Javanese cultural traditions in Suriname

Between 1890 and 1939, around 33,000 Javanese were recruited in Java and taken to Suriname to work as contract labourers on the sugar plantations. Many descendants of those contract labourers still live there. Based on interviews with and observations of Javanese Surinamese in June and July 2009, I examine cultural maintenance among the Javanese in twenty-first century Suriname, following and in some cases updating the observations of earlier scholars who have undertaken research in the field. My analysis is informed by Fredrik Barth's claim that an ethnic group and its 'culture' do not necessarily share the same boundaries (Barth 1970:38).