Power, Change, and Gender Relations in Rural Java

Chapter 2 - Two Villages in Yogyakarta

Chapter 2 T wo V illages in Y ogyakarta D a e r a h I s t i m e wa ( D . I . ) Yo g y a k a r t a , the special region of Yogyakarta, is located in south-central Java. It is “special ” both by history and by political designation. From ancient times to the present, Yogya, as it is more familiarly known, has been recognized as the center of Javanese culture and society, the product of a long syncretic accumulation of religious and cultural movements that include animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and indigenous Javanese elements. Although Islam has been fully entrenched for three centuries as the dominant religion and social influence, the area remains heavily permeated with the remnants of its predecessors. Islamic values and practices often merge with traditional elements of Javanese culture. Politically, the region has a pivotal place in Javanese history, from the time of its founding in 1755 as part of the Mataram Kingdom, through its prominent role in the fight for independence from the Dutch. The city itself served as the Indonesian capital from 1946 to 1950 when the Dutch reoccupied Jakarta in an attempt to reclaim its colonial control after World War II. After independence, its place and the role of the sultan, Hamengku Buwono IX, in the revolution were rewarded with its special status as a province of the Republic of Indonesia and the appointment of the hereditary 56 Chapter 2 sultan as governor for life. To this day it remains the only functioning sultanate in Indonesia, governed by a descendant of the hereditary rulers.1 While it has changed dramatically from a tightly structured, feudal, and autocratic society to a more democratic system, many traditional values dating from feudal times have not been completely washed away. Currently, Yogyakarta serves as a regional commercial center and, with its many public and private colleges and universities, as an educational destination for the entire nation. It has changed since its founding more than 250 years ago, but it is still, as it was in 1755, an area concerned with formal religion, mysticism, and the quest for magical power. It also remains a symbol of Javanese power and culture. Given the dominance of Java in modern Indonesian history, Yogya by extension also has a central place in Indonesian society. In the mid-1990s, at the time we initiated this study, the province had a population of more than three million people2 spread across four districts (kabupaten) and the municipality (kotamadya) of Yogyakarta, the provincial capital. Between the 1990 and the 2000 censuses,3 the population increased by only 7.2 percent, but shifted from primarily rural to majority urban (56 percent rural in 1990; 42 percent in 2000), marking this time as one of rapid population change (BPS 2004). As in all of Java, there is high population density, even in agricultural and rural areas. The two study villages selected were a more remote agricultural village located in the kabupaten , or district, of Sleman, in the northern part of the province; and a more urbanized village, located much closer to the center of urban life, in the district of Bantul in the southern part of the province.4 By the 2000 census, both districts averaged population densities of more than fifteen hundred persons per square kilometer (BPS 2004). We chose these two villages for both theoretical and practical reasons. They each matched the requisite characteristics of being fairly typical rural villages that share Javanese culture and history. They have ethnically homogeneous and stable populations whose Two Villages in Yogyakarta 59 members have deep roots in their communities. Most villagers are practicing Muslims; and the two main Islamic organizations, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),5 are well-represented in both villages. But the villages varied dramatically in their degree of isolation from urban influence and the amount of state intervention involved in their economic development. One village remained more physically isolated, more agrarian, and slower to shed traditional social and cultural practices. The other was heavily influenced by its proximity to urban centers and the cultural influences of urbanization and modernization. They each had active women’s and community groups whose contributions to village life could be observed and studied, but the degree of state intervention in women’s activities also varied in the two villages. Finally, they both were accessible and receptive to our inquiries and had officials who...