Book Reviews - Johann Angerler, Masashi Hirosue, Prophets and followers in Batak millenarian responses to the colonial order; Parmalim, Na Siak Bagi and Parhudamdam, 1890-1930. Ph.D. thesis Australian National University, Canberra, 1988. - J. ter Beek, H. Cordes, Pencak silat; Die Kampfunst der Minangkabau und ihr kulturelles Umfeld. Frankfurt a.M.: Afra Verlag, 1992, 320 pp. - Peter Boomgaard, J.A.A. van Doorn, De laatste eeuw van Indië; Ontwikkeling en ondergang van een koloniaal project. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1994, 370 pp. - J.G. de Casparis, Georges Condominas, Disciplines croisées; Hommage à Bernard Philippe Groslier. Paris: Éditions de lÉcole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1992, 377 pp. - H.J.M. Claessen, Ton Otto, Pacific Islands trajectories; Five personal views, Occasional paper of the Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian University (Canberra), in association with the Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. - Bruce Connell, Cecilia Odé, Experimental studies of Indonesian prosody. Semaian 9. Leiden: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuidoost-Azië en Oceanië, 1994, 214 pp., Vincent J. van Heuven (eds.) - Aone van Engelenhoven, Donald A. Burquest, Descriptive studies in languages of Maluku. NUSA, Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and other Languages in Indonesia, volume 34. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya, 1992, x + 94 pp., maps., Wyn D. Laidig (eds.) - Ch. F. van Fraassen, Dieter Bartels, In de schaduw van de berg Nunusaku; Een cultuur- historische verhandeling over de bevolking van de Midden-Molukken. Utrecht: Landelijk Steunpunt Edukatie Molukkers, 1994, 476 pp. - C.D. Grijns, Don Kulick, Language shift and cultural reproduction; Socialization, self, and in a Papua New Guinean village. Cambridge/New York/Victoria: Cambridge University Press, 1992, xvi + 317 pp., maps, figures, photographs, index. - Tim Hoppen, Gerard Termorshuizen, In de binnenland van Java; Vier negentiende-eeuwse reisverhalen. Leiden: KITLV Uitgeverij, 1993, 102 pp. - Niels Mulder, Monique Zaini-Lajoubert, Limage de la femme dans les littératures modernes indonésienne et malaise. Paris: Association Archipel, Cahier dArchipel 24, 1994, ix + 221 pp. - A. Niehof, Rosalia Sciortino, CARE-takers of CURE; A study of health centre nurses in rural Central Java. Amsterdam: Jolly/Het Spinhuis Publishers, 1992, 318 pp. - A.J. Plaisier, B. Plaisier, Over bruggen en grenzen; De communicatie van het evangelie in het Torajagebied (1913-1942). Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum, 1993, xiv + 701 pp.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access - Anton Ploeg, Nonie Sharp, The Morning Star in Papua Barat, written in association with Markus Wonggor Kaisiëpo. North Carlton, Vic., Australia: Arena Publications, 1994, xx + 140 pp. In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 151 (1995), no: 1, Leiden, 136-161

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Masashi Hirosue, Prophets and followers in Batak millenarian responses to the colonial order; Parmalim, Na Siak Bagi and Parhudamdam, 1890-1930. Ph.D. thesis Australian National University, Canberra, 1988.

JOHANN ANGERLER

This thesis examines three related millenarian movements among the Toba Batak people of North Sumatra: Parmalim, Na Siak Bagi, and Parhudam- dam. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the role of prophets in millenarian movements against the European colonial order. The author uses the term millenarism to characterize religious movements that expect imminent, total, ultimate, this-worldly, collective salvation. Through a case- study of Batak millenarian movements in the 1890-1930 period the author attempts to show that in order to draw people into millenarian movements, prophetic leaders presented themselves as being linked to the source of the power which ruled their world. Each prophetic leader in turn endeavoured to initiate followers into this source of power. The first section of the book is devoted to an explanation of the historical background. The author tries to describe the Toba Batak mental world and the impact of European influence upon it. He starts by outlining the social system and the , laying stress on Toba Batak perceptions of the external world. As f ar as we know the Toba Batak people, who live in the mountainous interior of North Sumatra, were never conquered by an outside power before the arrival of the Dutch and they never developed their own state. Although the Batak political system in pre-colonial times remained fairly egalitarian, the exalted ideas of divine kingship were well known to them. This was probably due to the influence of Hindu culture which began to be feit in the 13th century, as well as to trading contacts with the coastal Malays. Trading and contacts had their influence on Batak cosmology and religion. The author even goes so far as to state that the Toba Batak 'traditional' religion was a product of interaction between the Batak world and the outside world. Though we have to be careful about defining Batak traditional religion in such terms, the author success- fully explains the role of the Batak dynasty of divine priest-kings, Singa- mangaraja, who were believed to possess superhuman powers in their role of mediators between the Batak people and the outside world. They were said to have derived their spiritual power from outside the Batak world and

