development of the budget determination, financing and planning standard has provided the coordination of the department activities in the company. The social problem concerning social
environment efficiency has been considered as an accounting discipline.
f. Accounting as a Social Practice
The emergence of accounting cannot purely be seen as an organizational phenomenon Burchell et al., 1980, but it is attached in the society in which the individual and organization
are the part of it. Both phenomena organization and society have played the important role in the accounting process since many important accounting innovations happen in the various social
processes. The success of the Japan Company occurs without having the same commitment toward the management accounting practiced by the west culture USA and UK. Horowitz
19980 in his study: Top Management Control in Europe, finds that the controlling application of management in England can give more emphasis toward financial techniques if it is compared
to German. Accounting acts as a dynamic phenomenon. It is a new way to maintain integrity,
legitimacy, the effectiveness and strength of accounting in responding social practices. Furthermore, it is needed to reach different goals. Various information intended to the activities,
processes, and organizational results create the environmental pattern within accounting practices. Robson 1991 states that accounting has many roles in the social activities since its
emergence. Aligned with the time, accounting practices implicate the forming of the pattern in the society.
III. RESEARCH METHOD OF THE HISTORY OF INDONESIAN ACCOUNTING: IN THE SINGOSARI KINGDOM ERA
a. The Research of the History
The research of the history is a history science explaining about the elements of the history. Hamilton 1993, in Berg 2004:233, states that generally the word history is used the
same as the word past time, or sometimes it refers to the concept of the past event that occurred a long time a go. From the social perspective, the history is a report of the past time events or the
order of the events. The history science is a method to know, from the record and report, what happened in the past time period Marshall and Rossman, 1999 as quoted by Berg, 2004:233.
The Research Approach: Ethnoarcheology as a means to collect the Artifacts
The study of accounting history in the Singosari kingdom is a historical archeology study since the main data source of this research is textual data which are inscriptions and documents.
Archeology can be divided into historical archeology and prehistoric archeology. According to Sharer and Ashmore 1979:20, as quoted by Nastiti 2003:19, historical archeology refers to the
study supported by written data, while prehistoric archeology is not. The main approach of this research is historical approach. The main data source of accounting history in the Singosari
kingdom era is begun by collecting documents taken from the Singosari kingdom era, especially those contain the explanation of the trade in general and especially the accounting form.
The approach used in this research is ethnoarcheology approach, that is, an approach which studies the behaviour and material culture taken from the society today Bahn, 1992:162.
In addition, the use of ethnoarcheology study is to find out the compared knowledge from accounting nowadays by giving the definition related to the meaning of accounting in the
Singosari kingdom era in which the data cannot be taken from archeological data, especially written data.
Ethnoarcheology study is the branch of archeology which makes use of ethnographical data as an analogy to solve archeological problems Puslit Arkenas, 1999:188. Its position is to
give an example to interpret and to provide an early argumentation. According to Tanudirjo 1987:8-9, 64, in Indonesia, ethnoarcheology plays double roles. First, it is used as a means to
explain and to predict archeology data. Second, it is also used as a medium to document the aspects of traditional life which keep happening. Moreover, he mentions that Indonesian
traditional life is still able to survive even though in the process of modernization this kind of life is feared of being extinct. If these aspects of life are not documented, there will be lots of dark
sides in the journey of Indonesian culture which cannot be explained in the future. There are two models which serve as the basis for ethnoarcheological approach Mundardjito, 1981 which can
be described as follows: 1. Direct historical approach in United States or Folk Culture in United Kingdom
Direct historical approach is based on the idea that the existing culture today is the
continuation of the past culture development. It means that the characteristic of today’s culture reflects the formerly developed cultural inheritance. In doing this approach
there should be an observation towards the the society which has direct history in the same area between the archeological data object of study and the ethnographical data
object of comparison 2. General comparative approach or also called new analogy
Actually, this approach is based on the perspective that the relation between archeological culture which has lost its supporters and the existing culture today is the
relation of form. Therefore, this approach does not oblige the existence of historical continuation in the same area. Nevertheless, it demands the sameness of cultural form
and the environmental background. The result of the ethnoarcheological study does not show whether the hypothesis is true
or false since it is not a test of inductive conclusion drawing. This study is just an extension of the induction process itself. As a result, the study of ethnography does not explain the current
observed symptoms ethnographical data, but it gives a picture of a possible similarity between the past and today’s culture symptoms, or as a connector argumentation. The ethnoarcheological
study tries to understand two aspects which are: 1. What aspect to do. It is understood by an observation. The purpose of the observation
of what aspect to do is to obtain knowledge about location, situation, transaction, etc. 2. The known aspect. This is done by interview to find out the social behaviour which
formed the accounting in the Singosari era. Hopefully, the study of ethnography may give a picture of the existence and the form of
accounting in the social structure of Singosari kingdom. In addition, it may give a shape of the social life practices to obtain the description of a more complex and richer nuances accounting.
b. Foucauldian Perspective as an Instrument of Analysis
