Gifts, Belonging, and Emerging Realities Among “Other Moluccans” During the Aftermath of ...

265 Pages·2017·2.15 MB·English

by  Yuni Chairani

UC Santa Cruz
UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Gifts, Belonging, and Emerging Realities Among “Other Moluccans” During the Aftermath of
Sectarian Conflict
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5416x1tz
Author
Kadir, Hatib Abdul
Publication Date
2017

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA CRUZ

GIFTS, BELONGING, AND EMERGING REALITIES AMONG “OTHER MOLUCANS”
DURING THE AFTERMATH OF SECTARIAN CONFLICT

A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
ANTHROPOLOGY

by
Hatib Abdul Kadir
December 2017

The Dissertation of Hatib Abdul Kadir is
approved:

__________________________________
Prof. Danilyn Rutherford, chair

__________________________________
Prof. Anna Tsing

__________________________________
Prof. Patricia Spyer

__________________________________
Prof Roy Ellen

___________________________________
Tyrus Miller
Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies
Copyright © by
Hatib Abdul Kadir
2017
Table of Content

Abstract v
Acknowledgements viii
Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1
GIFTS, BELONGING, AND EMERGING REALITIES
AMONG “OTHER MOLUCCANS” DURING THE
AFTERMATH OF SECTARIAN CONFLICT
Chapter Two MARKETPLACES AND ETHNIC 48
Chapter Three EMERGING REALITIES AFTER THE KERUSUHAN: 90
CONTINUITIES, AND THE AMBIGUOUS ROLE OF
THE TRADER
Chapter Four WAR MEMORIES, RUMORS AND BELONGING: 129
MUSLIM BUTONESE AND CHRISTIAN MOLUCCANS
IN THE AFTERMATH OF KERUSUHAN
Chapter Five TRICKERY AND GIFT-GIVING: EXCHANGE 169
BETWEEN ETHNIC CHINESE, BUTONESE, AND THE
STATE IN SOUTH SERAM
Chapter Six CONCLUSION 215
Bibliography 237

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List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Buton in Southeast Sulawesi where most migrant traders come from. 54
Figure 2.2 Christian areas located the upland (Halong, Soya Atas, Urimesing, 55
and Ema) and Batu Merah, the center of Muslim market located in
the coastal area.
Figure 2.3 Map of Ambon Island and the location of Pasar Mardika and Pasar 76
Passo.
Figure 4.1 Map of District of Amahai. Soahuku and Aira are located in the corner 130
left

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Abstract
Gifts, Belonging, and Emerging Realities Among “Other Moluccans”
During the Aftermath of Sectarian Conflict

Hatib Abdul Kadir

This dissertation is an ethnographic work of the interethnic relationships between
Butonese residents of the Moluccas with native Moluccans and ethnic Chinese
Moluccans, specifically in the ways the Butonese deal with their identity as an
“outsider” (pendatang) in the realm of urban marketplaces and exchanges commodities
in the rural areas. The common ground of the relationship is based on debt and
exchanges commodities. It is the nature of the debt and exchanges that brings the
contravenes of the ethnic relationships. On the one hand, the Butonese have grateful
feelings for the generosity of the native Moluccans in providing land for them to farm,
but on the other hand, the Butonese feel they are exploited when it comes to reciprocity.
Likewise, the Butonese need and rely on the roles of the Chinese traders to provide
money and goods, but from their exchange experiences, the Butonese realize that ethnic
Chinese have economic interests behind their various generosities. These exchanges lie
in mutual suspicion, lack of trust, and trickery. This kind of paradox is historically
exacerbated by the social context of a post-conflict society that has not accomplished
peace and reconciliation in people's everyday interactions, thus the encounters between
Butonese farmers with ethnic Chinese in the shops and the encounters between urban
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Butonese traders with native Moluccans in the marketplaces do not necessarily
represent peace after the conflict, but rather a relationship that is built based on the
pragmatic motives of reciprocity and ongoing mutual suspicions.

The main question of this dissertation is how the Butonese, seen as pendatang
(“outsiders")and pedagang (trader) in the Moluccas, are not only in struggle over their
citizenship, but are also surviving in the realm of economic exchanges. Practically, this
dissertation also questions what kind of reciprocities and contravenes consist in the
interethnic reciprocity. Focusing on the ethnic correspondences after the conflict and
after the decentralization policies of the late 1990s, this dissertation provides the
narrations of the Butonese struggling to realign their position that is seen as "second-
class". Efforts to be entangled with and be recognized by the autochthonous Moluccans
demonstrate that identity is interchangeable. It can be solidified, but in the other
contexts, identity can be very messy and fluid. In the post-decentralization era,
Butonese have begun to realize that ethnic identity matters. In south Seram Island, rural
democratization followed by state funds has opened each neighborhood, regardless of
the status of its residents as natives or migrants, to have their own village
administration. Rural Butonese have started to ask for their own sovereign kampung
(neighborhood) to separate them from the native Moluccan tuan dusun (landowner).
Meanwhile, urban Butonese traders in Ambon create their sovereign spaces in the
marketplaces to block against the domination of failed local Moluccan class traders. All
of these cases, both in the urban and rural areas, demonstrate the solidification of ethnic
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identity in the post-conflict and decentralization era. Nonetheless, the solidification of
ethnicities and religions is always 'violated' by "weird" stories such as sex affairs and
casual relations during rural workdays and pig-hunting cooperation in the garden
between the Moluccans and the Butonese, or the Christians and the Muslims. Influences
such as love, lust, and anxiety against an uncontrollable pest, as well as feelings of
regret after the conflict, make the solidification of ethnic and religious consciousness
sometimes irrelevant. The solidification of ethnic belonging becomes even more in
question when in an attempt to be recognized as a citizen of the Moluccas, the Butonese
create stories about their “poetics of place” in their lives before the conflict, their
memories of their involvement in the war and their return from being displaced from
their own origins in Buton to Moluccas. These narrations demonstrate that the Butonese
in the Moluccans have a greater sense of belonging to the Moluccas rather than to their
own origins in Buton, Southeast Sulawesi. Nonetheless, although the Butonese have
this sense of belonging to the Moluccas, it does not permit them to be easily accepted
as ' Moluccan' given their involvement in trade and as tenants for the cash crops that
make them inherently seen as "outsiders". Thus, this dissertation describes that identity
and ethnic relationship are about enigmatic stories of contravenes such as in the nature
of debt, gift exch

