Diversity in Unity

20 Pages·2004·0.08 MB·English

Diversity in Unity:
Multiple Strategies of a Unifying Rhetoric. The Case of
Resemanticisation of Toraja Rituals: From ‘Wasteful Pagan
Feasts’ into ‘Modern Auctions’1
Aurora Donzelli
(University of Milan)
Abstrak
Tulisan ini menggambarkan sebuah eksplorasi etnografis di Tana Toraja pada masa kini,
mengenai retorika nasional ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ (unity in diversity) yang diartikulasi
secara lokal melalui ideologi pembangunan. Penulis menunjukkan bahwa di daerah Toraja
retorika nasional mengenai pembangunan pada masa setelah penjajahan (poskolonial)
berawal dari masa prakemerdekaan dan terkaitkan dengan sejarah penyebaran agama
(missionarisasi). Penulis memberikan analisis tentang pemaknaan ulang ritual Toraja
sepanjang era penjajahan belanda dan masa setelah penjajahan. Ritual yang pada masa
Belanda dianggap salah satu contoh ‘pemborosan kafir’ diubah menjadi ‘lelang moderen’.
Praktik penyelenggaraan penggalangan dana melalui lelang dalam upacara/ritual adat
yang diperkenalkan oleh Belanda pada awal abad ke-20, memiliki peran yang amat penting
dalam proyek penyebaran agama dan, pada masa poskolonial. Hal ini menjadi salah satu
strategi untuk memasukkan daerah adat Toraja ke dalam negara Indonesia yang dalam retorika
nasional digambarkan sebagai ‘moderen dan bersatu’. Dalam usaha memahami Toraja masa
kini, analisis terhadap proses dimana wacana kolonialisme Belanda—dan yang baru-baru
ini—ideologi nasionalis, telah memanipulasi praktik, dan makna dari sistem ritual Toraja
tidak bisa dilepaskan.
Ritus pembagian daging dan ideologi modernis nasional seharusnya dapat dimengerti
sebagai kedua-duanya terkaitkan dengan dua bentuk kesadaran sejarah (historical con-
sciousness) yang saling bertentangan. Penulis memberi perhatian secara khusus pada isu
temporalitas. Menurut penulis, isu ini sering dilupakan dalam studi nasionalisme Indonesia.
Sebagian dari efektifitas retoris dari slogan ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’ tersampaikan karena
slogan tersebut sejalan dengan konstruksi antitesis antara ‘modernitas’ dan ‘tradisi’. Dalam
sebuah kerangka diskursif yang menyamakan ‘perbedaan’ dengan ‘tradisi’‚ dan ‘modernitas’
dengan ‘kesatuan’‚ tradisi lokal diakui hanya sejauh hal tersebut dikonseptualisasikan
sebagai tahap awal dari modernitas yang bersatu.
1Acknowledgements. A doctoral scholarship from the University of Milan (Università degli Studi di Milano
Bicocca) and a joint grant from the University of Milan-Bicocca and the Italian Ministry of Scientific and
Technological Research (within the national research project ‘Places of life and places of death. Boundaries,
separations, interactions: interdisciplinary and comparatives perspectives’, national project coordinator:
Prof. Francesco Remotti) funded my fieldwork in Toraja (2002–2003), which was conducted under the spon-
sorship of the Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia and Universitas Hasanuddin in Makassar. This paper was
38 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003
For many years, both in the Indonesian po- scholars’ insistence on New Order rhetoric of
litical discourse and in the scholarly analyses national ‘unity’ and their criticism on its lack of
of this discourse, the nation-state’s rhetoric has actual recognition of local cultures’ diversity,
been summarised in three words: Bhineka plurality, I argue, ironically survives within the
Tunggal Ika (‘Unity in Diversity’). This sharp multiple state-sponsored practices of control.
and effective motto easily conveys the illusion With this perspective, the nation-state’s self-
of a homogeneous set of corresponding prac- constructing process should not be conceived
tices on the level of cultural policy. However, a as a single centripetal pull, but as a complex
closer ethnographic analysis of how national- ensemble of locally differentiated strategies.
istic rhetoric takes shape on the local level, re- For over half a century, the discourse of
veals that the Indonesian nation-state’s unify- unity in diversity has undoubtedly played a
ing project has been pursued through multiple crucial role in the Indonesian nation-state’s2
practices of control that draw on local discur- self-constructing project. As it has been argued
sive repertoires and traditions, and are deeply by Saskia Sassen in a recent essay (2000:215),
intertwined with local histories of power rela- despite their claims, ‘modern nation-states [...]
