Making a Living between Crises and Ceremonies in Tana Toraja

Abstract

This publication has been typeset in the multilingual "Brill" typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface.ISSN 1572-1892 ISBN 978-90-04-25240-0 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25247-9 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Edwin de Jong. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher.Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper.This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND License, which permits any non-commercial use, and distribution, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited.The realization of this publication was made possible by the support of KITLV (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies). Having obtained a MA in Development Studies and, in so doing, gained fieldwork experience on the effects of the economic crisis in Thailand, a whole new direction opened up. Not only did I need to study the history and context of a different Southeast Asian country (in this case Indonesia) and another language, I also had to absorb many aspects of another discipline, namely Cultural Anthropology. Some would argue that it is better to focus on a single discipline in one's education, rather than two, and it would definitely have shortened the process, but I have learnt that Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies have a lot to offer each other, and that their integration strengthens both fieldwork and analysis.Both Development Studies and Cultural Anthropology offer studies into similar topics, but from different perspectives (which sometimes oppose each other), and employ different research methods. However, this new learning route has taught me that both perspectives are highly intertwined, and that only by integrating the two perspectives can the 'logic' behind the way people in Tana Toraja make a living between crises and ceremonies be thoroughly understood. In line with my own experiences, I hope that this thesis stimulates further exchanges between anthropologists and academics from development studies. If it is successful in this, it will contribute to research methodology, the core concepts and theories of both disciplines and, most importantly, reduce one-sided misinterpretations of complex societies, by over-emphasizing either culture or socio-economics,...

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“…Most Torajans are Christians who, also, observe their aluk to dolo (way of ancestors) tradition. Their funerals and tongkonan ancestral houses reflect a traditional Torajan cosmology (Adams, 2006;de Jong, 2013). Torajans are an ethnic and religious minority in Sulawesi where the population is dominated by Bugis, Makassarese, Mandarese and other Muslim ethnic groups.…”

“…We conducted site visits to tourist attractions to monitor infrastructure development, business activity and visitation. We also used secondary data from ethnographical studies by anthropologists who specialize in the region undertaken since the 1970s to assist with understanding past path-shaping events and path-dependence in the Toraja tourism industry (Volkman, 1985;Yamashita, 1988;Adams, 2006;de Jong, 2013). A limitation of our sampling methods for interviews could be a bias towards larger organizations and informants in senior positions as involvement in the tourism industry and seniority were two preferred criteria for interview participants.…”

Initiating Discourse on Toraja Church Economic Theology: Role of Tongkonan in Forming and Developing Economic Theology in Toraja Church

“…Edwin de Jong begins his analysis by showing the basic principles of the values of social relations and the source of Toraja human livelihood, "I will first try to get a better analytical grip on the most common social relations and networks in Torajan societythose defined by kinship and houses." (de Jong, 2013) Husband and wife in a family begin to build a tongkonan (means a house) to guarantee the kinship of their offspring. The essence of the philosophy of Tongkonan is a bond to guarantee a happy life in this world and the world to come.…”