Agricultural Involution
Douban
The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia
Clifford Geertz
overview
'A remarkably interesting account of Indonesian agricultural history, primarily covering the period of Dutch control, from 1619 to 1942. Drawing on ecology, sociology, and economics, Geertz...provides an insightful and persuasive analysis' - "The Annals". 'If colonial geography ever succeeds in establishing itself as a discrete and integral focus of inquiry, it may well date its majority to the publication of "Agricultural Involution"' - "Geographical Record". 'A brilliant and superbly written study...an incisive, even frightening description of the most crucial dilemma in contemporary Indonesia' - "Agricultural History". 'A valuable and important study...in which source materials from history, economics, soil science, geography and other fields are brilliantly marshalled and interrelated. But besides being an exemplary study in the interaction of history, physical environment and agricultural technology, this book represents a watershed between narrowly conceived ethnographies and the flood of verbose and ill digested post-war 'technology-and-social-change' monographs that are wont to aim high and hit wide...A model of comparative analytical writing' - "Man".
contents
I: Starting points, theoretical and factual
The ecological approach in anthropology
The limitation of traditional approaches
Cultural ecology
Two types of ecosystem
Inner vs. outer Indonesia
Swidden
Sawah
II: The crystallization of the pattern
The classical period
The colonial period: foundations
The company
The culture system
The colonial period: Florescence
The corporate plantation system
The development of outer Indonesia
III: The outcome
Comparisons and prospects
The present situation
Java and Japan
The outline of the future