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Reviewed by:
  • Securing a Place: Small-Scale Artisans in Modern Indonesia
  • Michael Howard (bio)
Securing a Place: Small-Scale Artisans in Modern Indonesia. By Elizabeth Morrell. Southeast Asia Studies Program Series no. 21. Ithaca, New York: Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University, 2005. 220 pp.

The book under review is a study of Torajan and Bugis artisans on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The study examines them as workers in micro-enterprises, focusing on development related issues surrounding such enterprises. It is an extremely well written work with a minimal use of jargon that reflects a depth of fieldwork experience on the part of the author. It is also a work of considerable comparative relevance for those interested in small-scale enterprises in general and efforts to promote development through the work of artisans, in particular.

The book's ten chapters are divided into four each on Bugis weavers of Wajo and Torajan artisans of Tana Toraja with an introduction and conclusion that discuss general issues arising from the two case studies. In particular, Morrell is interested in the development potential and sustainability of such small-scale enterprises, especially in the wake of the economic crisis that hit Indonesia in the late 1990s. The first chapter introduces the Bugis and Toraja and their products. The author notes that, while their products are different, both groups of producers share the fact that they are relatively poor, have few alternatives for earning money, and produce for local and external markets. The theme of different markets is an important one throughout the book. The Bugis have a long history of external trade, including the export of plaid cloth to many parts of Asia and the export of relatively plain cloth to Java remains a mainstay of the local weaving industry, while more intricate supplementary weft patterned textiles are mainly sold locally. Toraja handicrafts were mainly produced for local use in the past and, as the author notes (p. 23) their "primitiveness was formerly disparaged by lowland inhabitants". More recently, however, it is precisely this primitiveness that has made them attractive to foreign tourists, academics, and museum curators. While this has led to the creation of a large external market for [End Page 143] Torajan crafts, it is one in which they tend to be "relegated to the low-status realm of mass-market souvenir production" (p. 18). The author also introduces another theme that crops up throughout the work in relation to the role of the government assisting such small-scale enterprises. She comments that, while Indonesian Government policies pay more attention to small-scale and household industries than do government policies in many other countries, in practice they still leave out many micro-enterprises. She cites the figure that in 1993 only 2 per cent of south Sulawesi household enterprises received any government assistance. Elsewhere in the study she points to the fact that even when the government does get involved its work tends to be ineffective in helping local producers.

Chapters 2 through 5 focus on the Bugis. Chapter 2 provides historical and cultural background on Bugis weaving and textile trade. The author turns to a description of the modern silk industry in Wajo Regency in Chapter 3. Under government promotion efforts were made to revive the regency's silk industry starting in the 1960s, with local community leaders hoping to emulate the modern silk industry of Thailand. Morrell distinguishes two distinct forms of production that had emerged: what she refers to as the "independent-traditional" and "entrepreneurial-modern" streams (p. 66). For a brief time the "entrepreneurial-modern" stream prospered and was responsible for a number of innovative products, but it went into decline in the early 1990s and by the early 2000s was mainly producing plain white cloth for sale to Pekalongan, Java. In contrast, the "independent-traditional" stream, in which weavers produced high quality products for the local market, did relatively well through this period, even after the collapse of the rupiah in 1997, which led to a sharp rise in the price of silk. There is a section in the chapter on government training schemes in which the author remarks "the few training and assistance schemes have...

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