New Directions in the Historiography of Indonesia's Mass Killings, 1965–66

Abstract: The article traces developments in the historiography of the mass killing of Indonesian communists in 1965–66. The first, journalistic analysis often suggested that the killings were a reflection of primitive savagery in Indonesia. The first scholarly analysis, by contrast, suggested that there had been a unique, acute polarization in Indonesian society which created an atmosphere of kill-or-be-killed. Subsequent research showed that the Indonesian army played a major role in directing the killings and in fomenting antagonism with false stories of communist brutality. More recent research indicates the importance of local antagonisms, often not directly related to ideology, in leading people to use the pogroms as a chance to advance their own interests. This development is similar to the shift in the historiography of the holocaust from intentionalism to functionalism.