Diasporic representations of the home culture: case studies from Suriname and New Caledonia

Abstract

The focus of this paper is the ways in which certain customs and traditions are actively selected and/or reinvigorated and subsequently authorised, by institutions or by individuals, as being key markers of the culture of the ‘homeland’. The cultural practices chosen for discussion are the kejawen mystical system as practised in Suriname and the acquisition of the Indonesian national language, bahasa Indonesia, in New Caledonia. The discussion is informed by two key ideas. The first is that immigrant communities designate certain cultural practices as being worthy of preservation as an ‘inheritance’ for the future. The second is the interplay between cultural practices and power or authority, which gels in scholarly discussions about ‘cultural heritage’. I argue that the continuation of a cultural practice or tradition lies as much with its authorisation by key individuals or institutions as it does with its purported authenticity.

Keywords:

• cultural heritage
• Javanese
• Indonesian
• Suriname
• New Caledonia

Notes

^1. Weber, Economy and Society, 214.

^2. Ibid., 215.

^3. For an overview of those cultural practices see Allen, “Javanese Cultural Traditions”.

^4. Gupta, “What is Indian,” 572.

^5. von Morze, “Republican Centaurs,” 196.

^6. Blake, “On Defining Cultural Heritage,” 85.

^7. Sider, Culture and Class, 6.

^8. Blake, “On Defining Cultural Heritage,” 82.

^9. Ibid., 68.

^10. Lockard, “The Javanese as Emigrant.”

^11. Suparlan, The Javanese in Suriname.

^12. Hoefte, In Place of Slavery.

^13. Maurer, Les Javanais du Caillou.

^14. Hoefte, In Place of Slavery, 221.

^15. Lockard, “The Javanese as Emigrant,” 48.

^16. Hoefte, In Place of Slavery, 163.

^17. Ibid., 175.

^18. van der Kroef, “The Indonesian Minority,” 674.

^19. 560,157 (July 2012 est. The World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ns.html).

^20. The Paris Commune briefly ruled Paris from 18 March to 28 May 1871. It was hailed by both the anarchists and the Marxists as the first assumption of power by the working class in western civilisation. The conditions in which the Commune was formed, and its violent end, resulted in it being a very significant political episode of the time.

^21. Maurer, Les Javanais du Caillou, 192.

^22. Ibid.

^23. Ibid.

^24. Ibid.

^25. 260,166 (July 2012 est. The World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/nc.html, accessed 12 April 2012).

^26. Robin Cohen, in his seminal text Global Diasporas: An Introduction, identifies a number of common features of a diaspora – dispersal from an original homeland, collective memory and myth; group consciousness; tolerance for pluralism. It appears, however, that not all groups that fit these characteristics can properly be called a diaspora. Cohen alludes to the fact that the term diaspora is often used ‘casually, in an untheorized or undertheorized way’ but concurs with other scholars such as Clifford and Kirschenblatt-Gimblett that it should be possible to recognise models of diaspora that do not fit with the ‘normative’ model of the Jewish diaspora. Ien Ang laments the fact that the notion of the ‘Chinese diaspora’ has the effect of essentialising Chinese identity. Ang, On Not Speaking Chinese, 13.

^27. Clifford, The Predicament of Culture, 37.

^28. Isaacs, “Basic Group Identity,” 45.

^29. Gupta, “What is Indian,” 580.

^30. See for example Hedrick, Research in Lahania.

^31. Gupta, “What is Indian,” 580.

^32. Griffin, The People with No Name, 4.

^33. von Morze, “Republican Centaurs,” 199.

^34. Suparlan, The Javanese in Suriname, 86–8; and Lockard “The Javanese as Emigrant,” 55, 58.

^35. de Bruijne and Schalkwijk, “Position and Residential Patterns,” 215.

^36. Fat, “New Chinese Immigrants,” 3.

^37. Boyd and Richerson, “Ethnic Markers,” 65.

^38. Ibid., 67.

^39. By 1973, 80% of Surinamese Javanese held Dutch citizenship. Suparlan, The Javanese in Suriname, 248.

^40. Suparlan, The Javanese in Suriname, 126.

^41. Ashcroft, “Home and Horizon,” 50.

^42. Gupta, “What is Indian,” 580.

^43. Ibid., 572.

^44. Koentjaraningrat, Javanese Culture, 21.

^45. For a compelling example of the construction of cultural traditions ‘at home’ see Mary Crain’s study of the reinvention of the religious pilgrimage to the Virgin of El Rocio in Spain. Crain, “Andalusian Pilgrimage Tradition.”

^46. Bottomley, After the Odyssey, 133.

^47. Sapir, “Culture, Genuine and Spurious,” 422.

^48. Allen, “Javanese Cultural Traditions.”

^49. Gupta, “What is Indian,” 590.

^50. Ibid.

^51. Wejnert, “Integration Models,” 302.

^52. Ibid., 309.

^53. Ibid., 313.

^54. Boyd and Richerson, “Ethnic Markers,” 69.

^55. Daniels, Islamic Spectrum in Java, 22–3.

^56. Beatty, Varieties of Javanese Religion, 163.

^57. Ibid., 177.

^58. Ibid., 118.

^59. Woodward, Islam in Java, 85.

^60. Geertz, The Religion of Java, 11.

^61. Gibson, “Islam and the Spirit Cults,” 56.

^62. Beatty, Varieties of Javanese Religion, 171.

