Culture Change of Javanese People of Suriname Eren İrfanoğlu Abstract: According to the old culture concept, cultures were integrally bounded systems and culture changes were the outcomes of the cultural interactions. However in modern-days, most of the researchers compromised that; culture is basically the product of economic and technologic developments of life. Similarly, culture changes by the differentitation of those economic and technologic developments. In this study, I try to argue three main pushes; colonialism, Second World War and globalization which changed the economic and technologic life of Javanese and thus changed their culture in Suriname. Colonialism is the very first reason which changes Javanese culture with the recruitment of Javanese indentured laborers to Suriname to work in plantations. Second World War leads to the settlement of Javanese people to big cities and thus changes their economic and technologic way of life. Finally globalization, as a popular phenomenon means increasing interconnection and interdependence in new borderless world, changes Javanese culture in Suriname with its concomitant; deterritorialization. Key Words: Culture, Culture change, Java, Surinam, Colonialism, Globalization Words: 3.597. Introduction Culture change was/is a quite debated phenomenon in Anthropology literature. Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, suggests; cultures, in different parts of the world, progress within three stages; savagery, babarism and civilazation. In the course of that progress, cultures can affect each other. Yet, that situation generally occurs in minimal level and not frequently.(Erickson 2006) However, Franz Boas argues that, culture change take place in the process of interaction. During that interaction, one culture may borrow single or several cultural elements from another by the way of simple diffussion. He adds that cultural elements which spread by the way of diffusion, are the outcomes of former cumulative diffusions. These cultural elements modify within its new cultural environment until their origin become obscure.(Hatch 1973, 57–58) His student Alfred Krober improves that diffusionist idea and mentions “acculturation”. He suggests that, culture change generally take place within continuous and gradual interaction with reciprocal or asymmetrical diffusions of one or more cultures. Possible outcome of acculturation is assimilation of weaker culture in general but sometimes weaker culture can prevent itself.(Kroeber 1948, 425) Development of culture change ideas evolve to a compromise which basically affirms so far that cultures develop or change within interaction. Inspiring from that background, Eric Wolf goes much beyond in his famous work “Culture Panacea of Problem” and states; “Cultures are not integral wholes carried by social isolates. We must distinguish between reality culture and ideology-making, and recognize that the creation or dismantling of cultures always goes on within extensive social fields, structured by the dominant modes of production. It is suggested that ideology-making derives from the prevalent mode of production and is entailed in its operation” To make it clear, he gives the example of culture change in Western Africa with the advent of European powers to the continent. The advent of European powers, changes the route of slave trade and the direction of the fur trade, thus results in changes in West African culture as well as in European culture. According to him, we need to focus on that mode of production and its operations.(Wolf 1984) Wolf sees the bigger picture about culture and culture change. Cultures are not independent from political or economical pushes which changes the mode of production. These pushes are generally foreign oriented and cultures change in the light of those pushes. In this paper, I focus on a plural society, Suriname. Within the society, I argue Javanese culture change, by basically considering three main pushes; colonialism, Second World War, and globalization. Among them, colonialism and globalization had continuous effects to Javanese culture in Suriname and Second World War had a dramatic but a short-term effect. My intention here is basically to point out the importance of these three pushes over Javanese culture change in Suriname, rather than to make a fully-fledged examination. Because the effect of these three pushes, even individually, are quite impossible to be presented in a single article. I simply follow two periods in the framework of colonialism, Second World War and globalism; from first recruitment to Second World War and from Second World War to modern-days. From the First Recruitment to Second World War (1890-1945) Suriname was/is a ethnically plural society which consist of several ethnicities such as Creoles, Maroons, Amerindians and several others. Creoles are hybrids of Europeans and Africans, Maroons are African slaves and Amerindians are local peoples of Suriname. In 1863, with the abolishment of slavery, Asian indentured laborers were brought to Suriname by the Dutch colonial government, to work in plantations. Between 1890 and 1939, almost 33,000 Javanese migrated to Suriname. The early migrants came from the densely populated areas of Java, Surabaya and Semarang. After their five years contracts expired, only %20-25 of those Javanese returned to Java and the rest became small farmers. (Kroef 1951, 674; Dew 1978, 28–29) By the advent of Asian indentured laborers, plural society of Suriname had new dimentions such as Hinduism and Islam as religions, new kinships, aesthetic norms, musical styles, cuisine and so on. There are mainly two reasons to generation of that plural society; Atlantic slave trade and recruitment of indentured labor from Asia which are concomitants of the colonial powers’ economic and politic interests. (Oostindie 2008). Here, we need to refer more to plural society conception to comprehend the situation in Suriname. Pluralism, in its rawest meaning, is diversity. Plural society, in turn, an imagined society which is characterized as a result of plantation economy of colonial powers.