“REVOLUSI COKELAT” Social Formation, Agrarian Structure, and Forest Margins in Upland Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper examines the sociological implications of a fundamentally rapid change in rural ecology due to the rapid expansion of cocoa cultivation which is labeled as “Revolusi Cokelat” (cocoa revolution). As exemplified by the case of Sintuwu, a village in upland Sulawesi, such a revolution implies a radical change of local social formation, indicated by the shift of the dominant mode of production from subsistence production, which is the domain of the “indigenous people” (the Kaili), to the petty commodity (capitalist) one, which is the domain of mainly the “comer people” (the Bugis). Consequently, the revolution implies the fundamental change of the local agrarian structure through which the Kaili people have been downgraded from “landed” to “landless”, while the Bugis have been upgraded from “landless” to “landed”. Moreover, as the cocoa plantation becomes the main base of socio-economic security, such a change in the agrarian structure implies both the decrease of socio-economic security among the Kaili and the increase of such security among the Bugis. This condition has led the Kaili peoples to solve the socioeconomic insecurity by encroaching on the forest margin inside of the Lore Lindu National Park as an alternative basis of socio-economic security. By reclaiming the forest area and covering it with cocoa plantation, the Kaili peoples, to some extent, have succeeded in overcoming the problem of access to land resource as well as the problem of socio-economic security. Keywords: “revolusi cokelat”, social formation, mode of production, agrarian structure, socio-economic security, forest margin.