One of the most widely held views about Indonesia, and especially Java, in the nineteenth century was that such economic growth as occurred did not benefit the mass of the indigenous population, whose living standards almost certainly declined. Many scholars have drawn attention to the evidence that per capita rice production fell after 1880 as proof that living standards were definitely falling in the last two decades of the century, while others have not hesitated to draw the bolder conclusion that living standards declined almost continually after 1800:One theme stands out most prominently in Javanese society during this time: the theme of involution and reaction…. Despite the promises of the changing colonial policies to further the individual welfare of the Javanese, conspicuously little was done in this regard. Instead the Javanese farmer became gradually more impoverished throughout the whole of the nineteenth century, with a particularly severe drop in living standards in the second half of the liberal period (1885–1900).

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022463400000588

Living Standards and the Distribution of Income in Colonial Indonesia: A Review of the Evidence

This paper seeks to test the assumption of the microeconomic theory of fertility that the economic value of children is a factor influencing fertility behavior of parents in peasant societies. On the basis of anthropological investigation in one village in Java and one in Nepal, the average amount of time spent by children in different types of activities-both household-maintenance and directly productive-is estimated directly. The support provided by the children to their elderly parents is assessed primarily by examining the pattern of residential arrangements. Anthropological techniques of repeated interviews and direct observation were used to collect the data. Important findings include the following: (1) The work input of children under 15 in both villages is sufficiently substantial to suggest that, at the current rate of reproduction and under the present circumstances, they probably have net positive economic value to their parents, aside from the support they provide toparents during old age. (2) In both villages, girls do more work than boys in almost all age-groups. (3) The work input of children with two or more siblings is higher than that of children with 0-1 sibling. (4) The correlation coefficient between the total work input of children and the balance of income over food expenditure in households is significant. (5) Most elderly persons in both villages are living either with their children or near them. (6) The pattern of actual reproductive behavior in the Javanese and Nepalese villages may be regarded as a mechanism which enable the parents to achieve a relatively large number of surviving children while avoiding the extreme pressure on the household economy that would result from uncontrolled fertility.

An Anthropological Approach to the Study of the Economic Value of Children in Java and Nepal

This paper seeks to test the assumption of the microeconomic theory of fertility that the economic value of children is a factor influencing fertility behavior of parents in peasant societies. On the basis of anthropological investigation in one village in Java and one in Nepal, the average amount of time spent by children in different types of activities-both household-maintenance and directly productive-is estimated directly. The support provided by the children to their elderly parents is assessed primarily by examining the pattern of residential arrangements. Anthropological techniques of repeated interviews and direct observation were used to collect the data. Important findings include the following: (1) The work input of children under 15 in both villages is sufficiently substantial to suggest that, at the current rate of reproduction and under the present circumstances, they probably have net positive economic value to their parents, aside from the support they provide toparents during old age. (2...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2741995

An Anthropological Approach to the Study of the Economic Value of Children in Java and Nepal [and Comments and Reply]

This paper suggests why the intensification of agriculture is associated with a relative decline in women's participation in agriculture. The statistical evidence described here is consistent with the theory that women contribute relatively less to agriculture when it becomes intensive because their domestic work and fertility have increased. It is also argued that most men may be able to contribute more to agriculture in societies cultivating intensively because hunting, warfare, and trade are not so likely to pull them away from crop production [women's contribution to subsistence, agricultural intensification, time allocation, fertility, cross-cultural]

https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1983.85.2.02a00020

The Relative Decline in Women's Contribution to Agriculture with Intensification

This monograph represents 15 years of personal experience and research into the medical and anthropological literature of giving birth and breast feeding. Factors which determine success and warn of the path that leads to failure of breast feeding are explained. The period of transition to childbirth for mothers is termed "matrescence." Over 250 cultures were surveyed for their types of ceremonies used during the matrescence transition period. The results indicate that this period is one when support for the mothers well-being is central to her ability to breast feed. The support comes from the "doula" a woman who assists a newly delivered mother by aiding her during the perinatal period. In another study it was found that the incidence of postpartum breakdown increased with the actual distance in miles of the new mother from her own mother sister or close friend. Misconceptions about breast feeding are discussed as well as the physical nature of breast feeding. Advantages and disadvantages of breast feeding are discussed in terms of the relationship between mother and baby initiation of breast milk infection and convenience of breast feeding. Examples of breast feeding adopted babies are emphasized from the authors own experience. From several studies and surveys the common denominater for success in breast feeding is the assurance of some degree of help from some specific person for a definite period of time after childbirth. The use of a "doula" is emphatically emphasized and guidelines are given for their responsibilities and training. Referral services for mothers who are planning to breast feed are listed and discussed as to their value to new mothers.

Demographic Consequences of Infanticide in Man

Population growth in Java paralleled the development of a colonial economy based on the production of export crops using Javanese land and labor. The increase in population may be interpreted as a demographic response to demand for labor within the family, created by the need to intensify subsistence production in the face of colonial demands on land, labor, and produce.

Demand for labor and population growth in colonial Java

Famine control, better hygiene, and fewer wars, referred to by Clifford Geertz (1973) and Etienne van de Walle (1973) in their comments on my article "Demand for Labor and Population Growth in Colonial Java" (White, 1973), are undoubtedly conducive to population growth, but they seem inadequate as explanations of Java's population growth if the Javanese, like most other peoples of the world, have had always at their disposal various methods (both technical and social) of counteracting their influence. It therefore seemed important to ask why none of these alternatives were adopted and to examine the possibility that although population growth contributed to the impoverishment of successive generations of Javanese, the production of large numbers of children might have remained an economic imperative for successive generations of Javanese parents; for it is parents, after all, who make fertility decisions if any such decisions are made. In examining this possibility, I was criticized by Geertz for brushing aside the increasingly, complex interrelationships of the evolving, or stagnating, Javanese ecosystem in my blind and apparently unsuccessful search for the holy grail of Coontz' "demand for labor." Far from denying the importance of such interrelationships (and I apologize for major omissions in my attempt to summarize others' descriptions of them), I tried to follow the not uncommon ecological practice of examining the effects of the evolution of the total system on a single variable within that system, namely, the demand for children as potential laborers at the level of the family. I postulated that the removal of land, labor, or produce from the subsistence sector made it necessary for the Javanese to increase production on the remaining land despite the loss of adult labor; the response was the spread of irrigation (aided by the Dutch), the adoption of more labor-intensive methods, and the emergence of a high level of dry-season palawidja production. Both van

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Demand for labor and population growth in colonial Java

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