(Das Adhikary 2007) Plural society includes two or more elements (ethnic groups) or social orders mixed within the same environment without combining.(Furnivall 2010, 446) Each element holds its own religion, culture, language, ideas and ways. They live side by side but within ethnic boundaries. The society is unstable because the very reason to be a part of same society is not a common will but a compulsory political and economic oppression.(Lee 2009) However, the character of a plural society varies. John Rex argues five possible characters of a plural society. One of those is suitable to illustrate the situation in Suriname; “a complete fragmentation of society where each of these groups dissociate themselves from the national community and lives by parochial commitment to their own communal identity. (Rex 1983 121- 123 cited in Das Adhikary 2007). This character is the source of existing the social stratification determined by the ethnic segregation in Suriname. In the early social stratification of Suriname, Dutch (generally Europeans) were on top of the list and it follows as Creole elites, Marrons and lately Hindustani and Javanese indentured laborers. With the advent of Asian laborers and particularly Javanese ones, Creoles mostly left the plantations, settle in cities and consolidated their place in social stratification. (Bruijne 2005, 239) Javanese indentured laborers came to Suriname as the latest and thus placed at the bottom of the list. As regard to that social stratification determined by ethnicity, there were divergences in spheres of social life in Suriname. The concentration of an ethnic group within a specific territory was common. Endogamy (marriage within same ethnic group) was prevailing. They were working in certain type of jobs. The majority of the Javanese in Surinam were small farmers or agricultural laborers. Ethnocultural background was also important in Surinamese politics.(Kroef 1951) That social stratification of Suriname was causing instability. To prevent that, the Dutch colonial government followed an assimilation policy since 1870, which aimed specifically the Asian laborers. The purpose was the adaptation of the Asian laborers to Dutch-European values. The government implemented that policy by using Creole elites who rule the country and already close to Dutch-European values. There were Dutch schools which aimed to teach Dutch language and indoctrinate Dutch-European values to the peoples of Suriname. In addition to that, the Dutch government was dealing with the cultural practices of new comers. Most of the cultural practices tolerated apart from Hindu cremation and Javanese coffinless burials. Moslem marriage ceremonies were not legal as well. The Dutch government was also not giving subsidies to Moslem people like it did to Christians and Jewish people. (Dew 1978, 42) In that atmosphere of social stratification and Dutch assimilation policy, Javanese people were able to relatively preserve their culture vis-a-vis other ethnic groups. Two main reasons can be attributed to that peculiarity of Javanese people. First one is their position within social stratification. They were in the bottom of the social layers. That gave them a different type of solidarity.(Dew 1978, 30) Other ethnic groups such as Creoles and Hindustanis were looking down on Javanese people because they just came to Suriname. This humiliation intensely continued until Second World War. To preserve themselves from humiliation and assimilation, they were not sending their children to Dutch schools. (Maison 2013) Second one is their solidarity. They had a special type of solidarity or brotherhood, causing from suffer they experienced on the road to Suriname. In addition to that, Javanese people were respectful to their elders and elders were deciding what to do, so they had a special type of harmony within their community. Immediately after the advent to Suriname, they established a foundation in Marienburg plantation, named “Tjintoko Moelja” (Poor but Respectful) to provide economic and social support as well as presenting their aspiration to their culture. Many other foundations established later on.(Maison 2013) In the early years of their recruitment, Javanese culture was not influenced by Dutch assimilation policy partly because of the character of plural society and their own Javanese character. Ethnic boundaries and social stratification let them live separately without combining with others and their solidarity gave them the strength to resist. However in this period some changes happened within Javanese culture caused by new adjacencies as a result of colonial recruitment. They could not find the right materials to make their gamelan A musical instrument to play traditional Javanese music, thus the tone of it was little different than normal. Same reason led to changes in wayang kulit Shadow theatre of Javanese culture. They could not find the right materials to make the skin puppets. Their cuise changed because of the deprivation of right ingridients in Suriname. Javanese culture also changed in religion sphere during that period, because of the new adhancencies. In Java, they were praying towards east, since Mecca was there, however in Suriname they kept to pray towards east for a while after their recruitment. The first contact with some Hindustani Moslems, a part of them changed the direction to the east. Yet others kept praying towards west and this led to a cleavage between Javanese Moslems. They separated like Eastern Moslems and Western Moslems. Eastern Moslems became Reformists and Western Moslems became Traditionalists. After a while, among Western Moslems, some tendencies occurred to conversion to Christianity, Ateism and pure Kejawen Javanese religion which consist of Hindu-Buddhist elements as well as Islam.. Western Moslems believed that Eastern Moslems were in