Indonesian Sociological Studies: Selected Writings of B. Schrieke. Part I

Abstract

to write Indonesian history. As part of the between-war movement to reevaluate Indonesian life that emerged from the writings of C. van Vollenhoven, van Leur was well prepared to challenge the then current historical approaches: the Indiacentered view of early Indonesian history as exemplified by the writings of N. J. Krom, and the Europe-centered view of colonial historians dealing with the "modern" period (personified in F. W. Stapel). Van Leur pleads for an Indonesia-centered view of Indonesian history. This viewpoint found only Umited acceptance prior to van Leur's tragic death in 1942, but the developments in Indonesia since 1945 have lent currency to it, and it has become more widely accepted. As an elaboration of his new point of view, van Leur attempts to establish a new system of historical periodization—it being obvious to him as to many others that European historical categories ill fit the Indonesian scene. The foundations for his new periodization he finds in the economic-based categories of Max Weber, and he also finds that the sociological and historical methods of Weber may fruitfully be applied to Indonesian history. This methodological path leads van Leur, who is basically an economic historian, into an analysis of Asian and especially Indonesian commerce. He finds this commerce a weak conveyer of cultural patterns and institutions. From this stems his extremely important conclusion that Hindu influence was not carried by Indian traders as a by-product of commerce to the archipelago, but was consciously brought by Brahmans to the Indonesian courts and centers of political power. A similar analysis of early European commerce shows that the Europeans had little effect upon Asian trade and society. Not until the nineteenth century with the fuller development of modern capitalistic forms do the Europeans effect deep-seated changes in the commercial and social life of the area. These changes, van Leur feels, affect cultural and social patterns which predate the coming of Brahmanical influences. Thus the nineteenth century emerges as the crucial turning point in the new periodization arrangement, while other earlier periods of standard Indonesian history blend into one great period, in which the underlying pattern of life remains unaffected by outside influences.