ABSTRACT
The village community was essential in the formation and development of the traditional Southeast Asian state. As the center of economic and social life, the village developed basic patterns of organization that not only governed day-to-day activities but also had a major impact on the general community. Basic governance at the village level was conducted by the council, known variously as the village council, council of elders, or council of notables. Village governance has often been represented as consensual and democratic. An integral part of village self-sufficiency was the traditional emphasis on communalism, which reached beyond common labor on communal lands. Customary law represented the sum of traditions, current practices, and taboos governing behaviors in the village community. Neither kinship groups nor ethnic groups represented intermediate or transition stages in state formation, and in some situations, both groups seem to have inhibited state building.