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 137 according to the author their importance lay in maintaining stable relations between the interior Batak area and the outer world rather than ruling over the Batak. Only in times of war did the Singamangaraja become a unifying symbol of the Toba Batak against their enemy from outside. In a following step the author describes the advance of foreign European powers, namely the Rhenish Society (after 1861) and the Dutch colonial government (1878), the subsequent military resistance of the Toba Batak led by the Singamangaraja, and their defeats in 1878 and 1883. These military defeats had impressed on the Toba Batak that the power of the Westerners was vastly superior to that of the Singamangaraja. The author argues this induced Toba Batak to doubt the efficacy of the symbols of Batak power and their whole system. The Batak began to examine the power of the newcomers very closely and to seek for a new principle in order to understand their changing world. and colonization started to dissolve the indigenous Toba Batak social order and establish a new one under European power. Some Toba Batak were relatively satisfied with the new order, but even those who were not satisfied were convinced of the superiority of the power of the Westerners. It was in this situation that the first millenarian movements initiated by prophetic leaders emerged. The author supplies a great deal of detailed information about individual leaders, their personal- ities, and social background, their ideas and their ways of attracting followers. He also endeavours to link the development of new beliefs and the course of the movements to political and socio-economic changes which took place at that time. During all stages of millenarian movements the return or the rebirth of the Singamangaraja, whose was believed to be immortal, and liberation from foreign oppression were jointly expected. The first stage, which began in 1890, occurred shortly after colonial rule was established. A prophetic leader, Guru Somalaing, a former datu (Batak magician) began to organize the Parmalim movement after he received a revelation from 'Jahoba' (Jehova) in a dream, which is a typical Batak way of receiving divine inspiration. His doctrine consisted basically of traditional Batak ethics. The important point is that he had found a Toba Batak way to gain access to, as the author expresses it, the 'new power' from outside, 'Jahoba'. Later, after the turn of the century, under intensified colonial rule, different types of leaders appeared. These were Toba Batak who at first had involved themselves in a new environment such as missionary education, the Christian church, or jobs in the modern sector of the econ- omy such as colonial public services or plantation companies. Some of them later returned to traditional religion after having found a way to understand it in new terms. The Na Siak Bagi movement, for instance, revived the belief in the Batak creator 'Mulajadi na bolon', but at the same time wrought quite significant changes in traditional ethics. This vari- ant of the Parmalim movement proved to be the most consistent one. lts

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access 138 Book Reviews ideas remain alive today. The Parhudamdam, which finally resorted to violent resistance against the colonial government, was probably the most widespread movement but it was soon suppressed by the Dutch . This book is an historian's view of a subject which is usually the domain of anthropologists. It is undoubtedly an important contribution towards a better understanding of Toba Batak social and religious history, but inevit- ably there are some shortcomings. Far too easily, without expressing any doubt at all, he makes statements about the traditional socio-political order, traditional religion and values, based on colonial accounts. This may some- what distort the reader's understanding of Batak social institutions. I shall explain my criticism by giving one example. The author's main explanation for the success of the prophetic leaders is their ability to gain access to an important source of power. In order to support this theory, he adopts the colonial perception that the sought-after quality, hasangapon, which is translated with 'desire for status and power', should be regarded as the highest traditional Batak value. This perception reflects certain experiences observed by the colonial researchers during periods of intensive social change. Closer examination would have revealed that desire for status and power in Batak society is always confronted by the higher opposite value, the egalitarian system which theoretically does not allow anybody to rule over Batak people, especially not a fellow Batak. The material presented by the author also adduces evidence to support this supposition. For instance, the main complaints voiced by Guru Somalaing, the first prophetic leader, were levelled against the Batak 'chieftains' appointed by the gov- ernment, who had thereby gained greater power but were 'abusing' it, rather than against the foreigners themselves (p. 82). Considering this tension between egalitarian and opposing values in Toba Batak society, the interpretation could be somewhat different. The last word has not been said yet. It is to be hoped that this book will stimulate further research on the Parmalim religion, which is still very much alive among the Batak. In particular, nothing has yet been done on Parmalim , although rituals have played always a decisive role in all Parmalim movements.