tions. In fact, by transforming the national never achieved spatiotemporal unity’. There-
motto ‘Unity in Diversity’ into ‘Diversity in fore, if it is not an intrinsic quality of theirs,
Unity’ this article’s title provocatively suggests they need narratives capable of creating such
that denial of multiplicity within Indonesian a ‘unified spatiotemporality’. The ideology of
national project has not been total. Despite Bhineka Tunggal Ika, as I understand it, is a
powerful discursive means through which the
originally presented in the panel on ‘Rethinking the Indonesian nation-state represents itself as a
One and the Many, the National and the Local: Per-
‘container’, corresponding to a ‘unified
spectives from Southeast Asian Experiences’ at the
3rd International Symposium of the Journal spatiotemporality’. Although the spatial dimen-
ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA ‘Rebuilding the “Unity sion is much more evident (and explicit) in the
in Diversity” of Indonesia: Towards a Multicultural
national slogan, I argue that its ‘subtext’ im-
Society’, Udayana University Denpasar, Bali, 16–19
July 2002. I thank my fellow panellists (Syed Farid plies a specific sense of temporality that it is
Alatas, Reynaldo C. Ileto, Wan Zawawi Ibrahim), the important to take into account if we want to
panel coordinator Goh Beng Lan and those who con-
achieve a better understanding of both Indo-
tributed to the discussion at that time. I am grateful to
Roxana Waterson, Stanislaus Sandarupa, Goenawan
Mohamad and Mauro Van Aken who read preliminary
versions of this paper and provided their comments 2As it has been clearly pointed out by Benedict Ander-
and suggestions. I am particularly grateful to Riccardo son (1983:477), it is important to bear in mind that,
Capoferro for the valuable pieces of advice and the despite the recurrent usage of the expression ‘nation-
support he gave me while I was engaged in revising the state’ in contemporary social sciences literature, this
paper for publication. My thanks also to all the people ‘tiny hyphen links two very different entities with
in Toraja with whom I had the chance to discuss some distinct histories, constituents and “interests”’. The
of the issues contained in the following pages and for state as an institution and the ‘imagined community’
the help they provided at different stages of my field- of the nation mutually need and constitute each other.
work. A special thank goes to Setrag Manoukian for However, Anderson argues, this is not always the case.
the thoroughness of his critiques on an earlier version Since this paper is not concerned with exploring over-
of this paper, for his capability of making me better laps and disjunctures between the nation and the state
understand my own ideas and intentions, and for his in contemporary Indonesia, I am not differentiating
patience. I am indebted to Andrew Cheeseman and between the two. For an articulated account of the
Jennifer Esperanza for their help with revising and differences in the relationship between nation and state
editing earlier drafts of the paper and to Jeremy Hayne, during the Orde Baru and Orde Lama periods, see
who did the final revision. Anderson (1983).
ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003 39
nesian nationalism and also of many other pe- chipelago. Several succeeding generations of
ripheral and localised cultural processes. In my anthropologists, intrigued by their mortuary
reading, thus, the rhetoric of unity in diversity rituals and their gift exchange practices,4 came
attempts not only to convey the idea of a uni- to the highlands of South Sulawesi, producing
fied spatiality (which can be synoptically an extensive corpus of ethnographic literature.
