Art as Politics

Chapter 2. Competing Toraja Images of Identity

My introduction to the politically charged nature of identity imagery in Tana Toraja began on my third day in Rantepao. I was hunting for a map of the area, and several young aspiring Toraja guides steered me in the direction of a small general store near the market. I wandered into the dimly lit shop, past the dusty glass cases crammed with Toraja pop music cassette tapes, knock-off designer watches, pocket knives, lipstick, and hair barrettes, to a counter at the back of the shop, where the portly Chinese shop owner sat conversing with a friend. The shop owner turned to me with a grin, pulled out a wooden stool and invited me to join him and his friend for a conversation about Toraja anthropology. Baffled by his seeming clairvoyance , I took up his offer and settled into the wobbly stool, depositing my bag on the cement floor. The shop owner’s companion, a broad-faced man in his fifties, confessed that he had been a fellow passenger on my bus from Makassar and had tipped off the shop owner that I was “not just another tourist.” Smiling proudly, he introduced himself as the “grandson of Tammu,” the coauthor of the Toraja-Indonesian dictionary that I carried in my bag. “I couldn’t talk to you on the bus,” he said, “and I thought I’d missed the opportunity to share my ideas about Toraja anthropology, since I live down in Luwu and am only in Rantepao for a funeral. It’s fortunate that we’ve had this chance encounter. God was looking out for us.” While the shop owner disappeared into the back room to ask his wife to prepare some coffee, Tammu’s grandson leaned forward on his stool and began to give me advice about what should be the focus of my research. In a serious tone, he counseled: As an anthropologist, you should write a book about the real Toraja identity and history, both the good and the bad. I mean Toraja identity that is authentic [asli, BI]1 and true. I don’t like to see Toraja identity presented with make-up to conceal its 2 Competing Toraja Images of Identity 36 : chapter 2 flaws. These days some people here, local cultural experts, use their writings to cover up the negative, embarrassing things— like slaves—and magnify the positive things. We Toraja read some of these books and don’t recognize ourselves. We need a new book to correct all of these portraits of Torajas with make-up . . . When the shop owner’s wife reappeared, balancing three amber glasses of sugared coffee on a carved Toraja tray, Tammu’s grandson paused, and I had a moment to consider his remarks. Over the previous half dozen years the Toraja had been abruptly thrust into the anthropological and touristic spotlight. Clearly the growing mounds of literature on the Toraja, especially those works by Toraja writers, had captured Tammu’s grandson’s attention. I was reflecting on his depiction of Toraja with make-up when he resumed his commentary, My grandfather wrote a book that represents the authentic Toraja history I’m talking about. Only four copies of this book still exist. He worked with the Dutch missionary, Dr. van der Veen.2 He even had access to his notes. My grandfather’s book describes all sorts of local customs—it tells about the different kinds of slaves and even documents the rituals allowing slaves to marry nobles and not have their children considered slaves—how many water buffalo they have to sacrifice and all that. But nowadays slaves are simply marrying nobles and declaring their children nobles. That’s not right. The more time passes, the more nobles we get! As he shook his head disapprovingly, I found myself momentarily at a loss for words. I was startled by his use of the term “slave” (hamba, BI). From the ethnographies I had read in preparation for my fieldwork, I knew social stratification was heavily emphasized in the southern and valley areas of the Toraja highlands (particularly in the Rantepao, Kesu’, Sangalla’, and Makale regions).3 Toraja society, I understood, had long been hierarchically oriented on the basis of descent, wealth, age, and occupation. According to the two volumes on the Toraja that I had carried with me to Indonesia, the precolonial Toraja recognized several basic social strata: the aristocracy (puang or to parengngne’), commoners (to buda, to sama) and slaves (to kaunan...