H. Cordes, Pencak Silat; Die Kampfkunst der Minang- kabau und ihr kulturelles Umfeld. Frankfurt a.M.: Afra Verlag, 1992, 320 pp. ISBN 3.923217.51.X. Price: DM 38.50.

J. ter BEEK

The Indonesian archipelago has developed one of the most sophisticated systems of martial arts the world has ever known - Pencak Silat. This martial art has a large number of practitioners, especially in Indonesia and

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Malaysia. It exists in more than 150 officially recorded styles and in this book, which was also published as a Ph.D. thesis (Cologne, 1990), the author scrutinizes two styles: Silek Tuo and Batu Mandi, both of which are practised by the Minangkabau of West Sumatra. The first part of the book deals with Pencak Silat, compared to other forms of movement and arts such as dance and the dance theatre, randai. This comparison demonstrates that it is fairly difficult to classify Pencak Silat into categories which are commonly used in the occidental world: self-defence, games, dance, or sport. Pencak Silat appears to be deeply rooted in Minangkabau society which is reinforced by the intimate relationship between Pencak Silat and , but also by non-Islamic beliefs in which for instance the movements of the tiger play an important part. The analysis of the historical development of Pencak Silat is the subject of the second part of the book. The origin of Pencak Silat emerges from Minangkabau myths and the role of Pencak Silat in colonial wars is described from Dutch sources. After the Independence of Indonesia, Pencak Silat was developed into a modern sport at the instigation of the Indonesian government. So far not many books have been written about Pencak Silat and those books which are available approach Pencak Silat from the point of view of sport. They tend to be 'how to' books and are mainly concerned with the practical side of Pencak Silat. Cordes' book is the first ever to describe Pencak Silat from an anthropological view, in which Pencak Silat is actually placed in a cultural context, in this case that of the Minangkabau culture. Nowadays Pencak Silat has two variants: traditional Pencak Silat, as it is still practised in the villages, and modern Pencak Silat, which is being developed by the Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia (IPSI). Modern Pencak Silat is characterized by all kind of rules. Batu Mandi and Silek Tuo provide examples of each, the one being traditional and the other modern Pencak Silat. Highlights of this book are the crystal clear drawings of techniques and the fine descriptions of the learning process in Pencak Silat and the religious context in which Pencak Silat is practised. There are, on the other hand, a few minor flaws, for instance Cordes' at- tempts to find a logic in the Pencak Silat movements that she has seen and analysed. In my humble opinion she approaches this too rationally, since there is often a lot of improvisation in Pencak Silat in which logic only plays a minor role. Besides this, to my mind Cordes puts too much stress on the sports side of Pencak Silat, although it must be said that this side of Pencak Silat is continuously gaining in importance nowadays. In sum, Cordes' book is a valuable contribution to the study of Pencak Silat and it is very worthwhile reading.

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J.A.A. van Doorn, De laatste eeuw van Indië; Ontwikkeling en ondergang van een koloniaal project. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1994, 370 pp. ISBN 90.351.1351.9.

