Synopses & Reviews
In this ethnographic study of the small mountain village of Huta Ginjang in the Samosir area of northern Sumatra, the author pursues three main themes: the role of rice in the Batak economy of feasting, and the cultural ecology of dry- and flooded-field rice-growing. Two important questions emerge: How did the social and economic changes resulting from Dutch colonization - particularly the adoption of money as a medium of exchange - affect Samosir Batak culture/ Have the values that largely shape the local economy been fundamentally altered by the effects of colonization and subsequent Japanese and Indonesian administrations? After introductory chapters present the environmental and historical background of the Samosir region, the author describes the socio-cultural base on which its agricultural economy rests: indigenous political and religious institutions, concepts of patrilineal descent and marriage alliance, and, most importantly, the ideology of the feasting system. He then examines in detail and in comparative perspective the agricultural practices of Huta Ginjang, and also deals more generally with the economic relations and institutions of the villagers, notably marketing, credit, and cooperative endeavours. Since the key production units are nuclear families, the author analyzes the development of households and the organization of labor in cultivating crops. He then turns to the distribution of livestock and land by both ritual and nonritual means. The book is illustrated with photographs, line drawings, and maps.
Table of Contents
A note on pronunciation and orthography; Introduction; Part I. Environment and History: 1. Deceptive appearances; 2. History and change; Part II. Sociocultural Effects of Colonial Penetration: 3. Ethnohistory, inequality, and contemporary village politics; 4. Bius: religious conflict and accommodation; 5. Ritual expressions of values and the feasting system; Part III. Agriculture and Trade: 6. The agricultural cycle and the cycle of wants; 7. The ecology and ethnology of Batak grassland farming; 8. Marketing, credit, and investment; Part IV. Access to Resources: Labour and Land in Interpreting the Economy: 9. Age and gender differentials in the work force; 10. Modes of labor mobilization; 11. Ownership, care, and values of livestock; 12. landholding and transference; Part V. Modeling Samosir Batak Economy: 13. Reciprocity and spheres of exchange in Batak economy; 14. Change and persistence in the worldview of Samosir villagers; Appendixes; Index.