Pekajangan : religion, textile production and social organization in a Javanese village

Abstract

The research on which this study is based was initially prompted by an interest in Javanese batik and weaving. I wished to describe how, in the context of a village community, such articles were made and to review their importance in community life. Pekajangan, the village of North Central Java in which I lived for six months from June to December 1976, is a particularly interesting community. Bearing a long tradition of batik-making and weaving its inhabitants regard textile production rather than farming, as the main occupational category. Two important features of this tradition have been the Pekajangan Textile Co-operative (the Koperasi Batik Pekajangan founded in 1937) and the PekaJangan Branch of the Muslim Reform movement Muhamrnadiyah (formed in 1922). Both have influenced the growth of this tradition and consequently the overall structural development of Pekajangan. In this thesis I endeavour to describe the way this has occurred.