ABSTRACT
Many scholars have sought recourse in the concept of "agricultural involution" in explaining Java's seemingly unending capacity for absorbing larger numbers of laborers within its already densely populated rural economy. This chapter provides some new insights on the dynamics of agricultural change in Java. It examines the concept of involution and its adequacy in explaining certain continuities with respect to the structure of rural society, whereas the remainder of the analysis undertakes an examination of involution theory in terms of its relevance in explaining more recent evidence on the character of agricultural change within rural Java. Clifford Geertz extended his ideas of involution from the rice fields to just about all activities in rural Javanese villages, especially in the low-land, well-irrigated sugar cane areas. A major oversight on the part of Geertz is the fact that he apparently does not include off-farm labor by farmers in his analytical framework.