vii
Acknowledgements

Throughout the years of completing my doctoral degree, there have been many people
I would like to acknowledge and appreciate. I would like to express my deepest
gratitude to the people of Buton, Moluccas and in the town of Ambon, both in Pasar
Batu Merah and in Pasar Mardika, as well as the people in rural South Seram in the two
villages of Aira and Tanjung. Thank you all for sharing stories, knowledge and
experiences, and allowing me to attend and keep up with your activities. I would
especially like to thank Munawwir Borut for his invaluable assistance as he
accompanied me and enriched my research in Ambon ever since 2013. My gratitude
also goes to Fuad Azuz and Faidah Azuz Sialana who accepted me into their lives and
allowed me to stay in their house during my research in 2014. Thanks to Riz Sangadji,
Ariel Salamena, and Bilal Tuhulele for introducing me to many native Moluccan traders
and young politicians in Ambon including Caca Irma Holle, Sunardiyanto, and their
families. I am eternally grateful to Rudy Rahabeat, Manaf Tubaka, Yance Rumahuru,
Abidin Wakano, and Ernas Said for the intellectual friendship and discussions during
my fieldwork in Ambon. I also give fond thanks to Muhammad Acep and Fandi who
brought me to more than fifty traders to interview. Thank you to Acep for taking me to
meet his displaced Butonese family in Southeast Sulawesi. My deep gratitude extends
also to Muhammad Ali who accompanied me to dig in the archives in the Department
of History, Pattimura University, the Balai Kebudayaan in Maluku, and Perpustakaan
Rumphius.

In Masohi, I thank Bapa Mo Tualeka and Mama Asma Latuconsina, and Fadly Maralatu
who always opened their doors for me to stay during my fieldwork. I also appreciate
Abang Ancha Tunny Sapsuha for sharing his knowledge as a journalist in Seram. I also
offer deep thanks to the Butonese Moluccas farmers, Bapa Komar, Mama Yora, and
Mama Pad who have been working hard in maintaining their trees and lands, including
all of the properties that are entrusted to the native Moluccans. These people also took
care of me when I fell ill because of the dengue fever that affected me during the
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fieldwork on Seram Island. Thanks also to Fadly Pane and Bang Zul from Tanjung who
gave me much knowledge about Moluccas political ecology, environment, and local
food. Special thanks to Ayudi Bonerate who accompanied me while walking through
the forest in South Seram.

In the United States, I have been extremely privileged to study anthropology at the
University of California, Santa Cruz. I wish to thank to Danilyn Rutherford, the
chairman of my doctoral committee, and Anna Tsing for their intellectual creativity that
will be the model for my scholarly trajectory. Danilyn and Anna guided and encouraged
me during my years as a doctoral student. I feel immensely privileged to have had the
opportunity to work with them and to study under their supervision. I also wish to
express my gratitude to the other committee members Patricia Spyer and Roy Ellen that
gave me feedback through numerous valuable discussions and by posing critical
questions. Roy Ellen enabled me to see Seram Island through his long and in-depth
work on this island that began in the 1970s that covers ecology to religiosity studies. I
also thank Don Brenneis, the professor for whom I worked as a teaching assistant during
my first year at UCSC. I must thank and fondly remember all of the professors that I
worked with for our mutual cooperation also shaped my intellectual growth. Among
these are Nancy Chen, Shelly Errington, Guillermo Delgado, and Triloki Pandey. Also,
my deepest gratitude goes to Fred Deakin and Taylor Ainslie who helped with email
correspondences and administrative work, as well as Jude Todd for helping me to get
funding through creative writing. I am also grateful to my fellows in Santa Cruz for
their friendship on the long road to the Ph.D.; Juan Carloz Calderon, my tio, Sara Walsh
for providing a cozy and hospitable house for me during the last year of my study, Gde
Putra and Gillian Bogart, a nice and beautiful couple, and Chava Contreras. These
people made my days in Santa Cruz memorable and pleasurable. I also particularly
thank Rob Davenport who gave many suggestions and valuable criticism to my theories
and chapters.

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