Weapons of the Weak- Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance by James C Scott

Author:James C Scott [Scott, James C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781597409940
Publisher: ACLS Humanities E-Book
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

BENDING THE FACTS: STRATIFICATION AND INCOME

The normative context is just that: a context and not a straightjacket. It provides the setting for conflict between winners and losers in Sedaka. The parties to this conflict are all bricoleurs with a given set of tools or a set of variations on themes that are, for the time being, largely given. Those themes include the normative expectations that those who are comparatively well-off should be generous to [Page 199] their less-well-off neighbors and kin, that such generosity should take nondemeaning (tolong) forms, and that neither rich nor poor should conduct themselves in an arrogant or shameful manner. Just who is well-off, just how generous they should be, just what forms their generosity should take, just which forms of help are compatible with dignity, and just what behavior is arrogant and shameful are questions that form the substance of the drama.

Within these broad confines, both rich and poor have developed working strategies designed to make the normative principles serve their interests as much as possible.23 The rich, whose interests are most directly threatened by these values, attempt to bend them so as to minimize their obligations and to place themselves in the most favorable light. Of course, at some level, they are increasingly able simply to impose themselves-to use machines, to forego taking on tenants and laborers, to trim back their ceremonial and charitable burdens. They are, however, concerned with justifying their behavior, not only to others but to themselves, for they too work within the same moral confines. For the village poor, somewhat less bending and squeezing of existing understandings is necessary, if only because these understandings already work, symbolically at least, to their advantage. They seek, more straightforwardly, to maximize the obligations due them under the existing rules.

The more or less constant ideological struggle that ensues is fought out, always inconclusively, on several terrains. One such terrain, the central one in some respects, is the terrain of stratification and income. Unless it is first known who is rich and who is poor and just how rich and poor they are, it is impossible to evaluate their conduct. Thus the first issue, the first terrain of conflict, is precisely over the facts that, once established, form the framework in which social expectations are played out.

The resounding and insistent battle cry of Sedaka’s wealthy families across this terrain is, “We are not rich.” It is repeated and repeated in a bewildering, but consistent variety of forms-forms that go well beyond mere modesty. For example, the rich are never caught referring to themselves, individually or collectively, by the term “rich” (kaya). In fact, they only rarely use even the term senang, or “comfortable,” which is most often applied to the modestly well-off in the village. To take what they say about their economic status purely at face value would lead to the conclusion that they were barely making ends meet. [Page 200] Thus, they typically describe themselves as having enough to eat (boleh makan) or just enough to eat (boleh makan sahaja).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.