Adat and Indigeneity in Indonesia: Culture and Entitlements between Heteronomy and Self-Ascription ed. by Brigitta Hauser-Schaublein (review)

Marginalized population groups in Indonesia have gained attention through the efforts of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and an Indonesian society known as the Indigenous People’s Alliance of the Archipelago (Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara, AMAN). These marginalized entities center on their differences from mainstream population groups, particularly on land claims, customary usage, and access to policy making; they have complaints in all three areas. But do these marginalized population groups, in the late twentieth to early twenty-first centuries, have a right to remain unintegrated into the national mainstream culture when the loyalties demanded by nation-states encourage that common cultural standards are necessary? UNDP and AMAN regard historically marginalized groups as having a right to exist separately as protected minority groups. The authors in this collection of essays accept the UNDP–AMAN viewpoint and do not question whether it is good public policy, although many people in the Indonesian mainstream would disagree. Consequently, the research and writing of these essays center on the “struggle” of dedicated activists in these marginalized areas to garner governmental recognition of these groups’ special identity and gain a hearing for their demands.

Adat and Indigeneity in Indonesia is the product of scholarship on Indonesia at the University of Göttingen under the direction of Brigitta Hauser-Schaublein. Hauser-Schaublein’s introduction is a clear statement of the problem and the work that was undertaken to examine “indigenization” in Indonesia. Her associates in the project come from German and Indonesian institutions and draw largely on the fieldwork of the participants themselves. The research in anthropological studies is uniformly good: the application of methodology is appropriate and the analysis and writing is expressive and explanatory. The work has been edited by a native English speaker who gives the entire set of essays a commonality that makes reading fairly easy, despite the sometimes heavy use of social science vocabulary. Each chapter stands on its own, but the combined publication gives a broad, comprehensive view. Great attention is given to editing, to proper scholarly citation, and to defining terms and titles. The volume is marked by a high level of professionalism.

There are three themes in this set of essays. The first is “indigenization.” Its meaning and its manifestations are addressed by all the writers, and they arrive at common conclusions, described well in Francesca Merlan’s Epilogue, which forms an executive summary of sorts. The second theme is the persistence of custom (adat) in the life practices and outlooks of the subject groups and how adat has continually reasserted itself in Indonesian history to define societal organization. Adat is the life blood of the marginal groups, as in each case it is adat that provides the essence of difference for the group from other identities and its rationale for special status. Interestingly, such interpretation of adat, both historically and in a reconstructed sense, is explained differently among various proponents of each and every adat system. Some users want historical authenticity and others “modernized” versions, which produces tension among the various proponents. The third theme, much less defined, structured, or discussed, involves political change and its impact on the entire Indonesian nation and on these “indigenous” groups in particular.

Three articles set the stage for the case studies. Yance Arizona and Erasmus Cahyadi outline the nature of AMAN, and its success in bringing diverse local movements under a general political umbrella. Miriam Harjati Samukri explains the role of Indonesian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and how they often act as catalysts in helping marginal groups attain identity and formulate appropriate programs. Katja Göcke provides an explanatory article on the formation of new international law dealing with indigenous status as including marginalized population groups that have no claim to aboriginal status. She explains that such Indonesian groups then use that interpretation in their own arguments with Indonesian authorities as they...