IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bindes/v43y2007i2p251-264.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Clifford Geertz, 1926-2006: Meaning, Method And Indonesian Economic History

Author

Listed:
  • R. E. Elson

Abstract

Clifford Geertz was best known for his pioneering excursions into symbolic or in terpretive anthropology, especially in relation to Indonesia. Less well recognised are his stimulating explorations of the modern economic history of Indonesia. His thinking on the interplay of economics and culture was most fully and vigorously expounded in Agricultural Involution. That book deployed a succinctly packaged past in order to solve a pressing contemporary puzzle, Java's enduring rural poverty and apparent social immobility. Initially greeted with acclaim, later and ironically the book stimulated the deep and multi-layered research that in fact led to the eventual rejection of Geertz's central contentions. But the veracity or otherwise of Geertz's inventive characterisation of Indonesian economic development now seems irrelevant; what is profoundly important is the extraordinary stimulus he gave to a generation of scholars to explore Indonesia's modern economic history with a depth and intensity previously unimaginable.

Suggested Citation

  • R. E. Elson, 2007. "Clifford Geertz, 1926-2006: Meaning, Method And Indonesian Economic History," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 251-264.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:bindes:v:43:y:2007:i:2:p:251-264
    DOI: 10.1080/00074910701408081
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00074910701408081
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00074910701408081?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bindes:v:43:y:2007:i:2:p:251-264. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CBIE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.