The Folk Biology of the Tobelo People - Smithsonian Institution ...

NUMBER 34 15
bass guitar (whose wooden top doubles as a drum) and
hand-held guitars, which every young male in most villages can
play, rotating pairs of old and young dancers dance the
European-influenced North Moluccan "ronggeng" until dawn.
Though increasingly pushed aside by popular Indonesian
music learned from radio or cassettes, the moving love-songs
that accompany the local ronggeng are most appropriately
sung in the Galela language, even where protagonists of the
songs are of another ethnic group. Only rarely are such songs in
Tobelo. These songs constitute the only register in which
Galela seems preferred. This current popularity of Galela in
festival songs of the Tobelo youth is of questionable antiquity,
and may merely reflect the common opinion that the Galela do
write die most moving love songs set to the slow beat of the
ronggeng dance.
2.1.3 Ethnicity, Religion, and Language in Halmaheran
Villages
Four important factors strongly influence the distribution of
etiinic groups in Halmaheran villages.
1. The first is that, since the late nineteentii century,
Halmaherans have generally adopted one of die region's two
great religions (Christianity and Islam) along etiinic group
lines; almost all Tobelo, Galela, Buli, Pagu, Sahu, and Loloda
people, for instance, are Christian; while effectively all etiinic
Tbrnatese, Tidorese, Makianese, or Maba are Moslem.
2. Although marriage across ethnic boundaries is frequent,
marriage of Christians with Moslems is rare.
3. In addition, Halmahera has attracted immigrants from
otiier islands for several reasons. Certainly die most significant
for many groups (Sangir, Talaud, Makian, Tidore) has been die
ease of opening up choice new land in Halmahera's uncut
jungles, while for otiiers (including Bugis, Makassarese, and
Chinese) opportunites for commercial profit as traders seem the
most significant factor. There were also intensive Dutch efforts
to transport workers from Tanimbar, Kei, Flores, and otiier
places (including Talaud) for wage labor on Halmaheran
plantations such as the coconut plantation at Akeselaka (Wastie
District), from which many nearby towns (including Wasile
Vtilage and Loleba) added to tiieir populations. These Christian
newcomers worked on die plantations only until they were able
to establish their own farms.
4. Finally, such historical and continuing sources of ethnic
admixture are coupled with the high mobility of individual
Tobelo, especially males, though even small groups of females
also often travel to other villages seemingly at a moment's
notice and without escort to take part in any festivities. Girls are
often escorted to relatives in a distant vtilage, sometimes to stay
for several months. I have often heard Tobelo parents tell their
sons who ask permission to go to anotiier vdlage that "a male
child can always wander." This freedom of movement
impressed nineteenth-century missionaries. As Hueting
(1921:240) wrote:
The Tobelo yearn for wandering; they move away with ease, and whenever they
deem themselves wronged their first expression is, "Then I'll go away!" One
could naturally call diis a lust for freedom, but it rather degenerates into
lawlessness, and makes them difficult to rule, even for their own adat
[customary] chiefs.
The Islam-Christian division is generally visible in die
layout of Halmahera's ethnically and religiously mixed coastal
villages' populations, witii the Islamic section of die village
invariably placed "seaward" of die Tobelo (Christian) section
in tiiose areas considered originally populated by Tobelo. In
such areas the Tobelo consider tiiemselves and are considered
ma tonaka ma dutu, which direetiy translates die widespread
Indonesian term tuan tanah 'lord of die land.' The largely
Christian Chinese traders may live in eitiier section of the
village, but many Islamic traders (such as Bugis, Makassarese),
also attracted to Halmahera by its commerce, generally take up
residence in Islamic sections of divided villages. Whtie many
villages have only one of these religions (including Loleba
(witii two Christian sects) and Pasir Putih), those witii botii
Christian and Moslem populations (e.g., Wasile, Lolobata,
Ekor, Fayaul in WasUe District) maintain tiiis divided
setdement pattern.
Wasde Village (Wastie District, Halmahera; resident population
approximately 400) provides an example of such an
ethnically and religiously integrated 'Tobelo" community (i.e.,
a vdlage in an area in which Tobelo are "lords of die land" and
in which there is a sizeable Tobelo community "landwards" of
die line of Islamic houses on the shore). The village is (like
Kao, direetiy across Kao Bay from Wasile) locally known for
its long tradition of ethnic admixture. It was also formerly die
site of the district capital, and so it may be contrasted below
witii Loleba Village (Wastie District) and Pasir Putih ViUage
(Jatiolo District) in its ethnic admixture and especially its
language use.
In April 1978,1 surveyed heads of households and tiieir
wives at WasUe Village, asking among other questions which
languages they "commanded" (see responses, Table 1).
(Indonesian government censuses are also by "household head"
(kepala keluarga), and whUe it is possible for a woman, whose
husband has divorced her or died, to maintain her own
household as "household head," tiiere were no such instances at
Wasile, where aU household heads were male.)
In considering die question, many respondents spontaneously
noted die difference between "knowing" (Ind: tahu) and
"commanding" (Ind: menguasai) a language. When tiiey were
unsure about which languages to count, I pointedly noted tiiat
die question referred to languages "commanded," not "known."
Six persons claimed to be monolingual Indonesian-speakers
(note tiiat by comparison no one in Loleba vtilage except die
Chinese trader was monolingual, nor was anyone except one
newcomer in Pasir Putih vdlage). The majority of respondents
are bilingual (75.6%); speakers bilingual in Tobelo and
Indonesian account for 58.5% of the total number of
respondents (or 78.3% of aU bilingual respondents).