grasped from the cabin lift in Taman Mini’s The Toraja ritual system has a dualistic
landscaped geographical reproduction of In- structure; one half is constituted by mortuary
donesia),3 but it also aims at creating a tempo- rites— ‘smoke descending rituals’ (aluk rambu
ral unity through the use of two powerful dis- solo’)—while the other is made up of rituals
cursive categories, endowed with deep tempo- promoting fertility and prosperity— ‘smoke
ral connotation: those of ‘modernity’ and ‘tra- ascending rituals’ (aluk rambu tuka’). The in-
dition’. The discourse of Bhineka Tunggal Ika, fluence of the church and colonial government
thus, creates a spatial order, which is hierarchi- during the first part of the 20th century has al-
cally organised through the inclusion of local tered the balance between the two spheres of
differences within the national framework. Be- Toraja ritual system, subsequently producing
sides this, by its being temporally oriented, it a hypertrophy of mortuary rituals and a paral-
tries to erase or, at least, to hide the plurality of lel decline of the fertility ones. The complexity
temporalities by reducing them to a process of of rambu tuka’ rituals has been progressively
linear and irreversible transition from a ‘tradi- simplified and absorbed into the umbrella cat-
tional past’ to a ‘developed future’. egory of pengucapan syukur ‘thanks-giving
In the following pages, drawing on the ar- rituals’, to such an extent that nowadays only
gument made by scholars such as Saskia rites celebrating the completion of house build-
Sassen (2000) and Arjun Appadurai (1997) who ing or rebuilding, still retain some importance
have pointed out how the local and the na- (cf. Waterson 1993:75).5
tional are two mutually constituting dimensions
and not two separated levels, I explore Indone- 4 Reference to the Toraja gift exchange system is even
found in Marcel Mauss’s seminal ‘Essay on the Gift’
sian national ideology from the ethnographic
(1990). Mauss had indirect knowledge of Toraja ritual
angle provided by the historical shifts occur- exchange practices from the reading of the works by
ring in Toraja ritual system. Kruyt, who, however, was mostly concerned with the
Bare’ speaking or West Toraja, nowadays known as
Anthropologists, missionaries, Indo- ‘To Pamona’, dwelling in the lake Poso area. As it has
been pointed out by Thompson (2000), however, the
nesian nation-state and the Toraja
term ‘gift’ is not completely appropriate for referring
The Sa’dan Toraja are undoubtedly one of to Sa’dan Toraja ritual exchanges of livestock, which
are better understood as a system of loans and borrow-
the most studied groups in the Indonesian ar-
ings. In fact, animals ‘contributed by affines and some-
times friends, are not gifts in the sense that they are
3Taman Mini is a cultural village theme park built in given away. Instead they are on loan (diindan). [...]
the 70’s in the outskirts of Jakarta. The project, de- they remain the property of the lender [...].’
veloped by Yayasan Harapan Kita (Our Hope Founda- (Thompson 2000:45).
tion) under the supervision of Mrs Tien Soeharto’s— 5 For a detailed historical account of the process of
President Soeharto’s wife—is aimed at celebrating the ritual change due to the influence of GZB
national motto Bhineka Tunggal Ika. The huge park (Gereformeerde Zendingsbond), the Dutch Reformed
comprises a collection of traditional houses and ob- Alliance, a Mission Institute that was autonomous and
jects displayed in 27 pavilions, one for every prov- differed a great deal from the Indies Protestant Church,
ince. On Taman Mini see also Pemberton (1994), the officially supported church of the Nederlands East
Hitchcock (1998), Hellman (1998). Indies administration (see Bigalke 1981).
40 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003
As I have mentioned above, the ethno- dition’ as two privileged sites where it is pos-
graphic literature concerning Toraja highland- sible to track the unravelling of the forms of
ers reveals the stratification of various theo- historical consciousness that both determine
retical schools and paradigms. Earlier ethno- and are determined by ritual change. The Toraja
graphic accounts concerning Toraja rituals ethnographic case is of particular interest for me
were written according to traditional ethno- since is strictly connected to one of the features
graphic criteria: being permeated by the spirit I have previously identified as characterising the
of salvage anthropology, they aimed at docu- ideology of Bhineka Tunggal Ika: the produc-
menting the fading ‘traditional’ sociocultural tion of a unified sense of temporality endorsed
system. On the other hand, articles and books by nationalistic rhetoric.
written in the last three decades have been In the next two sections I focus on two ex-
marked by more up to date theoretical concerns: amples of the occurrence of development ide-
one of the privileged objects of inquiry of this ologies in the context of ritual: the former, more
new generation of ethnographic accounts has connected to the level of practices, is provided
undoubtedly been ritual change. Several by the case of the introduction of the ‘meat
American, Australian and European ethnogra- auction’ whose genealogy I will give a brief
phers have provided illuminating accounts of historical outline;6 the latter, more concerned
the sociocultural change taking place in the with the dimension of explicit ideological pro-
highlands in the last decades due to the incor- nouncements, consists of an excerpt from my
poration of the region into the Indonesian na- transcriptions of political speeches about na-
tion-state, the conversion to Christianity of tional loyalty performed by government or army
large part of the population, and tourism. officials during ritual occasions.
