Land, Ethnicity and the Competing Power Agrarian Dynamics in Forest Margin Communities in Central Celebes, Indonesia

Abstract

Framed with a concept of agrarian dynamics it is shown that agrarian structure is a socially-made structure. By analyzing two cases of villages situated at the forest margin Lore Lindu National Park in Central Celebes, it is shown that such an agrarian structure was constructed through a process of land-based powers competition between “indigenous” people namely Kaili and Kulawi in one side and the immigrant people particularly Bugis in the other side. As the Bugis peoples established their land-based economic power through process of land accumulation and conversion for cacao cultivation, the village heads found it their land-based powers were reduced. Concurrently, as the indigenous people faced the problem of land scarcity, the social tension apparently increased inside the village increased. In order to sustain their political power, and also to reduce the social tension, the village heads had reclaimed a part of forest area to be the villages area which is then distributed to the indigenous peoples. Such forest reclaiming had caused forest instability as a cost for social stability inside the village. Keywords: land, forest margin, agrarian structure, ethnicity, powe