PETER BOOMGAARD

We hebben het inmiddels al vaak genoeg meegemaakt, en toch blijft het een vreemd verschijnsel. Een samenleving die op één plaats min of meer abrupt ophoudt te bestaan, om vervolgens op een andere plaats nog decennia lang ontworteld voort te leven, met een verleden maar zonder toekomst. Na de Tweede Wereldoorlog overkwam dit de Engelsen, Fran- sen, Nederlanders en Portugezen die bij de dekolonisatie van Azië en Afrika naar hun 'vaderland' terug moesten. Vaderland tussen aanhalings- tekens, omdat veel ex-kolonisten in de kolonie geboren waren. Over zo'n verdwenen beschaving, namelijk die van de Nederlanders in Indië en de Indische Nederlanders, gaat het boek van J.A.A. van Doorn. Het is een verzameling opstellen, niet een strak gecomponeerd boek, met 'Indië' als centraal thema. Indië dus, en niet Indonesië, omdat de auteur dat laatste begrip voor de koloniale periode een anachronisme vindt. Van Doorn kiest bovendien bewust voor een geschiedschrijving vanuit 'euro- centrisch' perspectief omdat dit zijn persoonlijke belangstelling heeft en omdat een 'indocentrische' benadering door zijn achtergrond - 'westers' socioloog - minder voor de hand ligt. Hij is trouwens in het algemeen tamelijk somber over de mogelijkheden voor een geschiedenis vanuit Indo- nesisch perspectief (van binnenuit), omdat zijns inziens de bronnen daar- voor ontbreken. Als socioloog gaat zijn belangstelling uit naar de geschiedenis van de onderlinge relaties van groepen en groeperingen, vooral tussen 1870 en 1949: hoe ontwikkelden zich de betrekkingen tussen totok en Indo, tussen Indo en inlander, tussen overheersers en overheersten, tussen ambtenaren van het Binnenlands Bestuur en die van de gespecialiseerde diensten, tussen ambtenaren en planters, tussen Europese en inheemse theeplanters, tussen volkshoofden en nationalisten? Verder geldt Van Doorns belangstelling vooral Java, wat logisch is als men in aanmerking neemt dat daar de meeste Nederlanders en Indo-euro- peanen zaten. Opvallend is dat zijn interesse binnen Java vooral naar de Preanger Regentschappen uitgaat, een streek die de VOC al sinds de late zeventiende eeuw als soeverein bezit beschouwde en waar tot 1871 een bijzonder stelsel van exploitatie en bestuur gehandhaafd bleef. De wijze waarop de auteur zijn onderwerpen behandelt is zowel betrok- ken als afstandelijk. Betrokken omdat hij de Indische samenleving van vlak na de oorlog nog zelf - zij het als relatieve buitenstaander - heeft meegemaakt. Afstandelijk omdat hij in staat is de grote lijn te zien en wel- licht omdat hij als socioloog gewend is te denken in collectiva die soms meer object dan subject van de geschiedenis zijn. De meeste stukken

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 141 worden gekenmerkt door een soepele, prettig leesbare stijl, en de lezer wordt bij de les gehouden met bondig geformuleerde typeringen waarmee ingewikkelde processen op verantwoorde wijze worden samengevat. Het minst geslaagde deel van het boek vind ik de hoofdstukken vijf tot en met zeven, wellicht niet toevallig dat gedeelte waarin de schrijver zich in feite niet aan zijn programma houdt en probeert een analyse van het inheemse deel van de - Preanger - samenleving te geven. Hij betreedt hier het terrein van de sociale en economische geschiedenis van niet-westerse 'peasant societies' waarop hij kennelijk onvoldoende thuis is. Zo blijft zijn theoretisch exposé over verschillen in opvatting over 'ontwikkeling' steken bij Clifford Geertz en de 'underdevelopment' school, terwijl daar juist het laatste decennium veel behartigenswaardigs over gezegd is. Ook mis ik verwijzingen naar recente studies op dit gebied over Java en zelfs over de Preanger. Zijn behandeling van de depressie van de jaren dertig (pp. 231-241) is op z'n minst aanvechtbaar en doet gedateerd aan. Dit betreft gelukkig maar een beperkt gedeelte van het boek. Daar waar de auteur zich aan zijn programma houdt is zijn betoog boeiend, over- tuigend en evenwichtig. Voor wie geïnteresseerd is in de Nederlanders in Indië en de Indische Nederlanders tussen 1870 en 1949, is deze verzame- ling essays de best denkbare introductie, mede dankzij een uitvoerig notenapparaat.

Georges Condominas (ed.), Disciplines croisées; Hom- mage a Bernard Philippe Groslier. Paris: Éditions de 1'École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1992, 377 pp. ISBN 2.7132.0992.7.

J.G. de CASPARIS

The premature death of B.P. Groslier, known as B.P.G. to his friends, has left a serious vacuüm in the many different aspects of ancient Khmer civilization in which this scholar, described as an 'archéologue complet', excelled. The present volume reflects the main fields of his many-sided activities: archaeology in its narrow sense, epigraphy, linguistics, history and anthropology. The significance of his work is analysed and assessed in the first forty pages of this work, followed by fourteen articles, including one by B.P.G. himself, devoted to the work of his father George Groslier. All the contributions in this volume are of a high academie standard. I had to make a choice; this review is mainly confined to those articles which are directly concerned with Indonesian and Malay studies. One of the most important of these, also the longest of the contributions, is a study by Koentjaraningrat on 'The Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic Civil- ization in Indonesia', dealing mainly with the background of the emer-

