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On the Contemporary Uses of Colonial History and the Legitimation of Political Status in Archipelagic Southeast Seram

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Roy Ellen
Roy Ellen
Affiliation:
University of Kent at Canterbury
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Abstract

Drawing upon data from the Seram Laut and Gorom archipelagoes, this paper examines how contemporary rulers legitimate their rights by asserting links with sources of traditional authority. In particular, it is argued that archaic titles remain important because the colonial period stabilized the relationship between domains, and because such titles thus provide a means of validating claims to resources, combating state incursions and competing for influence. The possession of old documents supports such claims by confirming them in writing, but also by being old “things” linked to the person of the ruler.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 78 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1997

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References

This paper was first delivered at a European Colloquium on Indonesian and Malay Studies held in Berne in 1989 on the theme of texts. Different versions have, subsequently, been presented at various institutions, including University College London, the University of Durham and Washington University in St. Louis. Despite an incorrect citation to its appearance in Ethnologica Bernensia 4, it is published here for the first time. The paper arises from fieldwork in archipelagic southeast Seram during 1981 and 1986, conducted under the auspices of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences and funded by a Nuffield Foundation fellowship. It also draws upon archival material examined during my tenure at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in Wassenaar in 1984. The "present" of the ethnographic data is, therefore, 1986. I am grateful to Hermien Soselisa of Pattimura University in Ambon for informing me of the recent death of Raja Abdul Aziz R. Wattimena of Kataloka who was the source of much of the information gathered here. I would like to use this opportunity to dedicate this paper to his memory.

1 See, in particular, Hoskins, J., “The headhunter as hero: local traditions and their reinterpretation in national history”, American Ethnologist 14, 4 (1987): 605–622CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cunningham, C. E., “Celebrating a Toba Batak national hero: an Indonesian rite of identity”, in Changing Lives, Changing Rites: Ritual and Social Dynamics in Philippine and Indonesian Uplands, ed. Russell, S. D. and Cunningham, C. E. (University of Michigan: Michigan Studies in South and Southeast Asia, Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 1989), pp. 167–200.Google Scholar

2 These calculations are based on figures given in the Statistik Tahunan Kecamatan Seram Timur Dalam Angka (Geser: Kantor Wilayah Kecamatan Seram Timur) for 1982, except that for the total area of the sub-district which is computed from boundaries indicated on the official Peta Propinsi Maluku issued in 1965. Boundaries have not changed since then.Google Scholar

3 The population rose by 2,725 between 1974 and 1982, though when considered as a fraction of the total must be treated as being stable by overall Indonesian standards: 1974: 42,324; 1975: 42,937; 1976: 43,087; 1977: 43,318; 1978: 43,500 (estimate, figures not available); 1979: 43,618; 1980: 43,846; 1981: 44,518; 1982: 45,049.

4 Perhaps it should be noted here that in the wider context concepts of space and distance are still peripheral to much modelling of power relations in political anthropology. See, however: Benedict, B., “Sociological characteristics of small territories and their implications for economic development”, in The social anthropology of complex societies, ed. Bant, M. on ( London: Tavistock, Association of Social Anthropologists, Monograph 4, 1966)Google Scholar; Canfield, R. L., “The ecology of rural ethnic groups and the spatial dimensions of power”, American Anthropologist 75 (1973): 1511–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Crumley, C. L., “Towards a locational definition of state systems”, American Anthropologist 78 (1976): 59–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ellen, R. F., “Persistence and change in the relationship between anthropology and human geography”, Progress in Human Geography 2 (1988): 244Google Scholar; Richards, P., “Spatial organization as a theme in African studies”, Progress in Human Geography 8 (1984): 551–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Smith, C. A. (ed.), Regional analysis. Vol. 2. Social systems (New York: Academic Press, 1976).Google Scholar

5 There must be larger sub-districts elsewhere (measured in terms of distance between the two furthest inhabited points) with more formidable problems of internal communication, whether terrestrial (as in Irian Jaya) or maritime, where the point might be made even more effectively. Aru would appear to be one such in the Moluccas. See also Ellen, R. F., “Trade, environment and the reproduction of local systems in the Moluccas”, in The Ecosystem Concept in Anthropology (AAAS Selected Symposium 92), ed. Moran, E. F. (Boulder CO: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1984), pp. 163–204Google Scholar; Ellen, R. F., “Environmental perturbation, inter-island trade and the re-location of production along the Banda arc; or, why central places remain central”, in Human Ecology of Health and Survival in Asia and the South Pacific, ed. Suzuki, T. and Ohtsuka, R. (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1987), p. 54.Google Scholar

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8 Statistik Tahunan 1982, p. 8.Google Scholar

9 The salary of a village head is around 12,500 rupiahs per month, though this appears to vary depending on the desa. I believe the Raja of Kelu mentioned a figure of 15,000.

10 On the granting of titles by external powers in the Moluccan area during the period immediately prior to European arrival, and during the period of early European contact, see, e.g., P. R. Abdurachman, “New Winds, New Faces, New Forces” (unpublished paper presented at conference on “Southeast Asian responses to European intrusions”; Singapore: British Institute in Southeast Asia, 1981); Ellen,, R. F. “Conundrums about Panjandrums: on the use of titles in the relations of political subordination in the Moluccas and along the Papuan coast”, Indonesia 41 (1986): 50–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Andaya,, L. Y.The World of Maluku: Eastern Indonesia in the Early Modern Period (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), pp. 105, 107, 177, 189.Google Scholar

11 Ellen, “Conundrums about Panjandrums”, p. 54.

12 Ibid., pp. 51–55.

13 Ellen, “Environmental Perturbation”, p. 42; Knaap,, G. J.Kruidnagelen en chistenen: de Verenigde Oost-lndische Compagnie en de bevolking van Ambon 1656–1696 (Dordrecht-Holland; Providence-U.S.A.: Foris Publications, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 125, 1987), pp. 65–70.Google Scholar

14 Ellen, “Environmental Perturbation”, pp. 56–57.

15 Ellen, “Conundrums about Panjandrums”, p. 56; Ellen, “Environmental Perturbation”, pp. 46–47; Resink,, G. J. “Independent rulers, realms, and lands in Indonesia, 1850–1910”, in Indonesia's History between the Myths: Essays in Legal History and Historical Theor (The Hague: Van Hoeve, 1968).Google Scholar

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18 See the discussion of the “stranger-king” in Andaya, The world of Maluku, p. 65.

19 Watson,, C. W.State and society in Indonesia (University of Kent at Canterbury: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Occasional Paper No. 8, 1987), p. 51.Google Scholar

20 Bik,, A. J.Dagverhael eener reis, gedaan in het jaar 1824 tot nadere verkenning der eilanden Kefing, Goram, Groot-Klein Kei en de Aroe-eilanden (Leiden: Sijthoff, 1928[1824]).Google Scholar

21 Ellen,, R. “Faded images of old Tidore in Contemporary Southeast Seram: a View from the Periphery”, Cakalele: Maluku Research Journal 4 (1993): 24–25.Google Scholar

22 Ellen,, R. F. “Fetishism”, Man (N. S.) 23, 1 (1988): 1–23.Google Scholar

23 Anderson, “The Idea of Power”, pp. 12–13.

24 Sundhaussen,, U.The road to power: Indonesian military politics 1945–1967 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 155–56.Google Scholar

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