Inside Austronesian Houses: Perspectives on Domestic Designs for Living
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InsIde AustronesIAn Houses PersPectives on domestic designs for living InsIde AustronesIAn Houses PersPectives on domestic designs for living edited by James J. fox A publication of the department of Anthropology as part of the comparative Austronesian Project, research school of Pacific studies the Australian national University canberra ACT Australia Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] Web: http://epress.anu.edu.au Previously published in Australia by the Department of Anthropology in association with the Comparative Austronesian Project, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra 1993. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Inside Austronesian Houses Bibliography. ISBN 0 731515 95 1 (print) ISBN 1 920942 84 X (online) 1. Dwellings - Asia, Southeastern. 2. Dwellings - Oceania. 3. Asia, Southeastern - Social life and customs. 4. Oceania - Social life and customs. I. Fox, James J., 1940- . II. Australian National University. Dept. of Anthropology. III. Comparative Austronesian Project. 392.360095 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Typesetting and drawings by Margaret Tyrie Cover design by Adrian Young Printed at ANU Printing Service, Canberra © The several authors, each in respect of the paper presented, 1993 This edition © 2006 ANU E Press DEDICATED TO THE MEMORIES OF: Anthony Forge and Hedda Morrison Building a new longhouse (photo by Hedda Morrison) Inside Austronesian Houses Table of Contents Acknowledgements xi Chapter 1. Comparative Perspectives on Austronesian Houses: An Introductory Essay James J. Fox 1 The Comparative Austronesian Focus 5 The House as a Topic of Study 6 Austronesian House Terms 9 Ordered Structures and Their Orientation 14 Structures of Origin Within Austronesian Houses 16 Time and Memory in Austronesian Houses 20 Concluding Remarks 23 References 24 Notes 28 Chapter 2. The Lahanan Longhouse Jennifer Alexander 31 Balui Longhouses 32 The Levu 33 The Tilung 37 Tilung Composition 39 Continuity of the Tilung 40 References 41 Notes 42 Chapter 3. Good Walls Make Bad Neighbours: The Dayak Longhouse as a Community of Voices Christine Helliwell 45 Lawang Construction and Lawang Space 50 Lawang Behaviour: Public or Private? 55 Concluding Remarks 59 References 60 Notes 62 Chapter 4. Posts, Hearths and Thresholds: The Iban Longhouse as a Ritual Structure Clifford Sather 67 The Iban Longhouse 68 Sources and Elders 70 Hearths and Posts 72 Upriver, Downriver, Parts and Wholes 76 Trunk, Base and Tip 77 East and West 80 The Longhouse Bathing Place 81 Interior Architecture 83 vii Inside Austronesian Houses The Ritual Use of Longhouse Space 85 Rites of Birth 86 Rites of Death 89 The Gawai Antu 95 Conclusion 106 References 110 Notes 113 Chapter 5. Raising the House Post and Feeding the Husband-Givers: The spatial categories of social reproduction among the Minangkabau Cecilia Ng 121 Introduction 121 Spatial Organization in the House 123 Use of Space in Ceremonies 131 Food 136 Conclusion 140 References 141 Notes 142 Chapter 6. Memories of Ridge-Poles and Cross-Beams: The categorical foundations of a Rotinese cultural design James J. Fox 145 Introduction 145 Two Forms of Knowledge: Ndolu and Lelak 147 The Origin of the Rotinese House: Textual Foundations 149 Orientation and Exegesis 153 The Internal Structure of the Rotinese House 156 Internal Structures and the Performance of Rituals in the House 165 The House as Oriented Structure and Inner Space 170 The Rotinese House as a Memory Palace 172 Points of Comparison Between Houses on Roti and on Timor 174 The Atoni Pah Meto of West Timor 175 The Ema of North Central Timor 178 References 181 Notes 182 Chapter 7. The Kalauna House of Secrets Michael W. Young 185 References 196 Notes 197 Chapter 8. Maori Meeting-Houses in and Over Time Toon van Meijl 201 The Marae 202 The Meeting-House Described 203 Social and Political Aspects 205 Symbolic Representation 207 viii Spatial Orientation 209 Temporal Implications of Spatial Orientation 213 Transformation of the Meeting-House Over Time 215 The Influence of Pakeha Patronage 217 Concluding Remarks 219 References 221 Notes 223 Chapter 9. Houses and the Built Environment in Island South-East Asia: Tracing some shared themes in the uses of space Roxana Waterson 227 Structures and Functions 227 The House as an Animate Entity 229 Houses as Units of Kinship 230 Social Relationships and the Uses of Space 231 Trunk and Tip, Centre and Periphery: Images of Growth and Power 236 References 237 Notes 242 Contributors 243 ix Acknowledgements Putting together this volume has taken both time and effort. The starting point for the volume was a wide-ranging seminar on House and Household held 19±20 May 1989 as part of the Comparative Austronesian Project. At this seminar there were sixteen presenters whose purpose was to stimulate discussion on the topic. Most of the papers in this volume began as short presentations at that seminar. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Anthony Forge and of Hedda Morrison. Professor Forge gave a presentation on `Ritual Space: Austronesia and Non-Austronesia' at the House and Household seminar and, had he not fallen seriously ill, he might have prepared a paper for the volume. His death has been a great loss to our community in Canberra. So, too, was the death of Hedda Morrison whose magnificient photographs are ethnographic documents of the first order. Three of her photographs of domestic life among Iban have been used to enhance the presentation of this volume. These photographs have been reproduced with the kind permission of her husband Alistair Morrison. They originally appeared in Vanishing world: the Ibans of Borneo by L. Wright, H. Morrison and K.F. Wong (1972, New York: Weatherhill/Serasia). The photograph on the cover appeared on page 57 of Vanishing world with the title `Family lunch in the bilek'; the frontispiece photograph appeared on page 44 with the equally simple title `Building a new longhouse'; the photograph at the opening of Clifford Sather's paper appeared on page 31 and was entitled `The ruai, or communal area of the longhouse, where meetings are held and ceremonies take place'. The photographs at the opening of Michael Young's paper are prints of glass plate photographs taken by Diamond Jenness and are reproduced here with the permission of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. Other photographs were provided by the authors of the papers in this volume. For reproduction of the Iban cloth that forms the cover design for the volume, we wish to thank the National Gallery of Australia and the curator of Asian Textiles Robyn Maxwell, who supplied the photograph of a pua' kumbu' to match the Iban textile in Hedda Morrison's photograph. The photograph is of a textile that was originally collected in 1950 by Professor Derek Freeman and his wife, Monica, at Rumah Nyala on the Sut River. Both the cloth and photograph of the Iban household date from approximately the same period. The cloth now forms part of the National Gallery's superb collection of Iban textiles. Christine Helliwell's paper, originally presented at the House and Household seminar, was published in Oceania 62, 1992 and is now reproduced with permission of the Editors. xi Inside Austronesian Houses The editing of this volume has been carried out, in various stages, with great care by Paula Harris and Katy Bellingham. Despite numerous interruptions, Margaret Tyrie managed to prepare the text and most of the figures in the volume with skill and attention. They deserve a special word of thanks for their quiet perseverance in the long preparation of this volume. xii Chapter 1. Comparative Perspectives on Austronesian Houses: An Introductory Essay James J. Fox The eight papers that comprise this volume share a common objective. Their purpose is to examine the spatial organization of a variety of Austronesian houses and to relate the domestic design of these houses to the social and ritual practices of the specific groups who reside within them. Throughout the Austronesian-speaking world, houses are given great prominence. Many houses are stunning architectural creations. Their construction is a subject of notable study. Such houses Ð as well as those that are far less striking Ð are invariably more than they appear to be, and certainly more than simple physical residences. Although a house has a physical referent, the category of `house' may be used abstractly to distinguish, not just households, but social groups of varying sizes. The `house' in this sense is a cultural category of fundamental importance. It defines a social group, which is not necessarily the same as the house's residential group. The house, as a physical entity and as a cultural category, has the capacity to provide social continuity. The memory of a succession of houses, or of a succession within one house, can be an index of important events in the past. Equally important is the role of the house as a repository of ancestral objects that provide physical evidence of a specific continuity with the past. It is these objects stored within the house that are a particular focus in asserting continuity with the past. Most Austronesian houses also possess what may be called their particular `ritual attractor'. This ritual attractor is part of the structure of the house. It may be a specific post, beam, platform, niche, altar or enclosure that has a pre-eminence among the other parts of the house and, as such, represents, in a concentrated form, the house as a whole. The rituals of the houses acknowledge this attractor, generally from the moment of construction.