Arriving in Tana Toraja after reading this
‘Wasteful pagan feasts’ versus
body of literature, I had the impression that
‘modern auctions to promote devel-
nothing else could be said on the topic. How-
opment’
ever, some months spent in the field revealed
that there is in fact a level of ritual change that The first time I came across lelang was in
has been actually undertheorised and the summer of 2000. At that time I was on an
underanalysed: this being the symbolic and exploratory trip to Toraja. My friend Aras had
practical changes produced by the impact of invited me to attend with him a harvest thanks-
colonial and postcolonial development ideolo-
gies into ritual discourse. No attempt to under- 6The historical sources I have used comprise, along
stand contemporary Toraja can escape an with first hand interviews I have made in the Toraja
area, letters and reports written by missionaries and
analysis of the processes through which Dutch
colonial administrators during the first half of the 20th
colonial discourse, and, more recently, nation- century. These documents belong to GZB Archive, to
alist ideology, have manipulated practices and the Dutch Reformed Church (NHK) Mission Archive
in Oegstgeest, and to the GZB monthly magazine: Alle
meanings of Toraja ritual system. I argue that a
den Volcke. Thom van den End (1994) has gathered
crucial point, not adequately developed by pre- and translated these documents from Dutch to Indo-
vious ethnographers, is constituted by the is- nesian. In quoting the sources, I refer to van den End’s
collection where each document has been assigned a
sue of temporality. My analysis will be con-
number. In citing excerpts from the documents, I have
cerned with ritual practices of meat distribu- left the Indonesian version, since it seemed to me that
tion and local narratives of ‘modernity’ and ‘tra- submitting the texts to a third translation into English
would have been excessive.
ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003 41
giving ceremony (pengucapan syukur) held in on a century of ethnographic literature about
his village, Batutumonga. After a couple of Toraja was radically changed.
hours spent driving northwards, in the direc- I quickly understood that the scene I had
tion of Mount Sesean, we reached our destina- seen in Batutumonga was far from being an
tion. The service had already finished and extraordinary event. During my prolonged stay
people, coming out from the half-constructed in Toraja, lelang became a familiar event: I
Church were about to sit underneath the shade realised that every ritual event included an auc-
of some leafy branches stuck into the grassy tion. Be it a funeral, a wedding or a harvest
soil of the village plaza just in front of the thanks-giving feast, at a certain point a man
Church. After meal and coffee had been served, would always walk to the middle of the ritual
a man holding the megaphone with his right field holding a megaphone and he would start
hand started a long speech, concerning the auctioning cuts of meat, usually assisted by
necessity and importance of development another man in charge of holding them while
(pembangunan). When the orator had finished, the participants sitting at the borders would
somebody set several cuts of pork meat on a make their offers.
bed of big leaves in the middle of the plaza. Why, then, despite its omnipresence, has
Another man (the to ma’lelang, whom I later lelang been shrouded by a complete ethno-
identified as the auctioneer) stepped forward graphic silence? Ethnographic representations
and walked to the middle of the plaza holding tend to differentiate between ethnographic ob-
the same megaphone and assisted by another jects and what may be called their ‘phenomenic
man, who was in charge of holding up the background’. This distinction seems to be the
pieces of meat that the first man with the mega- very condition of possibility for any process
phone was auctioning. The auctioneer was of ethnographic writing. The attribution of what
shouting aloud few incomprehensible but re- constitutes the ethnographic level and what is
current words in Toraja; at times some of the merely phenomenic shifts remarkably accord-
participants sitting along the borders of the ing to the theoretical paradigm employed. A
plaza shouted something back: numbers, I good example of how lelang has been often
guessed. The auctioneer’s assistant was then relegated in the ‘phenomenic background’ is
distributing the cuts of meat, collecting money provided by Adams (1997:271) who in her ar-
in exchange. A woman sitting nearby was me- ticle chooses to mention it in a quotation from
ticulously taking note of every single piece of her field notes: ‘following the meat auction (my
meat and of the money offered for it. I asked emphasis), the emcee announced that the
Aras and Daud what was going on. They an- ma’badong dancers were to begin shortly [...]
swered that was the lelang, a word I did not we were greeted by the hosts and ushered to
know. Luckily, somebody added in English: ‘it our seats on the sitting platform of one of the
is an auction!’ After all the pieces were sold, rice barns. As people conversed softly and pigs
there started the ritual kick-fighting, called squealed in the background, we were served
sisemba’, of which I had often heard of and syrupy coffee and sweet rice cakes’. The intro-
seen pictures in the ethnographies I had read. duction, during the colonial period, of a meat
But my mind was stuck on the auction and on auction (to which Toraja commonly refer with
the oration about development I had just seen the Indonesian word: lelang) into the local
and heard. That summer day, my perspective system of reciprocal ceremonial exchanges is
42 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003
both underanalysed by scholars and hypo- exchanges8 of animals and meat distribution
cognitivised by local actors. Interestingly often contain a competitive element, which
enough, although in the Toraja ethnographic some ethnographers have been tempted to
literature we find some hasty reference to fund- compare to the classic case of Kwakiutl pot-
raising auctions performed at ritual occasions latch9 (Nooy-Palm 1979:28; Waterson 1993:83;
(cf. Adams 1997:271; Crystal 1971:95; Waterson Thompson 2000:42). In the following pages,
1993:84), these have not been explored ethno- though, I will leave aside the critical analysis
graphically or made object of a deep analysis. of the comparison between Kwakiutl and Toraja
In a similar fashion, my intention of carrying ritual exchange systems, and focus on the
out some ethnographical and historical re- Dutch missionaries’ perceptions and reactions
search on this issue perplexes my Toraja inter- to Toraja ritual slaughtering.