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gence of Indonesian Islamic states. As this is a problem of prime importance to understanding Indonesian civilization through the centuries, I discuss this article to some depth. In genera], the author adheres to the traditional view that Islam spread to most of Indonesia and Malaysia as a result of trading activities, which brought the archipelago in close contact with India and the Middle East. On the other hand, the author is well aware of the study by L.C. Damais of the tombstones at Troloyo, near Trowulan in the immediate vicinity of the ancient capital of Majapahit. As many of the dates of these tombstones precede the earliest known Muslim tomb on the coast (Gresik: 1429 AD), aside from the inscription of Leran (AD 1082), which is an isolated case, the traditional view may have to be revised. Although the tombs are anonymous, there is no reason to suppose that they were those of foreigners. The stones (nisan) are not only decorated with traditional Javanese motifs but also contain dates in the Saka era, expressed not in Arabic but in Old Javanese numerals. As the cemetery is situated only a few miles from the royal compound of Majapahit it seems likely that those buried there stood in close relation to the kraton. It is quite true that the evidence is still diffïcult to interpret, but a full discussion of this basic problem would have been most useful. On the other hand, the article presents a most useful survey and full dis- cussion of some of the other problems concerned with the early expansion of Islam. It also contains a detailed bibliography, from which, however, a few important titles are missing, such as: S.Q. Fatimi, Islam Comes to Malaysia (1963), Othman M. Yatim, Batu Aceh: Early Islamic Grave- stones in Peninsular Malaysia (1988), and Hasan Muarif Ambary, The Establishment of Islamic Rule in Jayakarta (1975). It is true that two of these works concern Western Malaysia, but the problems with which they deal are important to the correct understanding of the developments in Indonesia. Another important contribution is one by Helmut Loofs-Wiissowa on certain aspects of the well-known kettle drums. The most important and plausible conclusion is that the 'stars' on top of the drums do not represent a solar symbol, as has usually been assumed, but are merely a 'passive' element: the space between the inward-pointing triangles. The article is also of interest for its up-to-date discussion of the dates and other problems concerning these drums. Two short articles deal with the ecological and cultural significance of cattle rearing on the island of Madura (Glen Smith) and with the Muslim basis of modern Malaysian literature (Monique Zaini-Lajoubert). Both are of great interest and make us regret their brevity. The only contribution taking up the main theme which runs through B.P.G.'s major works is a short, compact article by Janice Stargardt, on certain aspects of Pyu civilization, resulting from her research at ancient Sri Ksetra, one of the three major archaeological sites in present Burma (Myan- mar). Stargardt discusses some recent discoveries at that location, including

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 143 the largest known pre-Islamic burial site in Southeast Asia, situated south of the walls of the ancient city. An important part of this article is devoted to the symbolism of the hydraulic network, in which she analyses the cosmic principles forming the basis of the Pyu royal capital. The Buddhist character of the city is reflected in the shape of the Dharmacakra, con- stituted by the walls and the canals. The article is followed by no fewer than twelve illustrations, the last of which is a transversal cut showing the succession of buildings, terraces, ramparts and canals over a distance of about 10 km from a 121-metre high hill to the funerary terraces. Khmer iconography is represented by an article on the bronze Visnu statue from Prasat Kravan at Angkor, written by Mireille Turpin. It presents a detailed description of this statue, dated back to the tenth century on the basis of a stylistic comparison with some datable statues. The significance of the of the (mainly) Buddhist Tara in the religion of the Ahom in present is discussed by B.J. Terwiel, who concludes that the goddess was introduced into Ahom religion in about the 12th century. Among the remaining articles, I briefly mention four linguistic contri- butions: on the Austronesian language Puyuma in Taiwan (Josiane Cau- quelin), on three terms indicating divine beings in Malagasi (Otto C. Dahl), on kinship terminology in Tahi and Lao (B. Formoso), and on Burmese neologisms used in archaeology (Cathérine Raymond). It is not surprising that Pali and Sanskrit are the most important sources of this terminology, although Mon and English were also used. Finally there are two essentially anthropological studies, one of which represents what is called a statistical classification of more than two hundred cultures of Southeast Asia (Taryö Obayashi), resulting in a 'dendrogram' apparently showing their relation- ship; the other, by M.A. Martinis, is a historical and ecological analysis of the population of the Cardamom mountains in western Cambodia. Four dif- ferent population groups, some of which subdivided, can be distinguished on linguistic, physical, and cultural criteria. In this review it is impossible to do justice to all these important contributions, but this brief account may show that this is an important publication reflecting the great achievements of Bernard Philippe Groslier.

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Ton Otto (ed.), Pacific islands trajectories; Five personal views. Occasional paper of the Department of Anthro- pology, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University (Canberra), in association with the Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 1993, 177 pp. ISBN 0.7315.1895.0.

