Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society

Book excerpt: Warfare and wealth were the major means for acquiring status in precolonial Minahasa (North Sulawesi). The author argues that the quest for power and prestige is an ongoing concern among Minahasans. Based on extensive anthropological and historical research, this book focuses on patterns and processes of social mobility. The character of leadership in tribal society, then under the colonial bureaucracy, and later in modern Indonesia are discussed. Besides political changes, changes in economic conditions and in religion have had a considerable influence on mobility. These processes are illustrated by a case study of a local community.