Wednesday, December 14, 2011

When's My Pizza Gonna Come: Examples of Diffusion Processes in Kerinci Valley

Last night I went in to one of the half-dozen home-based dry goods shops within 100 meters of my temporary digs here in Sungai Penuh to pick up a couple of packs of indomie for dinner (even though, according to the doctor, I'm not supposed to eat indomie anymore).  The young man working in the shop was listening to Rancid, a band that's pretty popular amongst the "punk" set here.  I asked him if he'd ever heard The Clash, and a blank look came across his face.  I went back across the street, loaded some mp3s onto a flashdisk, and we transferred them onto his computer.  As we sat listening to the first few bars of London Calling, it dawned on me that this exchange, in addition to being an outstanding example of shameless copyright piracy, was an instance of the geographic process of diffusion at work.

The Spread of Ideas in Time and Space

Map from Peter Loud's Website
In the last post I introduced the idea of the space-time prism, a conceptual tool that allows us to visualize and map how people move through time and space.  Diffusion is another application of time-space geography, since everything that moves must be carried in some way (this includes goods, people, and ideas), and the rate at which some things move over space is influenced by other things that facilitate or slow down the process.  Sungai Penuh and the Kerinci Valley in general is an interesting place to watch diffusion processes because it's relatively isolated.  In fact, it wasn't until the early 20th century that the valley came under the control of the Dutch; in fact it was one of the last places in the archipelago to fall under the sway of the colonials.  Kerinci's isolation in the lap of the Bukit Barisan mountains long protected it from outside conquerors, which has given rise to its cultural uniqueness, but at the same time the valley's inaccessibility has slowed the spread of new ideas.  To get here you have to take one of three main routes through the mountains, which is daunting with an automobile.  In the days before cars and paved (or relatively paved) roads it was very difficult to get here, and so there is a significant distance decay between here and the "outside" world.  This simply means that the difficulty of traversing the mountains has a strong effect on the introduction of new stuff.  But new ideas do come to Kerinci.  We can use conceptual tools from the science of geography to understand how this happens.  Geographers think about the spread of ideas, customs, and goods in several different ways:

Expansion diffusion: this happens when an idea, practice, good, etc spreads across an area like a fire across a field.  In most cases the fire doesn't hop from place to place; it moves from areas that have already been burned.  Expansion diffusion happens when one person tells another; thus it an idea eventually makes its way through an entire area or population.  Hierarchical diffusion and contagious diffusion (below) are often described as subcategories of expansion diffusion.

Relocation diffusion:  Relocation diffusion happens when the people that employ the practice, idea, good, etc, themselves move or are moved to a new location.  Migration is the most common example of this; when people establish a new home in a new land they take ideas and customs with them, which often spread.  You can see my example of relocation diffusion in the picture to the left.  This is "Two Brothers Bakso".  These guys sell a tasty meatball and noodle dish that originates in central and east Java.  Though the brothers live in Sungai Penuh, they were born near Solo in central Java.  At a young age they moved with their parents to Sumatra as participants in one of the government's transmigration (transmigrasi) projects, which were designed to transfer people from very densely-populated Java to the "outer islands" of Indonesia.  The brothers' parents worked as farmers, but as you can see they've introduced a little bit of Java to Sumatra.

Contagious diffusion: When we hear the word "contagious", we usually think of diseases, which are spread from person to person via various vectors.  Contagious diffusion refers to the spread of an idea directly from person to person.  The best example of contagious diffusion here I can think of is the spread of Facebook.  When I first came here 5 years ago there were only two internet places in town, and they were both painfully slow.  However, something happened between 2007  and 2010 that lead to the mushrooming of internet "cafes" in Sungai Penuh and surrounding towns (1).  The proliferation of these establishments has made the internet available to a large segment of the population, and one of the first things people discover when the get online is Facebook.  It's become quite common for people, even small children, to ask me for my Facebook address when they see me around town.  Contagious diffusion is often likened to a wave of innovation passing through a region; in this case the internet and Facebook would definitely fit the bill.

Hierarchical diffusion: this happens when a certain segment of the population, usually leaders or the wealthy, adopt a certain practice and then it passes down through the hierarchy.  A commonly cited example of hierarchical diffusion is clothes fashions; new lines are introduced in centers like Paris and New York, and then they spread to other places via rich folks.  My example of hierarchical diffusion is the Toyota Land Cruiser seen in the picture to the right.  Land Cruisers are pretty expensive, especially compared to the average income in Indonesia, but they are also pretty practical in a place like Sungai Penuh, where is rains a lot and the "roads" often turn to mud.  At first only rich folks had these trucks, but now there is a small industry built around restoring beat up and broken down Land Cruisers.  Though these are still relatively rare, I've been told that more and more of them are appearing.  In addition there are a lot of less-expensive land-cruiser type vehicles cruising around.


Map from here.
Diffusion processes are affected by external factors that encourage or inhibit the movement of ideas, customs, and goods.  Geographers refer to things that slow down diffusion as barriers.  There are several types of barriers.  Absorbing barriers are those that stop the spread of something in its tracks.  In the modern world there isn't much that completely stops the spread of ideas, but a few examples might be internet censors in certain totalitarian countries, or religious regimes that prevent women from driving.  Climate can also be an absorbing barrier.  For example, in low-lying areas of Sumatra malaria is relatively common.  However there is no malaria in Kerinci Valley because of the elevation.  The climate is cooler here which prevents the spread of the mosquito that carries malaria.

