Recently, however, there has been a rising tide of criticism among researchers of contemporary Javanese village life primarily agricultural economists, rural sociologists, and those in related fields concerning the relevance and usefulness of the Geertz theory as presented in this celebrated work(the concepts of agri- cultural involution and shared poverty, in particular, are seen as problematic). In this article, I will first summarize the theoretical framework within which Geertz treats the economic history of Javanese village in his book and then con- sider the more recent criticisms of this model. Lastly, an attempt will be made to reevaluate the direction historical studies of Indonesia have taken in light of current research.