. Although the youngest children are much
indulged, major
transitions can be sharp and radical. The process of
weaning, for
instance, is a rapid one in which the mother simply leaves
the
child with a relative and then returns to it a few days
later.
Overall, however, a baby's general contentment, its
resistance to
disease and misfortune, are viewed as dependent on being
protected
from any form of emotional upset. Babies are constantly
held, and
nursed on demand; babies must not be disappointed. Once
they are
weaned, they are released into the care of an older
sibling who
indulges and protects the child.
As the child gets older, he becomes more and more
capable of
withstanding the shocks and stresses of life, in part
because he or
she has become more aware of the rules defining
interaction. The
rules of etiquette help a child learn self-control. For
example,
children must learn to address their fathers respectfully,
using
refined speech. Failure to comply properly with the rules
will
result in a sharp reprimand. Learning the proper degree of
shame
for Javanese, according to anthropologist Ward Keeler, is
a matter
of becoming aware of one's vulnerability in interaction.
Children
learn that dealing with others in a face-to-face encounter
always
poses a threat to one's sense of self.
Many of the rules of etiquette center on the proper use
of
language, which is more problematic in Javanese than in
most other
languages. When addressing someone, Javanese speakers must
choose
from several different levels of politeness. These "speech
levels"
comprise words that have the same meaning, but are
stylistically
different. For instance, among the Javanese variations of
the word
"now," saiki is the least refined, while
saniki is a
little fancier, and samenika is the most elegant.
Javanese
has many such triads--so many that people cannot speak for
long in
Javanese without having to make a choice, at which point
they must
decide whether the situation is formal or informal and
what the
relations among the participants are.
In general, a person uses the highest level to speak to
high-
status people in formal situations and the lowest levels
to speak
to people of lower rank or with whom one is most intimate.
Although
children learn to speak the lowest level first, they
gradually are
socialized to speak to some of their more distant kin and
respected
strangers in higher-level forms of Javanese. This
formality is
particularly common in cities where there are marked
distinctions
in status. Sometimes, children who go away to college or
who live
overseas refuse to write letters home to their elders in
Javanese
because of their fear of making a glaring error. Often
they use
Bahasa Indonesia because they are no longer sure of the
social
situation at home. Although Bahasa Indonesian is a neutral
medium,
it is regarded as a foreign idiom among Javanese.
Although one might expect that women would use the
highest
levels more than men, this is only true within the
domestic
environment--and primarily as a way of humbling themselves
among
their relatives. Men use more polite features in public
than do
women. Moreover, in the public sphere, the use of Javanese
politeness levels is not so much associated with humility
as it is
with efforts to raise oneself above another. Men are more
likely to
see the use of these politeness levels as a strategy for
negotiating status.
There is diversity within Javanese religious practices.
Although most Javanese are Muslims, the wide variations in
Islamic
beliefs and practices are associated with complex factors
such as
regional history and social class. In Jawa Tengah
Province, for
instance, the ultrarefined Javanese aristocracy has a
strong
aesthetic, even mystical element, to its spirituality.
Religiosity
is expressed through plays employing wayang kulit
(flat
leather shadow puppets), gamelan (Javanese
orchestra)
performances, dances, and other arts of the courtly
tradition.
Santri--many of them merchant-farmers in East
Java--hold
more tightly to the moralistic tone of Islam and express
the
fundamental universalism of its teachings. They may make a
pilgrimage (hajj; haj in Indonesian) to Mecca,
teach their
children the Quran, and work for the social, spiritual,
and even
political advancement of the ummah.
Most Javanese peasants, however, particularly those in
Central
Java, resist the universalism of Islam and its political
connotations. They favor a more moderate blend of Islamic
practice
with an indigenous Javanism, expressed in household
feasts,
pilgrimages to local temples and shrines, and belief in
local
spirits. For many Javanese peasants, the spiritual world
is richly
populated with deities who inhabit people, things, and
places, and
who are ever ready to cause misfortune. Believers seek to
protect
themselves against these harmful spirits by making
offerings,
enlisting the aid of a dukun (healer), or through
spiritual
acts of self-control and right thinking.
Data as of November 1992
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