Geographic Variation and Changing Economic Status in Two Javanese Villages

Abstract

This study details the developmental path observed in two villages over the last decade. In essence, it is a test of developmental theory in action expressed in terms of village responses t o internal constraints and external inputs over time. During the last decade in East Java, there has been a major change in attitude towards development. The villagers are now physically moving in a wider and less territorial world. The initial successes of the green revolution have been followed by many local personal innovations. The villagers' traditional fear of change has been replaced by an active search for social and technological innovations. This study identifies examples of past and present changes.The two villages and 30 villagers described were selected as representative of rich and poor villages in Malang Kabupaten in East Java. In the initial study, after examining 20 villages, we declded t o study those same ones Bennett (1957) had selected as representative of landuse types. The two extreme types detailed here are richer and poorer, respectively, than the average Javanese village.We first went t o the villages with elaborate plans for selection of a stratified random sample. Sufficient data were not available to stratify so it was decided to sample every fifth house. This approach resulted in a strong bias with more wealthy than poor families accepting our requests. Therefore, each village chief was asked to assist in the selection of a representative list of 20 villagers in his village. After interviewing all the selected villagers, we chose 18 families in each village removing four families who appeared to be too wealthy. These remaining families had mean landholdings very close to the median size for the village.