H.J.M. CLAESSEN

In this small volume the editor, Ton Otto, introduces the five keynote lectures presented at the First European Colloquium on Pacific Studies, held in Nijmegen in December 1992, and discusses these against the background of colonization and decolonization in the Pacific region. In the first chapter, Roger Keesing, paints the present situation in the Solomon Islands in bold strokes. He discusses the economie, ecological and demographical situation, and his conclusions are pessimistic: the future of the Solomon Islands is bleak. The only positive aspect he finds is the 'still considerable resilience at village level' (p. 52). The second chapter, by Maurice Godelier, discusses the changes which have been brought about in the Baruya society of New Guinea since its discovery in 1951. The contacts with 'civilization' turned out to be a mixed blessing. The Baruya lost their right 'to lead their own lives on their own territory' (p. 65). Baruya society did not collapse, however, but changed considerably. The greatest change probably occurred in the relations between men and women: 'a movement away from the traditional denial of women and affïrmation of male dominance' (p. 80). Alan Howard, in his chapter (reprinted in BKI 149:646-660), strongly defends the use of historical insights and data preserved by the Polynesians themselves. And, who will disagree with that? He gives several examples of the 'hidden' way in which Polynesians present views of their past, views that thus can easily escape the outsider. In a lengthy chapter (pp. 98-152) Jean Guiart discusses the main problems of Melanesia, his long-time field of research. He begins with the problem of depopulation, caused by the introduction of gonorrhoea in the nineteenth century. This meant that many societies, described by anthropologists as 'stable', and 'traditional', were in fact struggling to survive in a new situation (pp. 102 ff.). Guiart also points to the fact that many administrators and approached Melanesia with eurocentric views, which led to many misconceptions and wrongly directed efforts to 'improve' the life of the 'poor heathens'. The final chapter is by Stephen Polonkou Pokawin, Premier of Manus Province (Papua New Guinea). He gives a critical appraisal of Western influences in the Pacific, and emphasizes that Western impact on Papua New Guinea is much greater today than it has ever been in the past (p. 162). He attributes this primarily to the many foreign aid programmes, and commercial enterprises. To put this in a nutshell, this is a small book with great

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 145 chapters. A book in which some of world's foremost experts on the Pacific present their views in no uncertain terms. And, even though many of their conclusions are pessimistic, their exposés make fascinating reading for everyone interested in the Pacific region.

Cecilia Odé and Vincent J. van Heuven (eds). Experi- mental studies of Indonesian prosody. Semaian 9. Leiden: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuidoost-Azië en Ocea- nië, 1994, 214 pp. ISBN 90.73084.10.5. Price: ƒ 40.00.

BRUCE CONNELL

The last fifteen or so years have seen a considerable upsurge in interest in studies of prosody, particularly with regard to the characterization of phe- nomena such as stress, accent, and intonation within phonological theory, and the use of experimental phonetic evidence to validate the emerging phonological hypotheses. Much of this work draws on insights gained from work done on African tone languages, and views intonation in terms of a series of localized tonal targets rather than the more traditional con- tours approach. Stress and accent are viewed from a broader perspective than that traditionally taken, incorporated into the overall metrical structure of a phrase. The present volume, consisting of a set of production and perceptual studies of prosodie phenomena in Indonesian may, on one hand, be judged against this background; it must also be judged in view of the previous absence of detailed work on these aspects on Indonesian. The book has five chapters, of which all but the first report experimental results and incorporate substantial data on a number of aspects of Indo- nesian prosody. The first chapter, 'Introducing Prosodie Phonetics' by Van Heuven, gives background information suitable for the non-specialist in matters of the phonetic and phonological analysis of prosody. The second chapter, 'On the Perception of Prominence in Indonesian', by Odé, begins with a detailed and welcome review of previous work done on Indonesian prosody, drawing attention to the lack of agreement among commentators of the subject. Her own experimental work attempts to identify exactly where prominence is perceived in the phrase, through eliciting listeners' judgements, and to determine what acoustic features are relevant to the perception of prominence in Indonesian. The third chapter, 'Location of Stress in Indonesian Words and Sen- tences', by Myrna Laksman, examines stress from a production viewpoint. Evidence from production data (measurements of pitch and duration) is presented that confirms traditional analyses claiming penultimate stress in the language. Chapter Four, 'The Effect of Sentence Position and Accent on the Duration of Indonesian Words: a pilot study', by Ellen van Zanten,

