Rice, rupees, and ritual : economy and society among the Samosir Batak of Sumatra / D. George Sherman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sherman, D. George, 1947-1992, author.

Contributor:

Sherman, Hedy Bruyns.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Toba-Batak (Indonesian people)--Economic conditions.

Toba-Batak (Indonesian people).

Toba-Batak (Indonesian people)--Social life and customs.

Samosir Island (Indonesia)--Economic conditions.

Samosir Island (Indonesia).

Samosir Island (Indonesia)--Social life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (385 pages)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [1990]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

A Note on Pronunciation and Orthography

Introduction

1. Deceptive Appearances: Environment, Demography, and Agricultural Change

2. History and Change

3. Ethnohistory, Inequality, and Contemporary Village Politics

4. Bius: Religious Conflict and Accommodation

5. Ritual Expressions of Values and the Feasting System

6. The Agricultural Cycle and the Cycle of Wants

7. The Ecology and Ethnology of Batak Grassland Farming

8. Marketing, Credit, and Investment

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

13. Reciprocity and Spheres of Exchange in Batak Economy

14. Change and Persistence in the Worldview of Samosir Villagers

Appendix A. Methods of Data Gathering

Appendix B. Means of Measurement and Their Margins of Error

Appendix C. Regulations Promulgated at a Church-Sanctioned Feast

Appendix D. Rice-Growing Statistics

References Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780804766630

0804766630

OCLC:

1198929699