From aliran towards class struggle in the countryside of Java

Abstract

Before the Second World War, the structure of native Javanese society had been mostly referred to in terms of social stratification. In Van Vollenhoven's work on Adat Law, the distinction between the prijaji-aristocracy and the commoners appeared as a basic element in the overall structure of Javanese society. Similarly, the main distinction within Javanese village society was based, in pre-war literature, on social status: the nuclear villagers, as fully qualified members of the village community on the basis of their descent from the mythical founder of the village entitled to a share in the irrigated farm land (sawah) of the village, were to be distinguished from those villagers who belonged to the new- comers' families and, consequently, could possess only dry land, (mostly a compound with the house they had built upon it) and worked as share-croppers on the land of the former.