Rukun Kampung : social relations in urban Yogyakarta

Abstract

This thesis analyzes social relations in Rukun Kampung (RK) : Jogoyudan, an administrative unit within the city of Yogyakarta, central I Java. Jogoyudan is located near the city centre along a river gully, and includes three levels of streetside, riverbank and riverflat which correspond to distinct social strata within the RK population. After tracing the interaction of streetside and riverbank people over the last half-century (Chapter 2), the thesis focuses on social relations within and between the two strata of riverbank and riverflat, who together comprise the kampung population of Jogoyudan. Chapters 3-5 examine relations within ward and neighbourhood communities, where rukun 'social harmony' provides an important security for individual residents. Although frequently characterized as one undifferentiated category of 'little people', kampung, and particularly riverbank, people recognize among themselves differences of social rank according to indices of age, nobility, origin, landed property, and occupation. In contrast, the riverflat squatters, the focus of the next section (Chapter 6), regard these indices of social rank as irrelevant within their own group. The alternative values they espouse and their insistence on their own intrinsic equality with other kampung residents are reminders to fellow ward and neighbourhood members on the riverbank of their reciprocal obligations in the preservation of 'social harmony'. The final section (Chapter 7-9) examines the nature of individual 'equanimity' and 'social harmony' as the professed goals of kampung residents. Residents of high social rank have special obligations of leadership and generosity towards others in their community. High social esteem stems from an individual's performance within the community as I well as from his rank. Socio-economic differences are thus the basis for ordering the mutual obligations of residents. The strength of rukun within the kampung community lies in the successful integration of the otherwise contradictory principles of stratification and egalitarianism. Show more