Pranata mangsa has been recognized as a Javanese agricultural calendar that dates to ancient times. While recent studies have presented pranata mangsa as one of the key elements of Javanese traditional ecological knowledge in agriculture; historical documents show Dutch influence of the calendar’s evolution back to the nineteenth century.

This talk will examine the emergence of pranata mangsa as a standardized calendar in the mid-nineteenth century. Building upon archival data mostly in Javanese and Dutch, Perkasa will demonstrate how a Javanese ruler employed this calendar to legitimize his reign, alongside a Dutch scholar who endeavored to translate this knowledge into a scientific calendar. Thus, transforming it from a seasonal guideline to plant rice into a tool to regulate and control rice cultivation. The colonial administration disseminated this calendar widely, particularly to educate farmers in Java and Indonesia through the Agricultural Extension Service.

This talk will also analyze the impact of this uniform calendar on the marginalization of other calendars and local knowledge of seasons.

Speaker

Adrian Perkasa is a postdoctoral researcher at KITLV. His research is about 'Pranata Mångsa, a Javanese agricultural calendar: Cultural heritage and the politics of knowledge (re)production'. Furthermore, his project involves inventorying and researching the histories, practices, and uses of Pranata Mångsa and other grass-roots knowledge about agricultural calendars and seasons in Java.

Discussant

Tody Utama is a PhD researcher at the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society, Leiden University, and a lecturer in adat (customary) Law at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia. He is interested in law and society issues, particularly in the areas of customary law, vulnerable groups, and legal pluralism. His current research explores the instrumentalization of customary law and institutions by the Indonesian government, focusing on the socio-political context and the strategies used by national and regional institutions to recognize, incorporate, and utilize adat. Previously, he was involved in research projects on the recognition of Indigenous communities, the legalization of customary tenure, and the intersections of adat with gender and disability. Some of his work is available here.

Moderator

Wigke Sukmana Putri is a PhD researcher in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (CADS) at Leiden University and KITLV. Her research focuses on enriching refusal theory and methodology concerning ecological future-making involving more-than-human entities in Java, Indonesia. Additionally, her work and activism encompass political ecology, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), Indigenous peoples, gender issues, and LGBTQ topics. 

Format, date, time & venue

This seminar is a hybrid event and will be held in the conference room of KITLV, Herta Mohr building, room 1.30, Witte Singel 27 A, Leiden and online via Zoom, on Thursday 22 May from 15.30 – 17.00 PM (CET).

Registration

Join on location @ KITLV 

Join online via Zoom

UUKS

This seminar is part of the monthly Unraveling Unconventional Knowledge Systems (UUKS) seminar series. The UUKS seminar series delves into the intricate and multifaceted relationship between human, non human and environtment, including spiritual worlds, within various ecological landscapes. The seminar series puts the role of unconventional knowledge systems central, such as traditional ecological knowledge, centuries old institutions which preserve and still use the knowledge and present day agencies furthering the process of knowledge evolution. 

Image

A sawah in the Wilis region, East Java, and the first manuscript of Pranata Mangsa. 

Flyer