Lamaholot

ETHNONYMS: Ata Kiwan, Holo, Solor, Solorese, Solot

Orientation

Identification. The Lamaholot speak the Lamaholot language. The name has been applied to the ethnic group only recently and only in academic writing. The great majority is Roman Catholic, although many are Muslim and a few are Protestant, Hindu, and Buddhist; some acknowledge no affiliation with any of these religions.

Location. The Lamaholot are found on the islands of east Flores, Adonara, Solor, and Lembata, between 8°05′ and 8°40′ S and between 122°35′ and 123°45′ E, in the Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur.

Demography. The 1980 Census inconsistently lists both 229,010 and 227,750 as the number of residents of the Regency of East Flores (homeland of the Lamaholot), omitting the ethnically and linguistically distinct Kédang. The average population density of the regency, excluding Kédang, is 81 persons per square kilometer. There were 80 males per 100 females, compared with 99.6 for the province as a whole. Some areas have suffered drastically from out-migration of young men seeking wage labor elsewhere. This problem is particularly acute in parts of north Lembata and east Adonara, where the ratio drops as low as 63 males per 100 females.

Linguistic Affiliation. Lamaholot belongs to the Central Malayo-Polynesian Subgrouping of Austronesian.

History and Cultural Relations

Islam came to the Lamaholot long before it became established on Java and elsewhere in Indonesia. There were a mosque and many Muslims on Solor in 1559, when the Jesuit Father Baltasar Diaz visited the island. The Portuguese Dominicans established a mission on Solor in 1561 and a fort in 1566. Before the arrival of the Portuguese, the Lamaholot were influenced by the Hindu Javanese. Larantuka, Flores, was said to have been conquered by a Majapahit fleet in 1357, and Solor appears in the Negarakertagama as a Majapahit dependency. Some Lamaholot recognized the suzerainty of the Sultan of Ternate in the sixteenth century. The Dutch captured the Solor fort in 1613, and thereafter different Lamaholot areas were allied loosely with either the Portuguese or the Dutch until the Portuguese ceded their rights in the Solor Archipelago in 1859. The pattern of alliances with the Europeans in the seventeenth century and later roughly corresponded with indigenous feuding between villages denominated by Demonara (today simply Demon), who tended to be associated with the Portuguese, and Pajinara (today Paji), who were often Muslim and who in some cases maintained treaty ties with the Dutch. The Dutch established effective direct control through a series of military actions at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth.

The Lamaholot are linguistically and culturally close to the Sikanese to the west and the Kédang to the east. There are three main dialects of Lamaholot: west (on Flores close to the border with Sika), central (east Flores, Adonara, and Solor) and east (Lembata). Bahasa Alor, spoken in enclaves on the northern coast of Pantar and the western coast of Alor, is at least partially intelligible to Lamaholot speakers.

Settlements

The government has consolidated traditional villages and hamlets into administrative units of 1,000 to 2,000 inhabitants under an elected village head, treasurer, and secretary. Bamboo houses with palm-leaf or grass roofs are being replaced with structures made of brick and cement with corrugated iron roofs. The government and the Catholic mission encourage this transformation.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Most people depend on swidden agriculture for subsistence. Coastal peoples often fish. Lamakera, Solor, Lamalera, and Lembata hunt whales and manta ray. Dugong are taken along protected coasts. Maize is the staple, supplemented by rice, tubers, vegetables, and spices. Cotton and indigo are produced locally. Palms have many uses in construction and food provision. Crops that are sold to traders include copra, tamarind, and candlenuts. Deer antlers, shark fins, and birds' nests are also supplied to traders for export. Domestic animals include pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, dogs, and buffalo. Deer and wild pigs are hunted. Schoolteachers are assured a regular income.

Industrial Arts. Various Lamaholot specialize in pot making, blacksmithing, and the weaving and dyeing of coarse or fine ikat cloth. Some villages provide expert carpenters and boat builders.

Trade. Some of the coastal villages, particularly Lamahala, Trong, Adonara, Lamakera, and Solor regularly engage in trade of various kinds. As a general pattern, mountain dwellers trade agricultural products, coconuts, and goats to coastal villages for fish and manufactured products. Weekly markets attract inexpensive commodities and produce. Stores, mostly Chinese-owned, are found in the larger towns.

Division of Labor. Men fish, hunt, construct boats and houses, and carry on some forms of trade. Women weave, make pots, trade produce and cloth, and cook for domestic needs. Men generally assume political roles. Both sexes share in the work in the fields.

Land Tenure. In east Flores village land, usually owned by the major clan, is divided and allotted each year by the lord of the land. Elsewhere the pattern is less clear. Property tends to be associated with a village; rights of usage are established individually by clearing and maintaining fields. Under government encouragement, much previously unsafe and unused land has been cleared and concepts of individual ownership of property are being introduced.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. In most areas, segmentary descent groups are ordered by patrilineal descent. In parts of Adonara, descent groups appear to have lost significance and have been replaced by the patripotestal family. In the extreme west, descent is matrilineal.

Kinship Terminology. The relationship system varies in detail from village to village. All terminologies recorded to date are ordered by patrilineal descent and a matrilateral marriage prescription.