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access 146 Book Reviews is again a production study, and reports contradictory evidence regarding the effect of sentence position on word duration, while accented words (i.e. in focus) were found to be longer than unaccented ones. The concluding chapter, 'Towards an Inventory of Perceptually Relev- ant Pitch Movements for Indonesian', by Ewald Ebing, goes beyond the question of word stress to examine characteristics of Indonesian intonation. Using the well-established perceptual research paradigm developed at the Institute for Perception Research (Eindhoven), a number of configuration types are identified and seen as common to various dialects of Indonesian. If there is one flaw common to the work presented in these four ex- perimental reports, it is the apparent lack of familiarity with eurrent devel- opments in research into prosodie phenomena (some of which is referred to in Van Heuven's introduction). Without suggesting that the more phono- logically based approaches that are eurrent would necessarily provide all the answers, it is likely that some insights would be gained, and that research reported would benefit from an approach integrating both phon- etics and phonology. On the other hand, this book must be seen as a valuable contribution to the study of prosody in general, and should be of interest to everyone concerned with this aspect of linguistic research, not only specialists in Indonesian. Certainly more information is needed on other than the major languages of the world, and though much of the work reported here is admittedly preliminary in nature, it represents a substantial increase in our knowledge of the phonetics of Indonesian prosody.

Donald A. Burquest and Wyn D. Laidig (eds.), Descripüve studies in languages of Maluku. NUSA, Linguistic Studies of Indonesian and other Languages in Indonesia, volume 34. Jakarta: Badan Penyelenggara Seri Nusa, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya, 1992, x + 94 pp., maps.

AONE VAN ENGELENHOVEN

This volume presents some preliminary results of ongoing research by the Summer Institute of Linguistics in three ethnolinguistic regions of Maluku. Cindy Blood's paper (pp. 1-21) surveys the phonotactics of subject- agreement on the verb in Meher, spoken in Southwest Maluku. The prefixes seem to be confined to verbs with initial vowels. They are re-asso- ciated with the final vowel of the word preceding a verb with an initial consonant, if that word is within the same phonological phrase as the verb. The words where the subject-agreement markers are encliticized are, among others, the subject pronouns, the negator and certain quantifiers. The contribution of Craig and Sarah Marshall (pp. 23-30) is an autoseg-

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 147 mental sketch of the reduplication patterns in Fordata, which is spoken in Southeast Maluku. The reduplicative template is CaC and exclusively prefixed to bisyllabic sterns:

QVC2V => i) C1a-C]VC2Vif: a) C\ =/M., w,/orC2 b) C2 = 0, else: ü) A short overview of nominalization and adjectivization being the main functions of reduplication is presented at the end of the paper. Masahiro and Yuko Takata (pp. 31-46) analyse the phonology and morphophonology of Kola, another Southeast Maluku language. Al- though stress is mostly on the penultimate syllable, it has been attested on ultimate syllables in a few cases where it is contrastive. The distribution of its 16 consonant phonemes and 5 vowel phonemes is discussed in terms of syllable structures. The most interesting part of this contribution is the discussion of reduplication. lts main principles are the copy of the conson- ant next to the stressed nucleus (whether its is part of the same syllable or not) and its prefixation on the stressed syllable: i ...VQVC2... => ...V-C2-C1VC2... ii ...QVC2- => ...aC2-CiVC2... iii ...CjW... => ...C1a-C1W... Although it is stated nowhere, this implies the leftward infixation of redu- plicative morphemes in polysyllabic roots. The functions of reduplication are discussed in the following paper by Yuko Takata (pp. 47-68) on word classes in Kola. Nouns are marked for (in)animateness by different possessor agreements and so-called 'demon- strative adjectives'. She distinguishes two kinds of subject-agreement; one being suffixed to adjectives, the other being prefixed to verbs and pre- positions. Takata's proposal to differentiate verbs from prepositions rests on the fact that subject-agreement is optional in the latter. Sandra Wimbish (pp. 69-90) examines the phonology of the Non- Austronesian Pagu on Halmahera (North Maluku). It has 18 consonants and 5 vowels. The labial and palatal glides are analysed as phonemes and not as allophones of the matching high vowels. Morphophonological aspects discussed in this contribution concern aspectual suffixation and reduplication. This volume provides data of virtually unknown languages in East Indo- nesia and reading it gives rise to may questions. Unfortunately, some of them are caused by the sketchy presentation rather than the preliminary character of the book. It is therefore hoped, that the contributions will soon be elaborated in order to provide a proper understanding of these interesting languages.

