Reconsidering the Cultural Geographies ofState and non State Spaces

Abstract

In Indonesia, the societies have a long history as a runaway society
and fugitive from the state-making projects. Many historical accounts prove
that people escape from the state projects, such as corvee labor, wars,
diseases and epidemics, conscriptions, slavery, taxes, violence, warfare,
diseases, and poverty. In general, this paper describes the state-society
relations and examines the meaning of the non-governed society. This paper
questions what distinguishes between govern and non-governed society,
what kind of social economy and cultural life of non-governed society that
distinguishes from a governed state? To answer these questions, this paper
explores the distinction of the governed and the non-governed society,
which live in the different geographical areas. This paper explains the
distinctions and frictions between lowland and highland society in
Indonesia, in terms of social economy, kinship, political organization, and
religion. In the last reflection, the author argues that non governed society
is not only people who live in the upland and far from the centralized
bureaucracy, rather they also live in the middle of dense population of a
town and even under a most centralized and autocratic regime.