Minangkabau Social Formations
Indonesian Peasants and the World-Economy

An anthropological investigation of the nature of an underdeveloped peasant economy in Indonesia.

Joel S. Kahn (Author)

9780521040297, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 17 September 2007

248 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.7 cm, 0.375 kg

In this anthropological investigation of the nature of an underdeveloped peasant economy, Joel S. Kahn attempts to develop the insights generated by Marxist theorists, by means of a concrete case study of a peasant village in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. He accounts for the specific features of this regional economy, and, at the same time, examines the implications for it of the centuries-old European domination of Indonesia. The most striking feature of the Minangkabau economy is the predominance of petty commodity relations in agriculture, handicrafts and the local network of distribution. Dr Kahn illustrates this with material on local economic organization, which he collected in the field in the highland village of Sungai Puar, the site of a blacksmithing industry, and with published and unpublished data from other parts of Indonesia. Dr Kahn's book is unusual for its combination of a theoretical analysis of underdevelopment with a detailed regional study. It will appeal to those interested in South-east Asian studies, in development, and in neo-Marxist approaches in anthropology.

List of maps, figures and tables
Preface
1. Introduction
2. The internal and the external in a Minangkabau village: an introduction to the world of the concrete
3. Adat, kinship and marriage: the constitution of the subsistence community
4. Agriculture and subsistence: the reproduction of the subsistence community
5. Commodity production in the village economy: the case of blacksmithing
6. Occupation, class and the peasant economy
7. The structure of petty commodity production
8. Mercantilism and the evolution of 'traditional' society
9. The emergence of petty commodity production
10. Conclusions: the concept of a neo-colonial social formation
Bibliography
Glossary of Minangkabau terms
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]