Arabization process and day by day going out of Javanese tradition and losing Javanese identity. According to Western Moslems, God was everywhere and they do not need to pray neccesarrily towards the east. (Ichwan 1999; Suparlan 1995, 86–90) Very first reason for Javanese people to come to Suriname and live within an ethnically plural society, is colonialism. In this period Javanese people were resisting to changes their culture. Apart from some cultural changes they experienced which caused by new adjacencies, they preserved their culture. Yet colonialism has not a short-lived impact over cultures. Colonialism is a process which has a legacy even long after its abolishment. (Oostindie 2008). Second period which was effective in Javanese culture, began with Second World War. From Second World War to Modern-Times (1945- ) Second World War had a dramatic impact on Javanese culture in short-term. First and foremost, it led to the urbanization of the Asian community, including Javanese peasants. Urbanization has changed the economic and social life of Javanese people. After the German invasion of the Netherlands, German navy came to the shores of Suriname. The Netherlands authorities made an agreement with the United States. United States would defend Suriname and take advantage of bauxite mines in Suriname. As a result of that, most of the Asian plantation workers left agriculture and went to the bauxite mines to earn more money. Surinamese economy had a huge boom. Most of the Asian peasants settled in big cities. Within that entire disturbance, Dutch aspiration to assimilate the Asian community compulsorily abandoned.(Dew 1978, 3–7) Second World War led to the urbanization. Big cities, especially the capital Paramaribo, became multhi-ethnic zones. (Bruijne 2005, 230) A huge portion of Javanese peasants settled in Paramaribo. The urban life was hard and Javanese people had no experience. In that period, prostitution rate, mostly within Javanese community, increased. (Dew 1978, 51–52) However most of the Javanese succeeded in cities. They generally dealth with trade by owning small shops and selling commodities peculiar to Java such as, batik, calico, sandals, gold-plated brooches, hairpins and bicycles. (Kroef 1951, 676) In this period, Creoles deepened their negative attitude to Javanese people because Javanese people were becoming a possible rival for Creole dominance. A common phrase that Creoles used for Javanese people is “Kan sang joe doe dja na foto, joe moe go na giang voe plani alesie” (Man what are you doing in town, you have to go to the country to plant rice”(Kroef 1951, 679) Naturally one might think that multi-ethnicity of the cities would led to the assimilation of Javanese. Yet, it was quite opposite. Javanese were not so conservative like they were in countryside but there were ethnic boundaries which even intensified in the city life. Javanese community were not assimilated or combined with other groups. However, the better educational conditions, caused to Westernization among Javanese people. Javanese students learned Dutch language and Sranan Tongo Creole language and lingua franca in Caribbean, a mixture of Dutch and Afrikaan. invebitably. They adopted Dutch-European practices of thrift, hardwork, educational advancement for their children and so on. (Bruijne 2005, 242; Dew 1978, 17–20) With the urbanization, Javanese attitudes to preserve their culture differentiated between older generation which still have conservative attitudes to favor their culture and the younger generation which educated and interested in Dutch-European values. A cleavage occurred between those two groups. Younger generation was thinking that their old traditions are reasons for mostly Creoles to ridicule them. (Kroef 1951, 672–677) However they were not adopting Creole tradition as well, instead they were being adapted to Dutch-European values more and more. The younger generation also started dealing with politics of Suriname. They were more concerning about Suriname rather then Indonesia contrast to their elders. The political endeavors of Javanese younger generation enhanced after 1980 revolution. During that time Javanese and Hindustanis made cooperation in political sphere. In contrast to them some other groups formed other parties aimed racial unity in the political sphere but their leaders were mostly Creoles and Javanese people had doubts about their neutrality. (Kroef 1951, 674–675) Urbanizations is led to Javanese culture evolve into the Dutch-Eurpean values. In addition to that, by the early years of twentieth century, Javanese culture in Suriname began to adopt global values, mostly American dominated ones. Before pointing out the effects of globalization on Javanese culture, it is necessary to mention globalization and its effects on localities. Globalization is basically enhancing interconnection and interdependance which characterize the material, economic, social and cultural life. Flows, such as commodities, people, information, ideas, as well as crime, disease, fashions, beliefs, images are passing transnationally in new “borderless” world. There is a huge connectivity provided by television, mobile phoes and internet. This also results in some changes in everyday life, such as eating habits, music, entertainment, experience, mobility, travel and so on. (Tomlinson 2007, 352) This globalization phenomenon generally causes a “global culture” and “unity of people” perceptions. However, globalization is not neccesarrily mean to generate uniformity in any sphere. (Tomlinson 2007) To understand that, it is necessary to focus on deterritorialization concept as a concomitant of globalization. Deterritorialization is basically thinking without territory. According to Arjun Appadurai, deterritorialization is the reason to occurance of different localities in the modern world, independent than territories in the framework of globalization. However the effect of globalization to localities does not mean the eradication of localities, on the contrary it crystallizes them. (Appadurai 1996) As Kaldor says; “Deterritorialization is not simply the loss of the experience of a local culture: it is not as though localities, and the particularities, nuances and differences they generate, suddenly and entirely disappear. Localities, on the contrary, thrive in globalization – this is the source of that often noted paradox that globalization tends to produce intensities in ethnic identification – even to the point of the violent contesting of local territory along ethnic lines.”