ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns the formation of a peasantry in the uplands of Langkat regency (kabupaten) on the east coast of the province of North Sumatra. The area is dominated by state and privately owned rubber, oil-palm and tobacco plantations. Karo Batak inhabited these uplands before Western entrepreneurs began plantations there around 1870. The Karo, living literally on the “margins” of the plantations, survived the booming plantation economy as peasants. A majority of them now earn a living as independent rubber smallholders.
