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

NUMBER 34 21
and about contact between, the languages of die North
Moluccas.
1. The Tobelo think of themselves as an ethnic group and
consider tiiemselves to speak a single language, whose details
vary from one viUage to another, but which is locally divided
into heleworuru (H) dialect of die nortii and boeng (B) dialect
of the south. Following Hueting (1908c), we may further
distinguish the divergent "Dodinga" (D) dialect, though it is
considered "Boeng" by its own speakers. Thus Tobelo have a
clear idea of both "dialect" and "language"; and if linguists
should choose to call, e.g., Pagu and Kao die same language
(based perhaps on percentages of cognation in basic vocabulary),
tiiis would not affect die fact that die two are locaUy
considered distinct languages.
2. Consistent witii this assumption that Tobelo is a single
language, its speakers are anxious to "align" their own folk
classification systems with those of other Tobelo (see 5.2.1.3
below). They frequendy try to explain dialectal differences
when tiiey come across them. There is no such concern for die
clearly divergent folk taxonomies of otiier ethnic groups.
3. The long North Moluccan history of constant outside
contacts has encouraged many foreign borrowings into Tobelo
and other regional languages. In die particular case of North
Moluccan Malay borrowings, there appear to be two stages,
which it is tempting to treat as historical phases: in die first
(presumably before NMM was commonly spoken by Tobelo),
NMM words were assimilated into a Tobelo phonological
pattern; but now tiiat bilingualism is common ("phase two"),
NMM terms are pronounced in Tobelo precisely as tiiey are
pronounced in NMM.
4. Whtie die strong influence of NMM may be invoked to
explain particular details of Tobelo folk classification, and is a
source of considerable synonymy, even monolingual speakers
of North Moluccan Malay must borrow heavdy from Halmahera's
indigenous languages for terms in die BIOTIC
FORM domain where "proper" or "standard" Indonesian terms
are locally rarely known. Halmahera's many immigrants from
otiier etiinic backgrounds frequendy borrow Tobelo terms to
classify Halmahera's unique fauna and flora.
5. The in-law name taboo, which might be considered a
sociolinguistic phenomenon of sweeping effect, turns out on
examination to have a bark much fiercer tiian its bite. Because
there are so many ways to avoid the taboo's apparendy severe
limits on the pronunciation of certain sound sequences, die
prohibition in fact has relatively little effect on die free
transmission of information, even if in-laws are present.
MinimaUy, it encourages the use of circumlocutions, and
diereby may speed up die creation of new terminology. It also
probably encourages the high degree of synonymy in the
language, because alternative forms from Tobelo or other
languages can substitute for any word which would be
disrespectful to pronounce.
Finally, die in-law name taboo has some practical effects on
any analyst's description of Tobelo nomenclature. It requires a
very particular exception to most generalizations made below
(3.2) about word boundaries, "acceptable" and "nonacceptable"
compounds, etc. For example, one may stricdy
define, and loosely tiiink of, a "simple" word as one which
cannot be subdivided into parts (see 3.2.2.1 for nomenclatured
definitions). Yet a person who is trying to avoid saying an
in-law name may regularly say any simple word leaving out (or
just humming) only die syllables he must avoid, even tiiough
die latter constitute a submorphemic part of the word. I once
heard a woman refer to her son-in-law named "Leo" by simply
pronouncing and holding die sound "L" (die initial sound in
tiiat word) until die person addressed figured out whom she
meant, and pronounced Leo's name for her.
2.2 The Cultural Importance of Local Biota
This study primarily focuses on aspects of folk classification.
Neverdieless, this system of folk biological classification
cannot be studied (tiiough to some extent it can heuristically be
described) in isolation from die many areas of Tobelo cultural
life in which tiieir folk biological knowledge plays a major role.
2.2.1 Subsistence and Diet
Subsistence activities are important to folk biological
knowledge, partly because so much of a culture's attention to
animals and plants is directed toward important subsistence
products. Each activity tiiat exploits those products is a source
of cultural information about local biota. Even tiiough there are
few local staple crops (manioc, bananas, sago, and in some
areas rice), die great many non-staple cultivated or tended
varieties require considerable familiarity with each type and
witii its preparation and use. Extensive forest-product gatiiering,
most often done by males on wdd pig and deer hunts,
requires anotiier kind of specialized knowledge, as does
off-shore fishing. Variations in each individual's familiarity
witii these areas of subsistence activity are reflected in
knowledge of folk classification in those domains.
Cultural notions about a "proper" meal (here consisting of a
starchy base (rice, manioc, bananas, or sago) plus hiode, i.e.,
meat or vegetables to accompany starchy food), and about
eating (among Tobelo, food is often summarily eaten to quickly
achieve a feeling of being "satisfied" or "full" (Tbl: inaapunuhoka))
also affect animal and plant exploitation.
2.2.2 Ethnogeography
The intensive local familiarity witii the coasts and jungles of
tiiis region is enriched by folk tales and myths about die
man-named places tiiat make up the jungles' cultural topography
(cf. Hueting, 1908b). These geographical names are in
most cases die names of plants or animals. The name may be of
a plant prominent in die area, or of a plant or animal associated
with the region in folklore. The coUection and mapping of