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

KEN YOUNG 73
in the context of social interaction. Fluency and understanding tend to follow the
earlier stages of mastering patterns and learning the contexts in which it is
appropriate to use them. Like language, the codes of behaviour for consumption
are generative structures, so that, once mastered, they can be used to create
original but appropriate responses in novel situations. But these codes, especially
the globalised codes of middle-class consumption, are invariably acquired in
particular cultural and historical contexts, so that consumption practices found in
major cities around the world acquire quite specific meanings in different local
situations (Friedman 1994: ch. 8). Thus the paradoxical counterpart of the
apparently homogenising influences of global commercialisation is the generation
of local particularisations of the same set of symbolic codes. The processes of
enculturation are less simple than they appear at first glance.
The malls of Jakarta are clearly designed for the new rich, Yet they are open to
all. In principle, anyone who is prepared to pay the cost of shopping there is
welcome. While the specialised fashion and jewellery shops are beyond the
financial reach of most Indonesians, there are department stores and food outlets
that are accessible to large numbers of people who are not especially rich. It might
then be thought that there are levelling and democratising forces at work here
alongside those that demonstrate social differentiation. This is only partly true at
best. Certainly there is the tendency long recognised by sociologists for marginal
and lower groups to participate by buying mass-produced elite goods, or close
copies of them, while the elite move on to create new and exclusive definitions of what
is fashionable (Simmel 1904; Chua 1992). Further, just as sugar, tea, coffee,
tobacco and other consumption goods were once luxuries affordable only by the
wealthy, so too is there a frequent movement of elite goods into goods of mass
consumption (Mintz 1985). The mobility of’ the market should not disguise the fact
that shopping precincts are as differentiated as housing estates. The price of goods
is only one of the mechanisms of exclusion. Chua Beng Huat, in a study of
women’s fashion shops in Singapore, documents the methods by which exclusive
shops operate in public places, yet maintain themselves as preserves for
consumers from higher elite groups (Chua 1992:119). He notes how the windows
and doors intimidate browsers. He further observes (1992:119):
The setting is intimidating in its emptiness; the emptiness being itself a
measure of exclusivity. As soon as one passes the glass doors, one is
immediately the centre of attention of the salespeople, for there are generally
more staff than clients in the shop and anyone not used to such attention can
only respond with nervousness. Occasionally, an inadvertent browser may
break the seal and wander into the shop, only to be shocked by the price
tags on the display items and beat a hasty retreat out of the shop without
uttering a word.
The mechanisms Chua Beng Huat describes for Singapore are to be found in
Jakarta and elsewhere too. The malls themselves cater for different blends of people.