2013/01/01 by Robert Wessing · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Agriculture #Ancient history #Archaeology #Asian Studies and History #Charge (physics) #Cultural and Religious Practices in Indonesia #History #Law #Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies #Political science #Politics #Sociology
paper · pdf · doi:10.4000/moussons.2406
openalex publication_date 2013/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
In the past communities in East Java coordinated their agricultural activities, including fulfilling the people’s ritual obligations to the tutelary spirit charged with maintaining the fertility of the community’s lands. The person in charge of this was the community’s founder or one of his/her descendants, the member of the line that first entered into a relationship of obligations with the spirit-owner of the village’s lands. In the past fifty years political, agricultural, and religious developments have brought about changes in the way that these ritual obligations are fulfilled. Today the entity addressed, if the old ritual obligations are met at all, is often characterized as the rice goddess or God. This is facilitated by the idea that spirit-entities belong together categorially, and the aspect emphasized depends on the needs of the moment.