The birth of the abangan

Bibliographic Data

ID2852563
AuthorsM C Ricklefs (1. [email protected], corresponding author)
Year2008
Volume162
Issue1
Pages35-55
Publication date2008-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0006-2294 • E-ISSN: 2213-4379
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/22134379-90003673
OpenAlexW2075184992
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited2

One of the great topics in the study of Javanese society is the distinction among santri, abangan and priyayi that was posited by Clifford Geertz in his book The religion of Java (1964). For many western observers at the time this was a momentous insight into an exotic culture. Although several Dutch and Indonesian authorities objected to some aspects of the Geertz depiction, it was immensely influential. Today, more than four decades after the publication and five decades after the fieldwork, the terms santri, abangan and priyayi frequently appear in the literature. From the historian's point of view, a flaw lurks in the Geertz analysis and in that of many of his critics. That is, the analysis and its subsequent use and discussion by others has remained insufficiently historical. Javanese society has been as dynamic as any other. As I hope to show in this article, the distinction that Geertz drew between the two categories of religious identity in his trichotomy - santri and abangan - were not wrong, but were historically contingent

Depiction · Trichotomy (philosophy · Asian Studies and History · Cultural and Religious Practices in Indonesia · Cultural Identity and Representation

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