Name : Nurul Hasmy Mallalahi

NPM : 18/434211/06375
Class : MAP Bappenas - Linkage
Subject : Contemporary Developmentalism Theories (Mid-Test)
Words : 2007 words

Postdevelopmentalism in Baduy Tribe

“Two Baduy dressed in white (the traditional color of the inner Baduy) arrived in his
office. He had never been in contact with the Baduy before, and to this day he wonders
why they chose to trust him and how they found him. Aware of the threats to their
culture, Pu'un (the head chief of Baduy tribe) requested a Dutch scholar in Java to
record their history.” (The Baduy of Java, Indonesia; Cultural Survivor Quarterly
Magazines)

Development theory began after the Second World War in 1940. After this era,
European countries are reconstructed and new countries are risen, especially in Asia and
Africa. Affected by this world phenomena, Indonesia also developing. The development which
is believed to be undeniable, influencing all of the cities and local communities in Indonesia.
To be develop claimed by the Western with means to be free and rational. Following the
Adam Smith theory, economic growth is very important, dictated the newly countries to
follow the experience of Western Countries.
This condition also affected to Baduy Tribe. Baduy tribe is one of traditional
communities in Indonesia who live deep in the remote Jungle of Mount Kendeng, Banten
Provence, West Java. In the area of 50
square, this population of 11,700 people
(depends on how they are counted)
isolated since the mid 1500s. Baduy tribe
live as their ancestors did, even though
they live in the area which only 150 km
from Jakarta as the capital city of
Indonesia, with the sign of modern
development. Moreover, to explore
Source: Summary of Sustainable Life of Baduy Tribe
Baduy, people should take a long difficult
routes walking since there is no any transportation there.

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 The name Baduy is given by people outside the baduy community itself, actually from
the Dutch researcher who think that Baduy is similar to the tribal community in Saudi Arabia.
The word Baduy is believed come from the term “Bedouin”, although other sources claim it
comes from a local river’s name. However, the name Baduy is rather “odd” to people in
Baduy, they prefer to call themselves Urang Kanekes. Urang means people in Sundanese,
while Kanekes is the name of their sacred territory located in the Kendeng Mountain.
Some Anthropologist think that Baduy people are descendants from priest of Java
Hindu Kingdom of Padjajaran who lived near Batutulis in Bogor when Moslem armies tried to
conquer in 1578 (even though there is no strong evidence to support this belief). Baduy
people wanted to form their own religion based on their own beliefs (already with some
influence from Hindu Religion of the Kingdom Padjajaran), before it was invaded by Moslem
religion. Therefore, even though Baduy people physical and linguistic resemblance to
Sundanese people, unlike Sundanese people with moslem majority, Baduy people have Sunda
Wiwitan as their religion.
Baduy tribe is divided into 2 (two) subgroups: Baduy Dalam (Inner Baduy) and Baduy
Luar (Outer Baduy). Baduy Dalam (who wear white attire), the holy members of the hierarchy,
have more restricted rules compared
to Baduy Luar (who wear black attire),
for example: they were not allow the
foreigners to meet them. Baduy Dalam
protect their community from external
influences to ensure the purity. In
contrast, Baduy Luar with more or less
28 villages in which represent the
Source: Baduy - Tribe - Culture – Traditions major population of Kenekes, still
accept Indonesian to enter the community within a limited contacts and condition that the
visitors should obey their rules of wisdom.
Knowing that colonialism has taken so much in new countries, there was a “white man
burden” moral obligation for the European during the World War period to help new
countries to become develop. Development constructed moral responsibilities for the under
develop and developing countries (including Indonesia) to follow the Western. Western
claimed that being modern is undeniable, with the Western become standard of modernity.

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Related to that matter, development thinking also affecting Baduy Tribe in the Dutch
colonialism until today.
In 1931, during the Dutch colonialism, Baduy saved from abandoning their homeland,
since the director of the West Indies Department of the Interior, refused to move them due
to the reason of continuing to protect their cultural heritage. In the villages located on the
border between the Forbidden Territory and the Sundanese settlements, Baduy people
always obey the rules set by their Pu’un (head chief of their custom tribes) in order to have a
harmony life together. Ed Davies of Reuters wrote: “Despite their proximity to the Indonesian
capital, the Baduy might as well be a world away as they live in almost complete seclusion,
observing customs that forbid using soap, riding vehicles and even wearing shoes” (Ed Davies,
Reuters, November 27, 2008] .
Development brought the idea regarding to culture and social structure shaped by the
institutional order. Therefore, after the Independent of Indonesia, there were some
government efforts to reconstructed Baduy into village or integrated them into larger society.
However, Baduy people refused outside concept of development, they believed to preserve
their own culture. The modernization theory which focus on education population, land
reform, and an adequate legal structure cannot be applied in Baduy community. As for the
education system brought by the Indonesian government, Baduy people believed that it was
against their traditional customs, even they refused when Soeharto was trying to force Baduy
people to build school in their territory. Baduy people believe that going to the field is the real
education for them. Resulting to that, until today only few people in Baduy able to read and
write.
In the 1980s, people started looking for new alternatives in development. Moreover,
in 1990s, people started to believe that development was a disaster and scholars tried to find
alternative tools to development. Those scholars, wanted to change not only the means of
development, but also the ends. They argued that there are many other ways for developing,
since development is a matter of economic growth. This was the beginning of
postdevelopmentalism era with idea that the more third world people and countries try to
catch up with the development, the more left behind they are.
Postdevelopmentalism scholars did not believe development theory, however they
did not have new concept to replace that. Therefore, they believed everyone has their own
way to develop with local authority/pluralism and simple living. In his book, Peet (2015)