locutors who often argue that it is a very trivial Colonial control on the Toraja highlands
matter, not worth being studied. However, de- only started at the beginning of the 20th cen-
spite the fact that while I was writing this paper tury, thus corresponding to the proclamation
I have often found myself imagining that some of the Dutch ethical colonial policy in 1901 (cf.
of my Toraja friends would be disappointed in Henley 1995; Anderson 1983).10 Shortly after
discovering that my article is concerned with
lelang, thus failing to fulfil their expectations 8 For thorough accounts of the web of affinal and
of me documenting the fading original Toraja consanguineal ties at play in funeral and house cer-
emonies, see Waterson (1993) and Thompson (2000).
culture, I still think that lelang deserves to be
While contributions from the affines (to rampean),
investigated in order to understand some his- are either cancelling or creating a debt (indan), which
torical and semantic shifts in the place of rituals. the recipient is expected to pay off at a future funeral
where he will come as a guest; those provided by the
A prominent feature of Toraja funeral cer-
other category of guests constituted by consanguineal
emonies is provided by the exchange and relatives (pa’rapuan)—belonging to the same family
slaughter of buffaloes and pigs, and the sub- branch (rapu) of the deceased—are called petuaran
(‘a pouring out’) and ‘are not considered crudely as
sequent division and distribution of their meat
debts, although in the long term they are expected to
according to rank distinctions. In aluk to dolo7 be repaid’ (Waterson 1993:82).
high ranking funerals, the meat is divided into
9 ‘“Potlatch” is a Chinook term meaning “to give
pieces, then distributed to both present and away” that has been applied to a variety of gift ex-
absent big men according to specific classifi- changes systems on the Northwest Coast’ (Masco
1994:42). As it has been pointed out by Masco, ‘since
cations of their status; the names of the impor-
Boas began field work on the Northwest Coast, [...]
tant functionaries and notables to whom the [potlatch] has proven to be irresistible to the anthro-
cuts are given are called out loud in turn from pological imagination’ (Masco 1995:41), this holds
true for Toraja feasting as well, which has always been
the bala’ kaan (or bala’ kayan), a wooden plat-
given great attention by ethnographers. Roxana
form, several meters high which is erected in Waterson (1993:83), though, invites to be cautious in
the rante, the ritual field. These traditional ritual comparing Toraja and Kwakiutl ritual exchanges and
suggests that the term ‘feasts of merit’ is more appro-
priate to refer to Toraja ‘emphasis on ceremonial
expenditure’ (Waterson 1993:83). Besides, in her ar-
7 Aluk to dolo, ‘the way of the ancestors’, with this ticle (1993), Waterson provides a concise but effec-
term Toraja started calling their system of religious tive outline of commonalities and differences between
practices and believes since the 50’s. In 1969 aluk to Kwakiutl and Toraja ritual institutions.
dolo was granted the status of a religion by the Indo- 10It is important to bear in mind that, as it has been
nesian government, but such recognition was justified pointed out by several historians and scholars (cf.