Other barriers are reflectors which alter the course of diffusion processes.  One of the classic examples of a reflection barrier is the city of Chicago and Lake Michigan.  Like all growing cities, over the past century and a half Chicago has expanded its borders.  However, since people can't live on water, the presence of the large lake has caused the city's expansion to move around the lake.  Have a look at the map and you'll get the idea.  In Kerinci valley Kerinci Seblat National Park functions as a reflecting barrier.  We can see this in the way that villages have expanded in certain parts of the valley.  Instead of opening up new land inside the park (2), village expansion has tended to follow the fringe of the park.

Some barriers act as filters, letting some things spread but slowing or completely stopping other things.  Political boundaries are a good example of this.  It's difficult to completely seal off a border; for instance you can't completely shut out communication transmitted through the air, but you can stop the flow of goods and people over land.  And even when borders are very permeable, sometimes other factors, like language, slow the process of diffusion.  There are also enabling factors, like technology.  One good example of this is cellular towers.  Handphones are pretty much useless if you can't get a signal, and you can't get a signal if you are too far from the tower.  The construction of cell towers in nearly every corner of the valley has enabled the rapid spread of handphones, and now nearly everyone has one.  You can see another example of an enabling technology in the picture to the right.  I've already mentioned the notion of "distance decay"; in the case of frozen or perishable goods this actually takes a literally meaning.  The advent of freezers in the minimarts of Sungai Penuh has allowed merchants to sell frozen goods, like "chicken" nuggets.  According to my tiger-chasing buddy, who has lived here for nearly 20 years, these ice boxes are really starting to change the diet here, for better or worse.

Thus we can see how the geography of an area is related to the rate at which new ideas are introduced.  For a long time the mountains functioned as a barrier protecting the people of Kerinci valley, but now the mountains have become an obstacle, limiting the rate at which new goods come to the people of Kerinci.  As we've seen in previous posts, this is also related to conservation, as the national park which surrounds the valley has become a barrier as well since its protected status prevents the construction of new roads, which would presumably increase the rate of diffusion because they would make it easier to access the valley.  For my part I'm eagerly awaiting the diffusion of Pizza Hut to the valley, as the one in Padang insists that my house is outside their delivery radius, and so they refuse to have a driver make the seven-hour trip to bring me a cheese-stuffed double pepperoni.


(1)  I'm referring to "warnets", which are shacks that have a bunch of computers hooked up to the internet.  Generally the connection is relatively fast, and you pay 20-40 cents an hour to use the internet.

(2)  As we know from previous posts, the existence of the park certainly hasn't stopped illegal encroachment and cultivation, but it definitely changes the predominant direction of expansion.


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  2. Do you see any evidence of hybridization of both Indonesia and foreign cultures? If so have there been any backlashes to the introduction of foreign cultural practices? Do you think that the population growth combined with technological changes (like internet and cell phones) in Indonesia will bring about more "western" changes in people's lives?

  3. After learning about globalization in school, it was truly eye opening to see examples of foreign influence in this blog.

    The example of Facebook for “contagious diffusion” really emphasizes the effects of globalization, specifically Western influence in Eastern countries. Not only has globalization brought about economic growth in many countries, but it has also encouraged social connectivity through sites like Facebook. Technology, according to the blogger, is considered an “enabling factor” for diffusion.

    Also, the example of the Toyota Land Cruiser influencing a “small industry built around restoring beat up and broken down Land Cruisers” was really interesting. Toyota is a Japanese car company, and the Land Cruiser was probably brought to Indonesia by Westerners. While many effects of globalization may be considered negative (such as the ice boxes that have “really start[ed] to change the diet…for better or worse” due to the ability of minimarts to sell frozen goods like “chicken” nuggets), the presence of the Land Cruiser actually seems to be beneficial to areas like Sungai Penuh because it “rains a lot and the “roads” often turn to mud,” making land-cruiser type vehicles important to transportation.

    I also find it quite funny that the blogger is jokingly (or maybe not so jokingly) excited about the spread of Western culture, specifically Pizza Hut, to Kerinci Valley for his personal benefit. When you’re working away from home, who wouldn’t want a slice of American comfort food that actually originated in Italy? (Pizza originated in Italy, but Pizza Hut originated in America and now has locations in foreign places like Padang, Indonesia.) Whether intentional or not, Pizza Hut, an American corporation, is another one of the blogger’s great examples of globalization (which I assume was cleverly intentional).

  4. the idea of diffusion in this case is truly, both a sad and exciting thing for people. isolated places, like small rural areas, usually have youth who gravitate towards outside culture. so when a new idea, or song in this case, is shared with someone who has never heard it before due to geographic barriers, it evokes, in my opinion, the thought of a missionary bringing this amazing wonder that has never been experienced before. i do understand the idea of an exchange of culture, and have experienced it myself in some of my travels although not to the extant of yourself. i have yet to visit someplace so remote where the idea of passing on a cd or a book or even a toy would be something very meaningful. it is a very interesting topic to think about. and it must have been that much more special, to think that the person you gave it to couldnʻt just jump on his mac and download what you just gave him. you just blew this kids mind.