Traditional economy

Indonesia is a country of ancient agricultural traditions. Ancestors of modern Indonesians developed agriculture as early as in the first centuries AD and it was mainly connected with rice growing. Indonesia was a major exporter of many types of agricultural products typical of the Tropical Zone. It took one of the leading places in the world according to the production of quinine, caoutchouc, agave, copra, palm-oil and other products.

The country’s lands are non-uniformly developed: on Java and Madura there’s not a single spot of non-cultivated land, while in other parts of the country only a small part of the area is cultivated. The Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese, Balinese and other peoples of the tropical belt have long used a light wooden plough with a metal sock without a mould-board. Sometimes a herd of buffalos was driven into a field that ploughed the land no worse than a tractor. The Dayaks, Toraja, inhabitants of the Nias Island, the Mantawai people, the Papua and other ethnic groups of the Lesser Sunda Islands and the Moluccas used mattocks and did not use irrigation. East Indonesia is inhabited by the so-called “grain-growers” – sago pickers; for them the sago palm is the main product. Inhabitants of coastal areas do sea fishing and sometimes combine it with agriculture. In difficult of access regions of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Irian Jaya hunters and collectors of wild roots, herbs and fruits lived until recent times.

Women at rice pounding. Indonesia, Sumatra. The Mandailing. Early 20th cent.		Young buffalo. Indonesia, Sulawesi (Celebes). Early 20th cent.		Fishing. Indonesia, Sulawesi (Celebes). Early 20th cent.
Tea gathering at  plantations Gunung Mas. Banit S. Indonesia, 1995		Rite of sea worship is always populous. Banit S. Indonesia, Cheribon. 1995		What would fortune bring into nets? Banit S. Indonesia, Java, 1995