Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

and indigenous Filipino values. The second concerns a lifestyle of conspicuous
consumption, which, on the one hand, denotes newly found affluence and
heightened social standing, yet, on the other, is commonly the subject of
denigration. These two representations constitute the cultural battleground in
which the old and new rich seek ascendancy. While the social divide between new
and old rich is shown to be a good deal more problematic than these
representations suggest, an important conclusion is that significant hegemonic
weight has shifted behind the ‘new rich’, and that this has as much to do with the
reconstruction of Philippine nationalism as it does with the internal struggles over
the accumulation of wealth.
The chapters that make up this collection do not pretend to offer an exhaustive
coverage of the Asian region. Rather, they deal with a range of settings, themes
and issues in such a way as to provide insight into actors and processes that are
shaping the Asian region as a whole, as well as particular localities within it. As is
evident from the two complementary chapters set in both Indonesia and Malaysia,
there are also different insights to be drawn from studies set at the level of the
nation or large city, and others set at the village or enterprise level. One of the
major strengths of the collection is both its documentation of local and national
differences, and its concern with broader processes of change centred on the social
and cultural constructions of the new rich. Together, the eleven chapters in this
volume map out an empirical and conceptual terrain that is largely new to the
Asian region. While the arguments and subject-matter of individual contributors
vary substantially, there is broad consensus that the new rich stand at the heart of
contemporary change in Asia. There is also agreement among the contributors
that an understanding of the new rich, and the social relations in which they are
founded, calls for both detailed ethnography as well as an approach that draws
simultaneously on cultural analysis and political economy.
Michael Pinches
1998
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