only by assimilating it to Balinese Hinduism. Anderson 1983; Henley 1995), during the ‘Ethical
ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003 43
the colonial administration was in place, Dutch matter of ritual practices.12 As it emerges from
missionaries were sent to Toraja. In fact, the documents of the Zending period,
Christianising the area was believed to be of categorising something as ‘aluk’ or as ‘adat’
strategic importance in order to create a Chris- became crucial in determining what was pro-
tian ‘buffer’ to counter Islamic expansion from hibited and what was allowed. In fact, this con-
the Bugis lowlands (cf. Bigalke 1981). Al- ceptual distinction between the domain of the
though, the first to arrive were missionaries from customary (pertaining the sphere of adat) and
the Protestant Dutch Reformed Church, it was that of the religious (pertaining the sphere of
the Dutch Reformed Alliance (GZB), locally re- aluk) corresponded to and justified a parallel
ferred to as Zending, a Calvinist Mission Insti- distinction between the permissible adat (be-
tute, which played the leading role in the cause it meant only ‘traditional culture’) and
Christianisation of Tana Toraja. Since the time the impermissible aluk (equated with pagan-
Zending missionaries started their prosely- ism). It is interesting to note that the
tising activities in the Toraja area in 1913, as it Commission’s regulating activity was not only
has happened in other contexts (cf. Peel 1995), concerned with prohibiting certain practices
much effort has been made to determine, or I that were regarded as pertaining the sphere of
should rather say impose, a distinction between aluk, but also with authorising certain others
the secular (adat) and sacred (aluk) within that were forbidden by Toraja religion; thus
Toraja practices and beliefs.11 In 1923 Zending explicitly contesting some traditional pemali
missionaries set up an adat Commission that (taboos), such as those concerned with the
was supposed to provide a regulation in the prohibition for the family of the deceased to
eat rice for a certain period of time (cf. Dok.
Policy’ period ‘there was a huge extension of the state 33:124; Dok. 58:188–192; Dok. 75:244). The im-
apparatus deep into native society and a proliferation portance of this positive side, parallel to its
of its functions. [...] Education, religion, irrigation,
negative one, of the Commission’s regulating
agricultural improvements, hygiene, mineral exploi-
tations, political surveillance—all increasingly became activity emerges in many accounts of the rea-
the business of a rapidly expanding officialdom, which sons for converting to Christianity I have col-
unfolded more according to its inner impulses than in
lected from elder people, who tend to stress
response to any organised extrastate demands’ (Ander-
son 1983:479). that they embraced Christianity because it is
lebih praktis (‘more practical’) in being less
11This concern for separating the secular (adat) from
the sacred (aluk) has its roots in Kruyt’s missiology— restrictive concerning food taboos. The most
‘the theory as to how the mission should be done’ significant of these accounts was told me by
(Peel 1995:395)—which conceived conversion as a
my adoptive uncle Pak Barung Batara. He re-
process of enculturation of Christianity. Besides, the
idea that evangelisation should resemble a ‘pouring
new wine into old skins’ (Bigalke 1981:145), might
have originated from the missionaries’ belief that it 12 As it emerges from the related documents, rules were
was the very culture of Toraja—stereotyped in their not set once and for all. In fact, this Commission was
preferences for pork meat, palm wine and gambling— organised on the basis of periodical meetings
that had prevented them from converting to Islam, (konferensi) where teachers, village chiefs, and Zending
thus providing utilitarian reasons for partially pre- missionaries gathered to debate about adat-related is-
serving ‘traditional’ cultural values (see Dok. 23:100 - sues and to provide regulation (peraturan) to which
Belksma’s 1916 report, and Dok. 76:262 - Belksma’s the Christian converts had to conform. The 1923
1928 diary). For an excellent study of the intellectual Konferensi held in Barana’ and Sangalla’ was followed
milieu and sociocultural assumptions with which by several others: 1925 in Angin-Angin, 1928 in
Zending was imbued, see Schrauwers’s doctoral disser- Barana’, and more in 1929, 1932, 1933 (cf. Dok. 58,
tation (1995). 59, 75, 78). See also Bigalke (1981:221–224).
44 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003
counted to me the amazement of one of his zendeling P. Zijstra (Dok. 45:158–159) describes
elder brothers once he was visited by a Dutch Toraja funerals as characterised by a ‘crazy
missionary. Pak Batara’s brother asked the obsession for honour’:
Dutch missionary who was encouraging him
Dan betapa megahnya pesta-pesta untuk orang
to convert, what does Christianity means. The mati, berikut segala macam upacara yang
Dutch answered: ‘artinya tidak ada lagi menyertainya. Sungguh mengherankan
menyaksikan betapa besarnya pesta-pesta
pemali’ (‘it means there are no longer taboos’).
tersebut diselenggarakan untuk memuaskan rasa
It is not surprising that the Calvinist form bangga dan semangat pamer keunggulan di antara
of Christianity proposed by the proselytising sesama orang kaya. Karena di dalamnya ‘gila
work of the Zending, considered ritual animal hormat’ memainkan peranan yang begitu besar
maka adat-kebiasaan itu akan lebih sulit
sacrifices and mortuary meat division as waste-
dilenyapkan.