^63. Ibid., 184.

^64. Ibid., 170.

^65. Woodward, “The ‘Slametan’,” 58.

^66. Mulder, Mysticism and Everyday Life, 1.

^67. Woodward, Islam in Java, 149.

^68. Mulder, Mysticism in Java, 24.

^69. Emmerson, “Islam in Modern Indonesia,” 165.

^70. Steenbrink, “The Pancasila Ideology,” 283.

^71. Daniels, Islamic Spectrum in Indonesia, 29.

^72. Woodward, “The ‘Slametan’,” 62.

^73. Nusya Kuswantin, a freelance writer who began her career as a correspondent for Kompas before becoming a columnist for Surya’s Sunday edition. Nusya’s Master’s thesis is about a small community in Alas Purwo, Banyuwangi, originally from Yogyakarta, and members of a syncretic Siva-Buddhist kejawen sect that was banned by the government in connection with the 1965 attempted coup. The majority of its members then embraced Islam, some embraced Hinduism and some Theravada Buddhism. After publishing her first novel, Laksmi, in 2009, Nusya is writing her second, tentatively titled Notes on Meditation Practice – Perspectives from Agami Jawi. Of her own faith, she states: ‘We were not that Moslem; we were abangan; we were Agami Jawi’.

^74. Daniels, Islamic Spectrum in Indonesia, 65.

^75. A jilbab is a Muslim woman’s head covering that exposes only the face.

^76. Nusya Kuswatin, personal correspondence 10 December 2011. Oleh karena identitas Kejawen saat ini sudah lebur, tak ada lagi abangan, tak ada kebatinan (secara publik, namun masih ada secara privat, jadi ranah mereka bergeser dari ranah public ke privat), istilah yang disebut sebagai khas Kejawen juga menghilang. Tapi tentu saja orang Jawa tetaplah Jawa. Mereka tetap punya tradisi sendiri, dalam upacara kematian atau kelahiran bayi. Walaupun mereka sudah menjadi santri, mereka masih juga menjalani upacara-upacara berbau Jawa minus kemenyan, setidaknya simbol-simbolnya masih Jawa, namun dengan doa yang lebih Islami... Sekarang, di era jilbab ini, orang cenderung menggunakan istilah syukuran, dan bukan lagi selamatan. Syukuran itu lebih menyerupai thanks giving. Tentu saja tanpa kemenyan, tanpa kembang, tanpa bubur beras dengan gula jawa... Saya kira untuk saat ini kejawen tidak lagi banyak menjadi wacana karena orang Jawa telah menjadi santri.

^77. Beatty, Varieties of Javanese Religion, 158.

^78. Ibid., 132.

^79. See http://www.dewest-online.com/nonprofit/culture/frame_c-english.php

^80. It should be noted, however, that aspects of Sharia law were granted to the Surinamese Muslim community in 1940. Chickrie, “Muslims in Suriname,” 79. Mention should also be made of the ‘Western keblat’ debate, which reveals continuing tensions between traditionalist and reformist Muslims in Suriname. Javanese Muslims in Suriname are divided into wong madhep ngulon (‘west-orientating people’) and wong madhep ngetan (‘east-orientating people’), in reference to the fact that many of the original immigrants built their mosques in Suriname facing west, as they had in Java, whereas the longitude of Suriname dictates that Mecca is in fact to the east. It was not until the 1930s that, partly through contacts with Hindustani Muslims, people began to realise that the Ka’aba was not located to the west, but to the northeast of Suriname. A group led by Pak Samsi then began to encourage people to change the direction of prayer from west to east; those who did so became the more orthodox Muslim group. Chickrie “Surinamese Muslims”. There is an ‘east-west divide’ on issues such as slametan and tajub. Reformists maintain that these festivities are haram (forbidden) because they involve alcohol and gambling. Chickrie, “Muslims in Suriname,” 84.

^81. Chickrie, “Muslims in Suriname,” 91.

^82. Maurer, Les Javanais du Caillou, 366.

^83. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/jas

^84. Ibid.

^85. Billig, Banal Nationalism, 8.

^86. Fishman, “Indonesian Language Planning,” 333.

^87. Ibid.

^88. Keane, “Public Speaking,” 504.

^89. Ibid., 505.

^90. Anderson, “Languages of Indonesian Politics,” 105.

^91. Hooker, “New Order Language,” 272.

^92. Keane, “Public Speaking,” 515.

^93. Tamtomo, “Multilingual Youth,” 4.

^94. Steinhauer, “The Indonesian Language Situation,” 773.

^95. Keane, “Public Speaking,” 515.

^96. Sneddon, The Indonesian Language, 210.

^97. Hall, “Cultural Identity,” 26.

^98. Kamenka, “Human Rights,” 134.

^99. Koptiuch, “Third-Worlding at Home,” 245.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pamela Allen

With a PhD from the University of Sydney, Pamela Allen teaches Indonesian language and literature at the University of Tasmania. Her research interests include contemporary Indonesian literature and popular culture, with a particular focus on postcolonial studies, gender issues and minority ethnic voices. Her publications include articles on contemporary literature as well as translations into English of Indonesian fiction. Her current project is an investigation of cultural practices in overseas Indonesian/Malay communities, particularly in Suriname and New Caledonia.

Author’s postal address: Faculty of Arts, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 44, Hobart 7001, Tasmania.