Constructing gender and local morality: exchange practices in a Javanese village

Abstract

The concept of exchange has been on the anthropological agenda since Marcel Mauss published his book Essai sur le Don in 1925. The nature of gift-giving and exchange practices has since in different ways been developed and criticised (e.g. Bloch and Perry 1989; Bourdieu 1977; Derrida 1992; Dumont 1986; Levi-Strauss 1950; Sahlins 1974). However, exchanges are social practices that continue to puzzle and arouse curiosity within anthropology and related fields. The present article focuses on the vivid exchange practices that form part of social life in Sarijati village in Central Java.2 I will argue that exchanges here make up a social domain that articulates gender ideology and the reasoning of local morality.

Sarijati is a pseudonym.

this article is based on a research project sponsored by the danish research council for the humanities. fieldwork was carried out in central java in 1996–97 and in 1998.

Notes

Sarijati is a pseudonym.

this article is based on a research project sponsored by the danish research council for the humanities. fieldwork was carried out in central java in 1996–97 and in 1998.

this article is based on a research project sponsored by the danish research council for the humanities. fieldwork was carried out in central java in 1996–97 and in 1998.

Javanese words are preceded by ‘Jav.’; Indonesian words by ‘Ind.’. Other local words common to both languages are in italics.

See e.g. Geertz 1960; Hefner 1985; Jay 1969; Keeler 1987; Sullivan 1994.

For a comprehensive discussion of the arisan keluarga see Asmussen (1999).

Also slametan rituals are performed differently in Sarijati from those reported by Sullivan in Yogyakarta (see Asmussen unpublished).

Gondosari is a pseudonym.

A household usually consists of more than a nuclear family. Often several generations live together. Parents or grandparents live with their children or grandchildren; divorced men or women move back to their parents' house where another sibling already lives with his or her family; unmarried children too, live with their parents. A rare combination would be two siblings living with their respective spouses and children in the same household.

The Javanese kinship system is cognatic and bilateral (Hüsken 1991). Cognatic kinship ideologies are characterised by accentuating a fundamental egalitarian relation between kinsmen (Hüsken and Kemp 1991).

… ‘cognatic’ kinship … is usually applied when, in a given society, a child is considered equally related to both its parents, when kinship terminology is the same when applied to relatives on both parents' ‘sides’ of the family, and when the most important social grouping of which a person is part comprises relatives from both parents' ‘sides’ (Errington 1990: 3).

The egalitarian aspect of Javanese kinship ideology is, however, not tantamount to individualism understood as equality between individuals, but is given its specific meaning in combining the cognatic aspects with a principle of seniority, i.e. a hierarchical relationship between seniors and juniors. This principle is discussed below in relation to exchange practices.

On (circular) migration in Java see e.g. Guinness 1994; Murray 1991.

People are also employed in the construction industry, in factories, or as domestic workers. These jobs are usually taken by bachelors or people who try to break their ties to the village, since these jobs are neither as flexible nor as profitable as being a street hawker.

The enlargement of a household's sumbangan relations is related to the rise of sumptuous celebrations of life passages as a modern phenomenon (Asmussen 1999). On the sumptuous celebrations of wedding ceremonies as a modern phenomenon in Java see Pemberton (1994).

On the ritual celebration of these life passages in Sarijati see Asmussen (1999). On the ritual celebration of life passages in Java in general see e.g. Geertz 1960; Koentjaraningrat 1985; Maijer 1894, 1897.

The months besar and sapar in the Javanese calendar form the peak season for weddings in Sarijati, whereas the months sura and pasa are never chosen for these events. The exact day and month for the event is chosen on numerological principles (Asmussen 1999).

Berkat is from the Arabic word barakah meaning ‘blessings’. In Sarijati the word is used as a particular expression for the counter-gift of cooked food given in sumbangan exchanges and other ritual events where an exchange of food is central, especially the slametan ritual called a kondangan (Jav. invitation) in Sarijati.

On rewang see also Jay (1969: 250-52) and Keeler (1987: 140-50). Only Sullivan (1994) argues that rewang is restricted to female work (see below).

Sullivan (1994: 154–72) focuses on the production and distribution of food as the female part of the slametan ritual called rewang. In Sarijati rewang and slametan rituals are not interrelated as Sullivan shows with her ethnography from Yogyakarta. However, rewang in Sarijati is also primarily related to the production and distribution of food as part of ritual celebrations.

Only a few guests bring money rather than foodstuff. Money is always handed to the hostess in a small, white envelope with the guest's name written on it. Money usually replaces foodstuff as a contribution if the guest does not belong to the immediate neighbourhood. It is more convenient to travel with an envelope of money than a bag filled with foodstuff. The contribution is later on recorded in an accounts book.

Contrary to sumbangan events where the hostess does not eat with her guests, the host of a jagongan party is always served a plate of food with the guests. However, he might not eat in the living room with the guests. It is the woman's role to ‘feed’ her household, her children, and her husband. Therefore, the host as a husband and the head of household is also served food.

On Javanese card games see Tjan Tjoe Siem (1941). He also notes that card games are played in relation to events like a birth, circumcision, wedding, or death in Java. He mentions the tjoek, but does not explain how it works.

A pikul is a long pole carried horizontally on one shoulder with carrying baskets suspended fore and aft.

A ‘five-footer’ is a food stall with two wheels and a prop stand to be pushed ahead of the street hawker. The two wheels, the prop stand, and the street hawker's own two feet add up to ‘five feet’.

For discussion about gender in Java as either socio-economic and/or work related differences between men and women see Berninghausen and Kersten 1992; de Grijns et al. 1994; Stoler 1977; Wolf 1992.

Local gender ideologies comprise the particular evaluation of ‘male’ and ‘female’ in a given society. Gender as a cultural discourse in Javanese society that differentiates between spiritual potent men and money-managing women is discussed by Errington 1990; Keeler 1990; Brenner 1995.