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Highlights
- Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia is one of the most famous of the early works of Clifford Geertz.
- About the Author: Clifford James Geertz (August 23, 1926 - October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered "for three decades...the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States.
- 196 Pages
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Book Synopsis
Agricultural Involution: The Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia is one of the most famous of the early works of Clifford Geertz. It principal thesis is that many centuries of intensifying wet-rice cultivation in Indonesia had produced greater social complexity without significant technological or political change, a process Geertz terms "involution".
Written for a US-funded project on the local developments and following the modernization theory of Walt Whitman Rostow, Geertz examines in this book the agricultural system in Indonesia and its two dominant forms of agriculture, swidden and sawah. In addition to researching its agricultural systems, the book turns to an examination of their historical development. Of particular note is Geertz's discussion of what he famously describes as the process of "agricultural involution" in Java, where both the external economic demands of the Dutch rulers and the internal pressures due to population growth led to intensification rather than change.
Review Quotes
"Although Geertz composed Agricultural Involution some fifty years ago, it remains relevant to this day. . . . it is difficult not to draw parallels to current political ecology issues across the globe. How the land is used, and at what social and environmental costs, is material to the whole of humanity and the ramifications are at a tipping point. In that sense, Agricultural Involution was ahead of its time."-- "International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology"
"[A]head of its time."-- "International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology" (3/29/2019 12:00:00 AM)
"A brilliant and superbly written study...an incisive, even frightening description of the most crucial dilemma in contemporary Indonesia."-- "Agricultural History"
"A remarkably interesting account of Indonesian agricultural history, primarily covering the period of Dutch control, from 1619 to 1942. Drawing on ecology, sociology, and economics, Geertz...provides an insightful and persuasive analysis."-- "The Annals"
"A valuable and important study...in which source materials from history, economics, soil science, geography and other fields are brilliantly marshalled and interrelated. But besides being an exemplary study in the interaction of history, physical environment and agricultural technology, this book represents a watershed between narrowly conceived ethnographies and the flood of verbose and ill digested post-war 'technology-and-social-change' monographs that are wont to aim high and hit wide...A model of comparative analytical writing."-- "Man"
"If colonial geography ever succeeds in establishing itself as a discrete and integral focus of inquiry, it may well date its majority to the publication of Agricultural Involution."-- "Geographical Record"
About the Author
Clifford James Geertz (August 23, 1926 - October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered "for three decades...the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States." He served until his death as professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.