[Kabar-indonesia] 'Geertz' legacy 'still inspiring to the young generation'

[Joyo at aol.com]

The Jakarta Post
November 4, 2006

'Geertz' legacy 'still inspiring to the young generation'

American anthropologist Clifford James Geertz, 80, widely
known here for his extensive research on social
anthropology, died of complications on Monday (Tuesday in
Jakarta) following heart surgery at the Hospital of the
University of Pennsylvania.

He last servevd as Professor Emeritus in the School of
Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Studies,
Princeton, New Jersey.

Remembered by students among other traits as "humorous", he
once said in a 1999 lecture that summing up his career
"before God and Everybody is a bit of a humbug."

Geertz, who initially aspired to be a famous novelist, is
most known here for his division of Javanese society into
three groups:Abangan (syncretists), santri (devout Muslims)
and priyayi (feudal bureaucrats).

"It was from Geertz that scholars learned about religion in
Java," wrote a student of Islamic studies, Muhammad Ali in a
posting on the Internet in the wake of his death.

Apart from extensive research in East Java, he also
conducted studies in Bali and Sumatra in the 1950s.

Achmad Fedyani Saifuddin, editor-in-chief of Jurnal
Antropologi Indonesia, published by the University of
Indonesia (UI) said although the research was carried out
over 50 years ago ago it still is "a source of inspiration
to the younger generation."

Meanwhile, George Junus Aditjondro, lecturer in religion and
cultural studies at the postgraduate program at Sanata
Dharma University, Yogyakarta, said that Geertz' legacy was
to pioneer "the framing of Indonesia within a non-Marxian
perspective" for the purposes of a Weberian, cultural
analysis. Max Weber was a highly influential sociologist.

Aditjondro said in the 1960s the U.S. was seeking to balance
Marxian, class analysis of Indonesian society among others
by sociologist WF Wertheim.

Aditjondro, who studied sociology at Cornell University in
New York, says that even today the Geertz framework explains
the dominance of cultural analysis in the explanation of
conflict areas. In the case of the current situation in
Poso, Central Sulawesi, he said, such analysis would ignore
the interests of those seeking to control natural resources
there.

Born in San Francisco, Aug. 23, 1926, Geertz served in the
U.S. Navy in World War II. He received his bachelor's degree
in philosophy from Antioch College in 1950 and his Ph.D in
1956 from Harvard, where he had studied social anthropology.
Among his books are The Religion of Java (1960), Peddlers
and Princes (1963), Agricultural Involution: the process of
ecological change in Indonesia (1964), Islam Observed,
Religious Development in Morocco and Indonesia (1968), and
Negara: The Theater State in Nineteenth Century Bali (1980).

His former wife Hildred Geertz, Professor Emeritus in the
Department of Anthropology at Princeton University, is also
known here for her work on kinship in Javanese families.

Some of his books have been translated into over 20
languages.

Geertz is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and
scholarly awards.

He received the Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize (1992) and the
Bintang Jasa Utama (First Class Merit Star) from the
Indonesian government in 2002.

Over the years, he received honorary degrees from Harvard,
Yale, and Princeton universities, among others.

Dr. Geertz is survived by Hildred Geertz and his second
wife, Dr. Karen Blu, a retired anthropologist from the
Department of Anthropology at New York University.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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