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SUNDANESE 729
the defeat of the Sumatran kingdom, Srivijaya, by the Javanese kingdom, Singhawari.
Srivijaya had controlled the Banten area of West Java and maintained a
port there. With Srivijayan power gone, Pajajaran took control of the area and
some of its trade.
Islam first was brought to Java in the fifteenth century by Indian traders who
had been converted on the trade routes between Egypt and the Spice Islands.
Muslim influence was thus first felt in the harbor areas from where it spread.
Banten, in northwest West Java, was Islamized by 1525. In 1579, the Sultan of
Banten killed the royal family at Pakuan and forced the nobles and officials to
adopt Islam.
Before long West Java fell under the hegemony of the central Javanese Muslim
kingdom of Mataram, and shortly thereafter European interest in the area altered
the course of history. Parts of West Java became important in the Dutch plantation
system. An Islamic holy war against the Dutch was waged in 1880, but failed.
A similar occurrence came after World War II, when the Dar ul-Islam movement
attempted unsuccessfully to establish an Islamic state.
To be a Sundanese villager is, ideally, to be a rice farmer. The non-Islamic
rituals and myths pertaining to growing rice are also the rituals and myths of
settled life—of being Sundanese. Yet many village households do not own
enough rice land to provide all the daily necessities. The average rice landholding
is small, and nearly all villagers engage in small trade, crafts, seasonal farm
labor or service occupations besides farming. Cash is in chronically short supply
in the villages, as these activities usually bring only small rewards. Other crops
grown on dry land include corn, root crops, chili peppers and tobacco, which
are often sold in the market. Coastal areas tend to have mixed economies of
rice, fishing and/or fish farming.
Sundanese kinship has not been well studied. Descent is reckoned bilaterally
and seems to contain traces of an ancient veneration of ancestors. While many
persons may be recognized as kinsmen, this has not led to the formation of large
corporate kingroups. Relationships beyond the second ascending generation and
the first degree of collaterality are seldom recognized among the peasants. Some
high status villagers, however, are aware of genealogies linking them with illustrious
ancestors. The basic kingroup is the nucelar family, which ideally lives
in its own home on its own land. Where money and land are in short supply, a
married son or daughter may live temporarily in the home of the parents.
While emphasis is on the independent nuclear family, residence tends to be
matrilocal with the households of married daughters clustered near or around
the parental house, available land permitting. The parental house ideally is
inherited by the youngest daughter, who stays home after marriage to care for
her parents. Other additions to the nuclear family may include an aged parent
or a destitute relative. These, according to the Sundanese value system, must
be cared for by the relatives who are in a better financial position.
In the past, marriage was arranged by the parents of a couple. Today, however,
young people make their own choices, although parental approval still is nee-