This thesis was made possible by a Korean Government Overseas Scholarship. I am grateful to the Korean Government for the scholarship which enabled me to undertake a PhD program at the Australian National University and field research in Indonesia. I am also thankful to Bu-wung Lee in the Korean Consulate in Sydney for his assistance.

The debt that I owe to my main supervisor, Dr. J.J. Fox may not be easily described. It was he who transformed me from one who did not know exactly where Java is located to one who can say at least something about people in Java. Without his continuous support, encouragement and constructive criticism, it may have been impossible for me to complete this thesis. I would like to express my thanks to him.

I am also indebted to my supervisors, Dr. S. Supomo and Dr. P. Guinness, who willingly sacrificed their valuable time to read my drafts and gave me invaluable and stimulating advice. Dr. Supomo provided me with an insight into looking at and interpreting things Javanese correctly. Dr. Guinness critically appraised my earlier writings, which brought me countless headaches, but, nonetheless, was vital to the completion of this work. I also thank my former supervisor, Dr. P. Graham, for her support and advice during my pre-fieldwork period.

I am truly thankful to Dr. B. Holloway who willingly carried out the most tedious work of correcting the language of this thesis and of proof-reading. Without her careful reading of earlier drafts, this thesis might have been still unreadable to English readers.

A large number of scholars and members of the Department of Anthropology and of the Australian National University have helped me to complete this work. Among them, I would like especially to mention Dr. W. Keeler, Dr. S. Ryang, G. Craswell and D. Porter who read parts of my thesis and gave me their brilliant ideas and suggestions. I am also grateful to P. Taylor, Yunita Winarto, Bambang Hudayana, Jamhari Makruf and Endang Turmudi for their support, inspiration and friendship. My thanks also go to my fellow Korean students who contributed in many ways to clarifying my ideas and to making me feel at home in Canberra. Among them are Charles Shin, Duksan Lee and Hyunhee Moon.

I also thank the administrative staff in the Department of Anthropology for their support and hospitality. Susan Toscan has never forgotten to show her deep concern about my progress and my life, Ria van de Zandt provided me with invaluable technical support and Margaret Tyrie drew a wonderful map for me.

Research in Indonesia was sponsored by Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and carried out under the auspices of Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (LIPI). I would like to express my gratitude to both institutions for their support.

I also want to thank Dr. Syafri Sairin, Dr. P. M. Laksono and Dr. Budi Susanto in Yogyakarta, who provided me with priceless suggestions and hospitality throughout the whole period of my fieldwork. Many thanks go to Romo Budi who helped me to find a research site, and to my research assistant and friend, Surono, who willingly sacrificed his time to share the most critical moment of my research with me.

There are far too many people in the village of Sumber to whom I am indebted. I would like especially to mention Bapak Susilarto who introduced Sumber to me, and Bapak Suramto and Bu Suramto who were generous enough to share their life with me and accepted me as a member of their family. I thank other people in Sumber, all of whom were my teachers and were willing to share their life with me. I apologise for not listing individual names due to space limitation. I also would like to apologise and ask forgiveness to people in Sumber for my intentional and unintentional wrong doings during my stay, hoping that the portrayal of their life in this work does not distort what their life really was.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents. Although they did not and still do not understand completely why their son was attracted to anthropology and selected Java as a research site, and won't understand what is written in this thesis, their love and support were essential for the completion of my work in Australia and in Indonesia. It is to them I would like to dedicate this thesis.