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C. Cunningham Atoni Kin Categories and Conventional Behavior In C. Cunningham Atoni kin categories and conventional behavior In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 123 (1967), no: 1, Leiden, 53-70 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 01:18:03PM via free access ATONI KIN CATEGORIES AND CONVENTIONAL BEHAVIOR ost discussions of kin term classification concern extensions of core term meanings to more distant relatives or, as othersM say, the relatives which are categorized under a single native term: e.g., the Trobriand term tabu for FS as an extension from the primary referent FM, or FM and FS as mernbers of the kin category tabu (Lounsbury 1%6; Leach 1958). Explanations of extension or categorization rnay involve semantic or sociological analysis, or both. In either case, attention is devoted to the relatives identified by a particular term and the structural relationship between the various terrns. Also, one society, one terminology seems axiomatic. Another problem, however, concerns variations in the use of kin tem and combinations of native categories within the sarne society. Among the Atoni of Indonesian Timor, for example, "mother's brother" and "sister's son" - normally distinguished separately - may alm cal1 each other "grandfather" and "grandchild" in most territories. In some territories, "grandfather" and "mother's brother" are called by the sarne term, while in other territories they are distinguished by separate terms. The terms naJ$ and babaf are used for "grandfather" and "mother's brother" in sorne territories, but elsewhere they are reversed. In one Atoni territory, the paternal grandfather calls his grandchildren "children" while the rnaternal grandfather calls thetn "grandchildren". In this paper I provide a sirnple explanation for these Atoni variations by describing the correlation behveen the structure of the terminology and (1) the opposition of generations, (2) the categories of rnarriage alliance, and (3) the conventional behavior between kin, what Lévi- Strauss calls the "system of attitudes". He writes: . kinship is not expressed only in a terminology: the individuals, or the classes of individuals who use the terms, fee1 themselves (or do not fee1 themselves, ac- cording to the case) bound to a well-defined mode of conduct with regard to one another : respect or farniliarity ; right or duty ; affection or familiarity. (1964 : 43) Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 01:18:03PM via free access The results of the analysis seem to justify a further statement by Lévi- Strauss, "The system of attitudes constitutes . a dynarnic integration of the system of appelations" (1964: 49), and the Atoni provide an interesting example of the systematic relationship which may exist between kin terminology and conventional behavior. The Atoni (population about 250,000) * speak a Malayo-Polynesian language and subsist by swidden cultivation of maize and rice in Indonesian Timor. They are divided among ten self-governing terri- tories which mainly correspond to traditional princedoms, the maximal indigenous plitical units (Cunningham 1966). Atoni reckon descent patrilineally, though arnbilineal recruitment to descent groups is prac- ticed in some territcrries (Cunningham 1967), and Atoni value marriage alliances between groups based upon direct exchange over time. Atoni use sixteen basic kin terms and the terminological system is a Dravidian type (cf. Dumont 1953; Yalman 1962; Tambiah 1965). The following minima1 genealogical specifications illustrate the charac- teristics of the systern. (Z = sister) 1. na'ij FF, MF, WFF, WMF 2. be'if FM, MM, WFM, WMM 3. amaf F, FB, MZH 4. ainaf M, MZ, FBW 5. babaf bab mone (male babaf) MB, WF, FZH bab feto (female babaf) FZ, WM., MBW 6. ba'ef bae mone (male ba'ef) MBS, FZS, WB, ZH bae feto (female ba'ef) MBD, FZD, BW * I arn deeply grateful to the Foreign Area Training Fellowship Program of The Ford Foundation for financial support in Indonesian Timor, 1959-1961. Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 01:18:03PM via free access ATONI KIN CATEGORIES AND CONVENTIONAL BEHAVIOR. 5 5 7 & 8. tataf/olif (male to male) B, FBS, MZS, WZH (female to female) Z, FBD, MZD, HBW 9. fetof (male to fernale) Z, FBD, MZD, WBW 10. nauf (female to male) B, FBS, MZS, HZH 11. men fe'u ZS, DH, WBS 12. nanef ZD, SW, WBD 13. anah an mone (male anah) S, BS, WZS an feto (female anah) D, BD, WZD SS, SD, DS, DD This list represents what I shall cal1 standard Atoni kinship ter- rnindogy found by me and/or reported by Middelkoop (Fischer 1957) for the territories of Arnarasi, Arnanuban, Amanatun, Miomafo, and Insana. These terms are used in referente, though the closing "f" (which indicates a generic term) is usually dropped in al1 but fetof and nanef. Al1 terms rnay be used in address, though the use of pers& names is more common except for aamaf and ainaj whose names must be avoided. The following equivalences (=) and distinctions (+), male speaking, indicate cmventional unilineal descent: F =FB FB z MB M= MZ FZ # MZ B = FBS, MZS B MBS, FZS Z = FBD, MZD Z jf MBD, FZD S =BS, WZS S ZS D = BD, WZD The rationale underlying these equivalences, in terms of direct marriage exchange, is shown in Figure 1 (from Needham 1956, using Atoni kin terms). Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 01:18:03PM via free access na'if A = Wif be'i f amaf A = ainaf 'Y~T,babaf I EGO n = O bae feto fetof ba'ef (fel I anah A = O nanef 4-anah O = n moen fe'u I I upuf n = o upuf UP* AT* .puf Figure 1 Atoni should marry a woman in the category ba'ef and should not marry woman in the categq fetof, and these categrnies include women from sweral descent groups, particularly ba'ef. (Some descent groups are considered to be related agnatically as "brothers" though no genealogical tie is traceable between them; thus fetof may be found in different named groups.) Before marriage, boys and girls who should marry refer to ach other as "husband way" (mone lalan) and "wife way" (fe lalan), and they may be spoken of as "half coconut shell" (panu), the marriage rnaking them whole. Marriage between a "husband way" and "wife way" is said to be "indoor marriage" (matsau ume nanan), the symbolism of which I discuss elsewhere (Cunningham 1964)) and, as Middelkoop (1958) points out, the linguistic connotation of the term matsau (marriage) involves reciprocity. Wornen oh Ego's generation who are not related by traceable affinity, and are not "wife ways", are termed "other wife" (fe buti). They may be married with Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 01:18:03PM via free access ATONI KIN CATEGORIES AND CONVENTIONAL BEHAVIOR. 57 permission of the mother's brother : the rnarriage establishes new ties between local descent groups and thus requires higher bridewealth. Only oae territory, Amfoan, has no category of "other wife" since al1 descent groups there belong to rnarriage nloieties termed neo (canopy). Women of Ego's generation in descent groups of the sarne moiety may be termed fetof; women of descent groups in the other moiety may be termed ba'ef. The structure of the Atoni terminology is conveniently illustrated in the following diagram which corresponds to the one developed by Dumont (1953) for Sinhalese kin terms. na'if/be'if (wates) (aff ines) (4 (f) (f) (m) amaf ainaf bab feto bab mone tataf/ olif fetof bae feto bae mone nauf fe anah anah nanef moen fe'u upuf Figure 2 Lévi-Strauss has urged anthropologists to study a kinship system by using an approach analogous to phonology which "passes from the study of conscious linguistic phenomena to that of their unconscious structures; it refuses to take terms as independent entities; on the contrary it takes relations between terms as the basis of its analysis"; (1964: 41). The Atoni kinship systern is best viewed, I believe, as six pairs of reciprocal terms. (m = male; f = fernale) Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 01:18:03PM via free access (l ) ndif/beJif t d upuf between alternate generations ; ag- (m/f > (m &f> nation and affinity not distinguished. (2) amuf/a2naf +-t anah between proximate generations of @/f> (m&f> agnates. (3) tataf/olif +-t olif/tataf ktween agnates of the same sex in (m> (m) the Same generation; relative age (f> (f) distinguished. (4) . fetof +-t nauf between agnates of the oppsite sex (f) (m> in the same generation. (5) babaf +-+ moen fe'u/nanef between proximate generations of (m f) (m/f > affines. (6) bdef +-t ba'ef between affines of both sexes in the (m&f) (m&f) Same generatiort. I exclude the pair monet-tfeto (between spouses and their own siblings) since the terms concern only specific married pers-. If bdef many, the u% of this pair of terms is only a variation on the ba'ef relationship. If an "other wife" is married, her relatives enter the babaf/bdef/moen fe'u categories. I shall now describe the terms in these pairs and the conventional behavior enjoined between kin in these relationships. ndif/beJif +-t upuf Na'if and be'if designate Ego's agnates and affines in the ascending alternate generation. According to the linguist Middelkoop, the term na'if is cognate with nai, a title used for the original ancestor of a clan and the original ruler of a princedom. (I know of no words cognate with be'if.) An individual refers to "my ancestors" as au naJi, au be'i (my grandfathers, my grandmothers), and descent groups linked over time in affinal alliance inevitably share persons as ancestors. Such allied groups are called "one stem" (z~fmese), and the title z~fis also used for the founder of a descent group (e.g., the founder of the Tabelak clan of Amfoan is called Nai Tabelak Uf).
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