NUAULU SETfLEMENT AND ECOLOGY The pub/ication of this baak was subsidized with a subvention from THE BRITISH ACADEMY VERHANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR T AAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE 83 ROY F. ELLEN NUAULU SETTLEMENT AND ECOLOGY AN APPROACH TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL RELATIONS OF AN EASTERN INDONESIAN COMMUNITY THE HAGUE - MARTINUS NIJHOFF 1978 I.S.B.N.90.247.21<'>3.6 PREFACE This book originated as a thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of London. The fieldwork among the Nuaulu of Seram on which it is based was undertaken between December 1969 and May 1971, and again for three months in 1973, under the auspices of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences. During these periods I was supported by grants in aid from the Social Science Research Council, the Hayter Travel Awards scheme and the London­ Cornell Project for East and Southeast Asian Studies, the Central Research Fund of the University of London, the Galton Foundation and the Department of Geography, Kings College London. The British Academy made a generous grant towards the cost of publication. To all these bodies I am most grateful. Gratitude may be shown in many ways, but it is least served by lists which resem bie telephone directories. Therefore, while my acknow­ ledgements are not exhaustive, this does not indicate a lack of appreciation for the assistance kindly given me by many persons at various times, before, during and subsequent to fieldwork. For identification of botanical specimens I am indebted to Mr. L. L. Forman of the Herbarium, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Dr. Chang Kiaw Lan of the Botanic Gardens, Singapore. Dr. D. Brunsden of Kings College London kindly undertook the analysis of soil specimens. At various stages in the preparation of the manuscript I have benefited from the valuable help, criticism and advice of many people. I would like to single out for particular mention Biki Wilson and the staff of the London School of Economics drawing office, and James Woodburn for sustained support and careful assistance over five years. Stephen Morris, Paul Stirling and Peter Loizos have contributed in various ways to make this book a little better than it otherwise might have been. To Juliet Merrifield I am thankful for tolerance, hospitality and commonsense in the latter days. VI Nuaulu Scttlcmcnt and Ecology I am also appreciative of the assistance and kindness shown to me while undertaking fieldwork. In particular I would like to thank Mr. and Mrs. A. Myers Sahetapy-Warella and M. Resmol in Ambon; J. B. Letsoin (Kepala Kecamatan), Om Piet Tutuarima and his family in Amahai; Father Van der Bijl of the Pastoran Katolik, Masohi; and in Sepa, Bapak Raja, Oei Tjan Sun and Adam and Ali Tehurua. My degree of debt to the Nuaulu themselves is, of course, immense. Their hospitality and kindheartedness was very much more than I deserved. Because of this I am only too aware of the enormous responsibility which I have undertaken in claiming to have interpreted certain aspects of their way of life. I hope, therefore, that they will be my final critics. Finally, a note on thé content and structure of th is book. It is an attempt at a systematic analysis of the settlement pattern of a small community in both sociological and ecological terms. While it claims to be sociologieal, it represents neither a study of a particular economie system nor a general ethnography. While it claims to be ecologieal, it suffers from the absence of the relevant detailed support studies in botanical ecology, dietary composition and energy expenditure. As su eh studies are at present unavailable for eastern Indonesia, I have been forced to rely on comparable research undertaken in these fields in Papua New Guinea. I have feIt justified in doing this on account of the close ecologieal, subsistenee economie and population biological simi­ larities between the two areas. Furthermore, my concern in this work is not so much with precise nutritional and input-output calculations (although in the circumstances I have aimed at a high degree of accuracy), but rather with broad ratios. The practical difficulties in measuring energy flow for human communities under field conditions are considerable and often underestimated in studies of this kind, but I am satisfied that those errors which remain in my own measurements do not substantially affect the critical ratios I discuss. R. F. E. Eliot College, University of Kent at Canterbury. CONTENTS page Preface V List of Tables VIII List of Figures X List of Maps XI Chapter I. Ecology, Generative Analysis and Settlement Patterns 1 Chapter 11. Nuaulu Ethnography and Environment 4 Chapter lIl. The Location and Structure of Nuaulu Villages 27 Chapter IV. Non-domestica.ted Resources and the Ecology of Settlement 61 Chapter V. Sources and Social Organization of Cultivated Land 81 Chapter VI. Site Select