Our Past, Their Myths: Dynamics of Stranger Incorporation and Mutual Misunderstanding in Maluku, East Indonesia
Dr Geger Riyanto (Universitas Indonesia)
A major theme in study of Austronesian landscapes has been cultural alliances with strangers, and incorporation of immigrants into local social orders. Indigenous groups associate strangers with danger and potential, while also connecting with them in order to assimilate their power. Focusing on the Butonese of Central Maluku, Indonesia, I hope to demonstrate the contemporary complexities of this dynamic of stranger incorporation. The Butonese movement to Maluku exemplifies both a general and specific case of immigration in Indonesia. Their migration, like many others, is motivated by hardships in their unproductive homeland, and they relocate to a location that offers better opportunities, facilitated mainly by their family and ethnic networks. However, the Butonese are described in autochthonous Malukan people’s own legends as important members of ancient political alliances or as powerful former entities.
While this might appear to fit a stranger king template, Butonese people’s mythical stature is not reflected in their current situation. They are regarded as lowly newcomers, are harshly told that they have no rights to the lands or village political positions, and are subject to abrupt withdrawal of land lease rights or other forms of exclusion. The contradiction between the legends and their precarious social position leads the Butonese to distrust Maluku's prior settlers and to hold an everyday millenarian attitude of anticipating a sudden disruption of the current social order.
Geger Riyanto received his doctorate from the Institute of Anthropology at Heidelberg University. He is currently a tenure-track lecturer at the Department of Anthropology, Universitas Indonesia. His current research interests include indigenous and settler intergroup relationships, as well as resource frontiers, with a focus on Indonesia's eastern region. He received the Frobenius Institute's 2023 award for best ethnological dissertation in German-speaking countries.