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mentions the contribution of Anthropologist to criticized modernization as a destruction in
some aspects, especially for understanding the indigenous life. The postdevelopmentalism
theory brought change to the field, somehow it provides to see the development which is
good at the institution level, yet not always beneficial for its people.
The idea of postdevelopmentalism is radical pluralism with the spirit of “think globally,
act locally” and simple living which refers to economic production and consumption matters
in non-capitalist societies. In other words, the postdevelopmentalism rejects the way of
thinking and mode of living of Western modern development.
One of the most well-known scholar on the postdevelopmentalism theory is Escobar.
Escobar felt development was, unavoidably, a simultaneous act of cultural imperialism, with
its language domination and sporadic norms and value judgements. However, recent
postdevelopmentalism thinkers share the same interest in local autonomy and culture, and
defend pluralistic grassroots movement which means encouraging local communities rooted
in their local identities to address their own problems.
According to that, Baduy people with their own standard of living, already have
postdevelopmentalism paradigm with its people as their own agents. This concept, adopted
by Baduy tribe, without they even realize and understand what postdevelopmentalism is. A
forced societal changes toward the Baduy tribe, which did and believed by Indonesian
government in order to make Baduy tribe better and becoming more modern, was difficult to
be absorbed by the community. Baduy people live in a very peaceful way of living without
outside world standard of social system.
There are three aspects of life that are created by Baduy: social and cultural system,
economical system based fulfilling their daily life, and environment management system. This
three aspects are managed by them in order to achieve the sustainability of their life. In Baduy
society, there is no rich people, and no poor people as well. People in Baduy live their lives
just like one another. They do not know and care about economic crisis and events outside
their world.
For bonding between the traditional life and the surround area which is in modern
situation, people in Baduy established administration structures which combine custom
structure and national government structure. Another unique characteristic of Baduy people
is that they always keep one step ahead from the government. They built a symbolic mosque
on their territory, which believed by the ethnomusicologist and scholars only to reduce

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government pressure of integrating Baduy people to Sundanese, modern education, and
introduce them to Islam. Also, when population was taken, Baduy people already had their
answer available. They give 5000 figures number of the whole Kanekes people, while the
actual numbers are kept in secret.
Despite social and cultural changes related to modernization that people in all over
the world have experienced throughout the centuries, Baduy people keep maintaining their
ancestors tradition, yet their future is still their major concern. This is why, they (especially
the Baduy Luar) started to be more open
to the changes. The way people in Baduy
react to the modern influence of their
surroundings is to adjust them into their
own local wisdom. For example, Baduy
Luar wear colorful sarongs, trousers, and
shirts provided by their Sundanese
neighbors. They also start to be affected
with money as their exchange value.
They sell their heritage blue-black cloth, Source: Isolated Indonesia tribe immune to global crisis

sarongs, honey and palm sugar to buy salted fish and other things that they cannot produce.
They use technology, such as electricity and battery, and being hired hand in the farming
season.
However, there are some taboos in Baduy relating to defending themselves against
invasion, such as: they may not grow wet rice field, use fertilizers, use modern tools for
working ladang soil, or keep large domestic animals. Baduy people also absorb many mystical
taboos, they are forbidden to kill, steal, lie, commit adultery, get drunk, eat food at night,
wear flowers or perfumes, and etc. Sometimes, the leader from Baduy Dalam do surprise
visits to the villages (especially in Baduy Luar) to make sure that his people are not breaking
too many taboos.
Anthropologists believed that Baduy still have to be forced to “progress”, since it is
still very difficult to enter Kanekes and have the holistic information about the Baduy tribe.
They questioned how long the Baduy tribe defense toward development can be effective.
Already, the outer Badui have frequent contact with the outside world. As a result, some of
them are confused about their identity.

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 Nevertheless, if the government is successful in establishing its educational system,
Baduy culture will be destroyed. The development project of the government is not
committed to the welfare of Baduy society, but rather is motivated by ideological reasons
based on Islamisation and centralized state. The present religious, economic and political
system introduced by the government cannot offer them a significantly better existence than
the one they have established in Kanekes. Taken from Summary of Sustainable Life of Baduy
Tribe Community article, one of Baduy leaders stated, “In exact modernization will bring us in
idleness and ingratitude sense for what God has already given to us. We will be oblivious to
this universe when we consider that we are modern and great”.

REFERENCES

Book
Peet, Richard and Elaine Hartwick. 2015. Theories of Development. New York: The Guilford
Press)

Websites
Baduy - Tribe - Culture – Traditions
(https://factsofindonesia.com/baduy-tribe)
Davis, Ed. 2008. Isolated Indonesia tribe immune to global crisis in Reuters
(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-tribe/isolated-indonesia-tribe-
immune-to-global-crisis-idUSTRE4AR02I20081128)
Escobar, Arturo: A post-development thinker to be reckoned with
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/nov/05/arturo-escobar-
post-development-thinker
Facts and Details: Baduy
(http://factsanddetails.com/indonesia/Minorities_and_Regions/sub6_3c/entry-
4002.html)
Sustainable Life in Baduy Tribe
(http://esd-j.org/english/wp/wp-
content/uploads/2017/12/e0e4ea8706057d5f20963e6ce2db2e1e.pdf)
The Baduy of Java, Indonesia in Cultural Survival Quarterly Magazine
(https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/badui-
java-indonesia)