(Kaldor 1999) As it is all around the world, with the beginning of globalization, transnational interconnectivity and interdependence within deterritorialization concept, increase in Suriname as well. In that athmosphere, Javanese culture is influencing dominantly from United States and Europe and to the lesser degree from any other flows. In the late 1800’s, Indonesian embassy established and began to be effective on Surinamese Javanese people. They organized Javanese and Indonesian language cources. Besides all (Bruijne 2005, 253) In 1985, Verenniging Herdenking Javaanse Immigratie (VHJI) was established. The main aim of the organization was to enhance Surinamese national awareness in general and keep Javanese culture alive in particular. While doing that, VHJI was working with Indonesian embassy and government. In VHJI, they initiated some cources each evening about Javanese traditional dance, gamelan, batik, pencak silat (martial art of Indonesia) to teach young generations about Javanese culture. However especially Javanese teenagers are not interested in that type of courses, even they do, it is temporary. Javanese people mostly come to the the center of VHJI, Sana Budaya, which established by the support of Indonesian leader Suharto, to listen pop-music by country’s popular multi-ethnic band, Kasimex. They prefer pop music to traditional Javanese music. Attendance to Javanese language courses also slight, other ethnic groups interested in Javanese course more then Javanese people. As Allen observed from her journey to Suriname, a teacher from Sana Budaya was trying to adapt “Poker Face” from Lady Gaga to gamelan, most probably to attract more Javanese. Javanese people day by day lose interest in playing gamelan or perform traditional Javanese dance. (Allen 2012, 209) Indonesia government was the supportive force for the establishment of VHJI and also organized many other activities such as trips to Indonesia, meetings in Suriname just to integrate Surinamese Javanese people to Indonesian Javanese people. However as it is obvious, somehow that huge endeavour is serving to “global” values. Families’ attitudes are changing as well. Today, Javanese people talk Dutch in school, Sranan Tongo with their friends and Javanese at home. Family’s attitude is losing power to teach their children Javanese, they saw Javanese as a burden. Instead of Javanese they prefer their children to learn English for their educational improvement. (Koesoebjono 1999) There are some developments in religious sphere as well. Younger Javanese are losing faith to their religion and Christianiy and atheism rising within Javanese people of Suriname. In addition to that, Kejawen is increasing among Javanese people. Around 30.000 people practice Kejawen in today’s Suriname. In 2000, Kejawen became an official religion of Suriname unlike Indonesia. On the contrary, Islam is losing power. As Allen mentions, Islam is no more a solid culture-signifier of Javanese people in Suriname, it is replacing by Kejawen.(Allen 2012, 217–218) However, it is important to mention here that, with the increasing conditions of transportation, generally from Indonesia, Pakistan and India, missioners frequently come to Suriname to be effective on Surianamese Moslem population. Yet, these missioners are blamed especially by Traditionalists to deepening the debates between Traditionalist and Reformist Javanese. (Suparlan 1995, 86–90) It shoul not be understood that Javanese people are becoming like Americans or the Netherlanders. In reality global flows led Javanese culture to change within Javanese people own peculiarity, independent than the territory. Nowadays over 70.000 Javanese active in simply every section of the work life such as health, teaching, private sector, arts. Some part of their culture such as food and especially Bami (fried noodles) and Nasi (cooked rice) are prevailing all around the country.(Maison 2013) There is just one differences they can eat Chinese food in Suriname as well as they can eat Bami or Nasi. The Javanese culture is changing since they were fist recruited to Suriname. (Koesoebjono 2000) However it would again be changing if they would stay in Indonesia. Only differences is that their culture is changed towards different direction because of mainly three pushes they experienced. Javanese people still have their culture but within a new dimention. So as Allen says “Being Javanese in Suriname is somewhat different than being Javanese” in Indonesia”(Allen 2012, 219) Conclusion In this study I tried to argue the culture change of Javanese in Suriname over three main pushes; colonialism, Second World War and globalization within basically two periods. To some extent Javanese culture is preserved, however it is not the same with the culture that Javanese people had, during their first landing to Suriname. Javanese people have not been assimilated to Dutch or Creole culture. Even if they influenced by them, the three pushes evolved them to influence from Western and dominantly American values. However, it can not be said that, Javanese culture in Suriname is just evolving to a Western culture. On the contrary, Javanese culture is changing but do not resembling completely to the Western ones. Bibliography Allen, Pamela. 2012. “Javanese Cultural Traditions in Suriname.” Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 45 (2011): 199–223. 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