Marriage and the Family

Marriage. Where the parties to the marriage are Catholic or Muslim, the appropriate ceremony of these religions is used. For most of the area, at least some form of asymmetric marriage alliance, involving the exchange of alliance prestations, was formerly practiced. There is great regional variation in how the alliances work and in whether or not the prestations are actually given. Catholicism generally blocks marriage between the mother's brother's daughter and the father's sister's son. Wife-giving affines are superior to wife-taking affines. The close relatives of the mother control the well-being of her children and are deemed divine by them. Alliance gifts include elephant tusks for wife givers and fine ikat (tie-dyed) cloths given in return to wife takers. In some places building material and cash have replaced tusks, which now are rare. Where alliance exchanges have taken place, the couple lives in the home of the husband's parents or establishes a new residence. Where no exchange has taken place, the first years of marriage are spent with the wife's family. Divorce is easily arranged, except for Catholics.

Domestic Unit. Households include husband, wife, children, younger brothers or cousins, elderly parents, and other dependents.

Inheritance. Homes, wealth, and alliance obligations are transmitted according to the local rule of descent, usually patrilineal. There is some variation concerning whether only the oldest brother inherits.

Socialization. Parents and the extended network of close kin care for children. Children go through the rites of passage appropriate to their religion. Prior to the twentieth century education was available only in Larantuka, Flores. Since the 1920s, educational opportunities have expanded. Elementary education is now available to all. Junior and senior high schools and Islamic teacher-training schools are located in the regency. Some go on to higher education elsewhere in Indonesia.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. The clans owning land are relatively powerful and wealthy. Petty nobility in various places have lost office, power, and much influence since independence. Otherwise, social distinctions based on wealth are basically not easily perceivable. Slavery, however, was formerly widespread.

Political Organization. In east Flores the head of the original or landowning clan determines the time for planting and harvesting and directs the communal ceremonies. In some communities he grants permission to open new land. Through much of the Lamaholot region there is a system of four ritual leaders who formerly had governing powers as well. Most prominent was kepala koten, who assumed leadership over internal village affairs. Kepala kelen concerned himself with external affairs. The other two positions, hurit (hurin, hurint ) and marang, were advisory. The influence of other village elders tempered the powers of these four figures. The Dutch divided the region into six administrative territories headed by rajas: Larantuka, Adonara, Trong, Lamahala, Lohayong (Lawayong), and Lamakera. Later they placed the territory of Trong under the raja of Adonara and the territories of Lamahala, Lohayong, and Lamakera under the raja of Larantuka. The Indonesian government abolished these positions. Today the Regency of East Flores (Kabupaten Flores Timur) is divided into a series of districts (kecamatan ) under appointed heads.

Religion and Expressive Cullture

Religious Beliefs. The census of 1980 shows that 81.9 percent were Roman Catholic, 17.3 were Muslim, and .2 percent were Protestant. There were insignificant numbers of Hindus and Buddhists, and .6 percent did not declare religious preference. Given these figures, it might be thought that there is no longer any point in speaking about the traditional religion, even though a good deal of information has been recorded about it. These figures, however, should probably not be taken at face value.

The Lamaholot name for God is "Lera Wulan" (SunMoon). His female complement is called "Tana Ekan" (the Earth). Lera Wulan is now associated with the God of Christianity and Islam. Alternative names for God are Lahatala, Letala, Latala, or Lahatala Dunia (all of Arabic derivation). Lesser spirits, nitu, inhabit the tops of trees, large stones, springs, and holes in the ground. Also to be mentioned are Ile Woka, the god of the mountains, and Hari Botan, the god of the sea.

Religious Practitioners. The lord of the land formerly directed communal ceremonies, usually as part of the system of four ritual leaders mentioned above. Traditional priests and healers are called molang. Witches (menaka ) cause all sorts of human misfortune.

Ceremonies. Prominent ceremonies and festivals include those associated with erecting a house or building and launching a boat, and those that take place in the clan ritual house. There are also important rituals in the fields (in connection with planting and harvesting) and on the beach (in connection with the beginning of the annual fishing cycle). Some communities maintain annual rituals purifying the village.

Arts. The arts are largely limited to basketry, music, and the weaving of fine cloth. Decorative carving has largely disappeared. Tattooing is declining.

Medicine. Hospitals and clinics provide some access to modern medical treatment, but not enough by any means. Traditional healers still set bones, repair sprains, and attempt to cope with more serious illness.

Death and Afterlife. People have two souls, the tuber and the manger. While the former may leave the body, the latter may not. Upon death the tuber goes to Lera Wulan or is eaten by nitu or menaka. The manger goes to the land of the dead. The world is divided into several levels. When a person dies, he or she is reborn on the next level below. After several lives and deaths, he or she completes the cycle and begins again.

See also Kédang

Bibliography

Arndt, Paul (1940). Soziale Verhältnisse auf Ost-Flores, Adonara und Solor. Anthropos, Internationale Sammlung Ethnologischer Monographien, vol. 4. Münster in W.: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung.

Arndt, Paul (1951). Religion auf Ostflores, Adonara, und Solor. Studia Instituti Anthropos, vol. 1. Vienna and Mödling: Missionsdruckerei St. Gabriel.

Barnes, R. H. (1977). "Alliance and Categories in Wailolong, East Flores." Sociologus 27:133-157.

Barnes, R. H. (1986). "Educated Fishermen: Social Consequences of Development in an Indonesian Whaling Community." Bulletin de l'École Française d'Extrême-Orient 75:295-314.

Vatter, Ernst (1932). Ata Kiwan: Unbekante Bergvölker im Tropischen Holland. Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut.

R. H. BARNES