Where Have the"Entrepreneurs"Gone? A Historical Comment on Adat in Central Flores

Abstract

This article presents an historical analysis carried out in order to understand the present state of adat (custom or customary law) in central Flores, eastern Indonesia. By exploring the vast network of causal nexuses that have brought the present into existence, this study aims to elucidate what the present, or a certain phenomenon observed in the present, really is. Here I deal selectively with certain parts of that network of causes and effects. Specifically, I explicate how the present state of adat in central Flores is causally connected with (1) the slave trade and warfare that took place in central Flores until the early 20th century, (2) Dutch colonial rule, which prohibited both slavery and warfare, and (3) the "development" policy that the Soeharto government executed from the 1970s until its downfall in 1998. I have chosen this focus not only for reasons of space, but also because doing so makes it possible to comprehend aspects of the present state of adat that were not conceived of in the "development" discourse that took place during Soeharto's New Order and have not been conceived of in the current political circumstances surrounding adat.