ful extravagances. H. Van der Veen, a linguist
sent to Tana Toraja by the Dutch Bible Society The list of quotations could go on for many
(Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap) who worked pages, but what is interesting to notice here is
for almost forty years (1916–1955) in strict co- that what horrified most the Dutch missionar-
operation with GZB, in a letter from the field ies about Toraja mortuary rituals was precisely
dated 26th of June 1917 describes the ruinous their being supposedly wasteful performances,
effects of local mortuary rituals that cause de- exclusively motivated by a vain competition
struction of livestock and maximise economic for prestige.
inequalities: Whether or not Toraja rituals are actually
wasteful, is an interesting point. As it has been
Upacara-upacara itu harus diselenggarakan
shown by Thompson (2000), buffaloes in Toraja
semarak-semaraknya dan kerbau dan babi
haruslah dipotong sebanyak-banyaknya. mediate all symbolic, economic and social ex-
Dengan demikian sebagian ternak dimusnah- changes. Thus, if understood in the complex
kan, dan bila orang tidak mempunyai ternak
system of investments and circulation of wealth
maka sawah-sawahnya digadaikan. Maka
connected to funerals, ritual slaughtering re-
dengan demikian sejumlah besar pemilik tanah
yang kecil menjadi orang-orang yang tak veals itself to be something very different from
bertanah, dan dengan jalan ini pemilikan tanah what the Dutch considered a reckless waste of
luas oleh beberapa orang berkembang dan
resources. However, ‘wastefulness’ seems to
memuncak secara mengkhawatirkan (Dok.
31:119). be an unavoidable topic of discussion in Tana
Toraja. As I have often noticed, outsiders’ ob-
In another report written only few months
jections to their lavish death ceremonies prompt
later (Dok. 34:130–131) he reports of how
many Toraja to engage in elaborate attempts at
Zending was urging the government to impose
‘cultural translation’ in order to make their prac-
some restrictions on funeral slaughtering in
tices look reasonable to the outsider’s gaze. It
order to:
should be noticed that these justificatory ac-
memperbaiki ekonomi, karena pesta kematian counts generally tend to deny that funeral sac-
merupakan penghalang besar untuk ekonomi.
rifices constitute a kind of vain status competi-
But van der Veen was not the only one to tion. On the contrary, they turn the criticism
criticise the destructive funerals that entailed upside down, and using the same economic
such high costs that many people were com- lexicon employed by their critics, they argue
pelled to mortgage their sawahs, in 1920 that, far from being a waste of money, ritual
ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003 45
slaughtering is either a moral obligation to pay of the newly converted (cf. Van den End
back all the meat received during previous ritu- 1994:23–26). A guideline issued in 1940 by
als, a means to maintain the prestige accumu- Zending (Dok. 141:478), declares that each par-
lated through a long history of family ritual ish (jemaat) should be responsible for provid-
participation, or a source of wealth tout-court. ing at least part of its priest’s salary.
For instance, once my friend Yatim Sucipto It is in these ideological and material pre-
pointed out to me the fact that Toraja rituals mises that we might locate the first emergence
constitute a warisan (a heritage) left to present of the use of holding fundraising auctions dur-
generation by benevolent ancestors. It was ing rituals. Although I have not found any
obvious that Yatim’s choice of the term warisan document which testifies when and how the
was not intended to be metaphoric or to refer first auction took place in Toraja, some indirect
to a cultural heritage, since he was explicitly reference to this might be found in a report
referring to the money provided by Western from 1917 concerning the murder of van der
tourism. A culture that attracts Western capital Loosdrecht written by the Assistant-Resident
has undoubtedly to be considered a source of of Luwu, E. A. J. Nobele (Tana Toraja was, dur-
wealth and not of waste (see Waterson 1993:87 ing colonial administration, an onderafdeeling,
for some examples of similar accounts). It seems under the afdeeling of Luwu). As it is clear in
to me that these responses to the criticisms the related documents (Dok. 32, 33, 34, 35) the
made about their ‘faulty economy’ where re- tension between the Government and the Mis-
sources are recklessly wasted instead of being sion reached a dramatic peak following the as-
used to promote local development constitute sassination of the Zending missionary van der
a set of counter-hegemonic discourses pertain- Loosdrecht in his house in Bori’.13 The event
ing to the level of self-conscious debate. caused a heated debate between the colonial
Leaving Dutch perceptions of Toraja ritu- government and Zending, which mutually
als aside for a moment let me move on to what blamed each other. In his report, Nobele, claim-
I consider a related issue, that of Zending’s ing that Zending’s proselytising activities had
funding policies. Despite the fact that the ma- been too harsh in urging the local population
jor part of the money for funding the activities to abandon their customary practices (Dok.
