INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INDONESIAN STUDIES SPRING 2016
Structuralism in Eastern Indonesia : An Origin for a Theory in the Social Sciences
Yancey Orr and Raymond I . Orr Biodata : Yancey Orr is an anthropologist at the University of Queensland . Biodata : Raymond I . Orr is a political scientist at the University of Melbourne . Abstract
Structuralism in anthropology is often attributed to Claude Lévi-Strauss and the ethnography of Amazonian tribes . Over a decade before Lévi-Strauss first published on the subject , the publication of van Wouden ’ s Sociale Structuurtypen in de Groote Oost in 1935 inspired a robust program of structuralist ethnographic studies in eastern Indonesia that has only recently slowed down . This article examines the key structuralist insights from ethnographies in Nusa Tenggara to demonstrate an alternative origin of one of anthropologies most important theories and the contribution that this part of Indonesia has made to social science and the study of culture .
Keywords : Structuralism , Nusa Tenggara , Leiden School , Asymmetric Connubium
Introduction Structuralism is often attributed to the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure or the myth and kinship analysis of Claude Lévi-Strauss . Over a decade before The Elementary Structures of Kinship ( 1949 ), Dutch colonial officials and anthropologists called the “ Leiden School ” developed a type of social analysis that could be categorized as structuralist . Though J . P . B . de Josselin de Jong was the central figure of the Leiden School because of his direct links to French and German traditions ( Otterspeer 1989 , pp . 307 ), it was his student , Van Wouden , who best codified this brand of structuralism in his Social Structure in Eastern Indonesia ( 1968 [ 1935 ]). The Leiden School held the view that all “ social phenomena are formerly rooted in the totality of culture ” ( van Wouden 1968 ; pp . 1 ) and used ethnographic evidence to demonstrate the nature of this totality . According to van Wouden and other Leiden Eastern Indonesianists , the totality of culture sprang from kinship and marriage rules which were the organizing principles of society , thought , art , mythology , belief , material culture , et omnia . In van Wouden ’ s introduction to Social Structure in Eastern Indonesia ( 1968 [ 1935 ]), their ambitious view of the explanatory power of marriage is succinctly explained :
We hope to be able to show that this marriage custom [ originally cross-cousin , but then an asymmetric marriage alliance emerged as the important category ] 13 is the pivot on which turns the activity of the social groups , the clans . The scheme of social categories thus found serves as the model for an
13
The insertion is my own and not the translators . 59 | P a g e