Tracing Colonial Boundaries: Social Hierarchies and Landscapes in the Tambaksari Plantation,Subang,West Java,Indonesia

Abstract

Plantation cultural landscapes, characterized by tangible cultural elements, often reveal distinct physical boundaries that reflect social hierarchies. This study focuses on the Tambaksari Plantation in Subang, West Java, Indonesia, employing the frameworks of industrial archeology and the concept of boundaries. It argues that physical boundaries within colonial plantation settlements symbolized the social divisions between plantation managers and workers, as well as between colonizers and the colonized. As integral components of the cultural landscape, these settlements seamlessly integrated natural and industrial elements through meticulously planned building layouts. Structures were arranged in clusters according to profession and social status, highlighting the polarized social stratification of colonial plantation society. Upper-class managers, predominantly white Europeans, occupied privileged spaces, while lower-class workers, comprising colonized indigenous Indonesians, resided in more modest accommodations. These physical boundaries, rooted in ethnic and class distinctions, evolved in response to broader social, political, and cultural changes within and beyond the plantation context.