of Zending and Gereja Toraja (which became 33:124), lists seven reasons that had caused
officially autonomous in 1947) ‘continued to disappointment among local people and may
come from Holland throughout the 50’s’ had been one of the causes of the killing of van
(Bigalke 1981:430), since the beginning of its der Loosdrecht and of the subsequent rebel-
evangelising work in Toraja, the Mission had lion. Along with the more usual issues con-
encouraged grassroots forms of funding. In a cerning prohibitions to perform cock-fighting,
letter dated 1923, Belksma (Dok. 58:185) explains suspension of the habitual Sunday market,
how teachers’ and parish evangelists’ salaries compulsory schooling, restrictions on funer-
should be paid not by the Zending funds, but als rites, and taxes on the slaughtering of ani-
with the money collected from the local dwell- mals, Nobele mentions the obligation to set
ers’ donations and taxes. In fact, as early as aside some pigs and buffaloes from the funer-
1928 the Zending’s executive board decided als that, instead of being traditionally sacri-
that the construction of church buildings as
well as houses for the Zending teachers and 13On the complex relation between the government
evangelists should be under the responsibility and the Mission, see also Bigalke (1984).
46 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003
ficed, have to be offered as a contribution in ally entitled to get the meat, provided that he
order to be sold to collect donations for build- has enough money to compete with other bid-
ing schools and other infrastructures. Al- ders. Whoever wishes to get a piece of meat
though, no explicit mention is made of whether and is capable of paying enough money to beat
the animals would have been auctioned or sim- the other bidders, is entitled to do so. Com-
ply sold, I believe that this form of donation is pared to the bala’ kaan distribution, lelang
strictly related to the fundraising auctions that clearly endorses the prominence of economic
are nowadays performed at any kind of ritual power and individual agency, thus constitut-
throughout Toraja. In fact, this confirms the ing a practice that embodies the egalitarian ide-
accounts of several elders I have interviewed ologies through which Dutch missionaries
about this, who claimed that lelang had been criticised the hierarchically ranked Toraja soci-
introduced by the missionaries. ety.
In the missionaries’ view, lelang may have According to to minaa Tato’ Dena’ (the
been conceived as a device through which lav- highest ranking ritual specialist of aluk to dolo),
ish death ceremonies could be turned into the introduction of the meat auction has deeply
ways of promoting social and religious change, subverted the symbolic system underlying
thus, at least partially, limiting the waste of ritual slaughtering. In fact, aluk to dolo entails
wealth and resources caused by Toraja funer- strict ritual requirements concerning the num-
als, which would be better off if used for more ber and the characteristics of the buffaloes
constructive goals. slaughtered for the ritual to be complete and
Moreover, lelang, far from being a mean- effective. This prescribes that according to the
ingless appendix, engenders several symbolic rank of the deceased the funeral has to be ac-
shifts both on the significance attached to ritual companied by the correct number and type of
slaughtering and to the practices of meat divi- buffaloes according to colour, marking and horn
sion and distribution. shape. Lelang, complains Tato’ Dena’, by sub-
As I mentioned above, funeral meat distri- tracting some buffaloes from the ritual circuit
bution is a crucial device of cultural reproduc- in order to be sold, undermines ritual complete-
tion, in fact, not only does it play a role in main- ness and contravenes the pemali (taboo) which
taining patron-client relations, but it is also stra- prescribes that meat from the sacrificed ani-
tegic in preserving and enhancing status. As it mals should be distributed, but, never ever, sold.
has been pointed out by Waterson (1993:78), Besides, aluk to dolo’s emphasis on the
‘the establishing and maintenance of status is uselessness of buffaloes that can never be
dependant upon the size and quality of cuts of employed for agriculture labour and should be
meat received’. Contrary to traditional patterns, virgins when sacrificed—thus ensuring they
lelang entails a radically different modality of are ‘the embodiment of supreme symbolic and
meat distribution. While in the bala’ kaan dis- sacred value’ (Thompson 2000:48)— is sub-
tribution is the status which determines to verted by the utilitarian logic of lelang.
whom the cuts of meat should be given, the Although, my genealogy of this recent
kind of meat distribution performed through ‘ritual institution’ may be interpreted as one of
lelang runs through a completely different pat- the many stories of the invention of traditions,
tern, here meat is obtained through the pay- I consider lelang not so much as an invented
ment of a certain sum: each participant is virtu- tradition14, but rather as a context where it is
ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA 72, 2003 47