Making Blood White: Historical Transformations in Early Modern Makassar

4. Historical Literacy and Social Hierarchicalization

Part 2 of this work examines how the changing conceptions of history that literacy effected led to tangible and remarkable social, political, and cultural changes in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Makassar. Literacy, of course, was not the only force at work, and all historical change cannot be traced to it alone. But new ways of conceiving the past played often pivotal roles in shaping or giving form to the changes afoot in Makassar. This chapter examines the effects of the new ways of imagining the past that literacy sparked in creating a more hierarchical , ranked social order. The idea of a ranked social order based on historical claims, which many have seen as a “classical” feature of Makassarese society, took root and blossomed in this period. The idea of rank itself, of course, was not new to Makassar during this period. Social differentiation by rank is one of the most evident hallmarks of all Austronesian societies, from Bali to Hawai‘i and more. As the historical linguist Robert Blust has noted, the concept of being cursed or “swelling”—bassung in Makassarese—as a result of offending or violating the status of a higher-ranked individual was ancient and widespread among Western Malayo-Polynesian societies.1 Early Makassarese society was certainly no exception. To argue that literacy created the idea of social division by rank in formerly egalitarian oral cultures is mistaken. Rather, the argument here is that literacy increased and augmented an existing cultural trait, that literacy was a catalyst spurring to unprecedented heights the widespread Austronesian tendency to divide people by rank. As the effects of historical literacy were complex, so too the ways in which the past made itself felt in the present, thereby increasing social differentiation in Makassar, can be approached from several perspech 4 h Historical Literacy and Social Hierarchicalization tives. This chapter maps out three facets of this process of social hierarchicalization and, concomitantly, three ways that writing about the past made its presence felt in early modern Makassar. First, the establishment of a legitimizing standard of historical descent based on white blood is discussed as the critical move separating nobles from commoners . Second, the effects of making and possessing written genealogies is explored. Third, I examine the increasing sense fostered by writing histories that the past can be possessed and the social consequences of this new attitude toward the past. Making Blood White The Gowa Chronicle includes a telling explanation of why the work was composed. As cited in the previous chapter, the chronicler writes, “This is recited so that nothing is forgotten by our children, by our grandchildren , by our descendants. Because if it is not known, there are two dangers : either we will feel ourselves to be karaengs too, or outsiders will call us common people.” The double purpose of this statement—to differentiate oneself from those of lower rank while not transgressing the prerogatives of those of higher rank—is an exemplary case of a widespread Makassarese emphasis on knowing one’s proper social position. Ethnographers have repeatedly cited the pervasiveness of status rivalry in modern Makassarese society and its influence in every realm of social life from weddings to political machinations.2 The urge to improve one’s own status, and the keen sense of competition with others of similar status , seemingly knew (and knows) no bounds in Makassarese life. It is difficult to grasp the extent to which visible signs of hierarchy and status came to pervade early modern Makassarese life. Although Makassarese read these signs with a fluency we cannot capture, it is possible to gain a sense of how displaying and measuring status were constant Makassarese preoccupations. The marking of status was most visible on ceremonial occasions in which Makassarese carefully and deliberately presented interpretations of social relations. Indeed, marking status began quite literally at birth. Nineteenth-century ethnographies note that the placenta was preserved in an earthen pot and either buried or hanged in a tree seven days after birth among commoners, and either nine, fourteen, or eighteen days among nobles, depending on their rank.3 Festivities continued to mark the elevated rank of noble children. A year or two after birth the infant’s hair was ceremonially cut for the first time, a modest and unremarkable occasion for 94 h Making History h commoners but accompanied by great feasting and celebrations among nobles.4 Again among noble families, at about age six...