ion and Garden Preparation 108 Chapter VII. Garden Development and Ecological Succession 161 Chapter VIII. Analyzing Settlement: The Wider Relevance ofthe Nuaulu Case 190 Appendices A. Local C1imatic Data and Nuaulu Ecology 212 B. Local Minerals and Soils 215 C. A Note on Data Collection Relating to Land Holdings 220 D. Measurement ofConsumption and Energy Expenditure 222 Orthography and Glossary 229 List of Works Cited 234 Notes 243 Index 258 TABLES page I. Population densities for the central Moluccan region 7 2. Population of SeraI!l by administrative districts 10 3. Population of Nuaulu viIIages 12 4. Distribution of Nuaulu clans according to viIIages 13 5. Basic Nuaululand use categories 24 6. Density of population and dwellings in N uaulu viIIages 44 7. Numerical composition of the household 48 8. Genealogical composition of the household 48 9. Mode of recruitment to household 49 10. Relationship category and type of marriage contracted 50 1I. Residence pattern for all extant Nuaulu marriages 53 12. Differential exploitation of the non-domesticated environment 63 13. Catalogue of major sources of animal protein 70 14. Major non-domesticated plant resources of food energy and protein 73 15. Energy expenditure of males involved in exploitation of non-domesticated resources 78 16. Annual percentage of all new gardens cut from primary forest: some comparative Malayo-Oceanic data 84 17. Some numerical aspects of the relationship between wasi andnisi 90 18. Mode of acquisition of wasi, held in Ruhuwa in late 1970 97 19. Implications of various types of land transfer for vegetational cover 98 20. Vegetative status of land alienated to affines at time of transfer 101 2I. Data on gardens cIeared in Ruhuwa, 1969-70 and 1970-71 109 22. Areas of cultivation according to local categories of topography 114 23. Land within a four kilometre radius of Ruhuwa, classified to show relative accessibility 121 Tables IX 24. Distribution of Ruhuwa land according to clan 123 25. Distribution of Ruhuwa land according to household 126 26. Movement of land between clans in Ruhuwa 127 27. Distribution of wasi with respect to distance from village 137 28. Distribution of wasi according to fifty-metre contour- intervals 140 29. Household composition, size and number of garden huts 143 30. Main stages of the Nuaulu horticultural cycle 151 31. Sample crop-inventory for a single nisi honwe 163 32. Developmental history of a typical nisi honwe 166 33. The contribution of major domesticated plant resources to Nuaulu diet 167 34. Energy expenditure of males involved in the exploitation of domesticated resources 168 35. Totallabour and energy expenditure of males involved in subsistence activities 169 36. Nisi honwe locations selected by one individualover a ten year period 179 37. Values for Ruhuwa carrying capacity under various conditions 183 38. Ruhuwa cultivated area in terms of garden types 185 39. Meteorological data recorded at Ruhuwa, 1970-71 213 40. Mean monthly rainfaIl over 25 years 214 41. Nuaulu mineral categories 216 42. Chemical analysis of Nuaulu soil samples 218 43. Composition of principal foodstuffs per 100 grams 225 44. Number of man-days devoted to various activities by mature males 227 FIGURES page l. Possible permutations of Nuaulu clan segmentation 17 2. Interrelatedness of basic Nuaulu land-use categories 25 3. The arrangement of structures in four Nuaulu villages 35 4. Diagrammatic summary of the cosmological referents of village structure 40 5. Exchange relationships and marital alliance 54 6. Processual sequence for land cleared from primary forest 89 7. Distribution of wasi in terms of distance from Ruhuwa for each clan 124 8. Flow diagram iIIustrating the recent movement of land between clans 128 9. Time devoted to Ruhuwa garden activities in relation to rainfall 132 10. Generative processes resulting in the clustering of cultivated land around village 160 11. Summary flow diagram iIIustrating the principal possibilities for artificial vegetative successions 162 12. Succession possibilities in terms ofNuaulu vegetational categories 188 13. Amahai: mean monthly rainfall 213 14. Age and sex structure of Ruhuwa population 224 MAPS page I. Seram and adjacent islands 6-7 2. Central Seram: present distribution of settlements and traditional ethnic groupings 8-9 3. Approximate distribution of Nuaulu clans and villages prior to their movement to the coast in the vicinity of Sepa 14 4. Nuaulu villages: their present location and immediate environs 18 5. Distances travelled by Ruhuwa Nuaulu 20 6. Ruhuwa: the village-plan and environs 34 7. The geographicallimits of the Ruhuwa Nuaulu exploitative environment 62 8. Land holdings in the vicinity of Ruhuwa 82 9. The vicinity of Ruhuwa, showing all wasi for which ownership was recognized during 1970-71 112-113 10. Distribution of Ruhuwa wasi superimposed on land classified in terms of Nuaulu categories of topography 115 11. Distribution of Ruhuwa wasi according to clan 125 12.