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Dieter Bartels, In de schaduw van de berg Nunusaku; Een cultuur-historische verhandeling over de bevolking van de Midden-Molukken. Utrecht: Landelijk Steunpunt Edukatie Molukkers, 1994, 476 pp. ISBN 90.73388.46.5.

CH.F. van FRAASSEN

Dit boek maakt deel uit van een fonds voor het onderwijs aan Molukse leerlingen en voor de volwassenen-educatie. Het geeft een algemene be- schrijving van de Middenmolukse geschiedenis, samenleving en cultuur, met het doel dat leerkrachten, studenten, maatschappelijk werkers en Molukkers in Nederland de reeds beschikbare literatuur en de in omloop zijnde verhalen in hun context kunnen plaatsen. In de Duits-Amerikaanse antropoloog D. Bartels heeft men een uitste- kend gekwalificeerd en een de Molukse doelgroep zeer toegewijd auteur voor dit veelomvattende boek gevonden. Hij promoveerde in 1977 op een onderzoek naar pè/a-verbanden op de Ambonse eilanden (Guarding the invisible Mountain: Intervillage Alliances, and Ethnic Identity among Ambonese Christians and Moslems in the Moluc- cas) en publiceerde in 1990 de resultaten van een onderzoek naar sociali- satieprocessen binnen de Molukse gemeenschap in Nederland {Ambon is op Schiphol: Socialisatie, identiteitsontwikkeling en emancipatie bij Molukkers in Nederland). De essentiële vraag die Bartels met dit boek wil beantwoorden, is wat de gezamenlijke identiteit is van alle Midden-Moluk- kers (bewoners van Ambon en omliggende eilanden, en hun afstam- melingen). Het antwoord op deze identiteitsvraag vindt Bartels in het respect voor de mythische heilige plaats Nunusaku, een onzichtbare hei- lige berg bekroond door een waringin in het binnenland van West-Seram, van waaruit de voorouders zich over de Molukken zouden hebben verspreid. Deel 1, oorsprong, is gewijd aan de bevolking van West-Seram, de zogenaamde Alfoeren. Deel 2, geschiedenis, behandelt de geschiedenis van de Midden-Molukken. Deel 3, identiteit, behandelt de Ambonese cultuur, zoals die zich in de loop der geschiedenis heeft ontwikkeld: de dorpssamenleving, adat en wereldbeeld, versmelting van christendom en islam met traditionele geloofsvoorstellingen. Het besef van gemeenschap- pelijke oorsprong en etnische verbondenheid komt volgens Bartels in het bijzonder tot uiting in het koesteren van de met bovennatuurlijke sancties versterkte bondgenootschappen tussen dorpen: deze pèla-verbanden zou- den de kern vormen van een ethnische religie waarin de Nunusaku als plaats van oorsprong en van uiteindelijke bestemming centraal staat. Gegeven het doel van het boek, mag men verwachten dat het een goed geschreven populariserend compilatiewerk is. Maar dit boek is meer dan dat. Bartels schrijft vanuit een duidelijke visie en heeft bij het schrijven rijkelijk geput uit zijn schat aan veldwerkgegevens, waardoor het boek

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 149 ook voor hen, die goed zijn ingevoerd in de literatuur over de Molukken, vele nieuwe gegevens bevat. De grootste kracht van het boek ligt in de geestdriftige wijze waarop Bartels de verhalen van zijn informanten doorvertelt en zo de spreekbuis van zijn informanten vormt. Anders dan in strikt wetenschappelijke antro- pologische studies nog wel eens wil voorkomen, zijn hier de mensen waarover het gaat nadrukkelijk aanwezig. De zwakke kant van het boek is dat Bartels te weinig kritische distantie ten opzichte van zijn bronnen toont. Van een antropoloog mag men verificatie en kritische analyse van door informanten aangereikte informa- tie verwachten, maar op dit punt schiet Bartels naar wetenschappelijke maatstaven gemeten op vele punten tekort. Voor een wetenschapper neemt hij te weinig afstand van zijn veldwerknotities. Tot slot nog enkele specifieke punten van kritiek. Wat Bartels schrijft over Hindoeïsme in de Molukken (p. 158-169) is zeer speculatief en het gaat beslist veel te ver om te spreken van 'dorpen die hindoeïstisch waren tot hun bekering tot het christendom' (p. 161). Flinterdunne aanwijzingen voor hindoeïstische invloeden in de Molukken worden zeer sterk uit- vergroot. De overgang tot het christendom in 16e eeuw wordt door Bartels geïn- terpreteerd als een poging tot het aanboren van nieuwe magische kracht (p. 208-209). Dat kan zeker meegespeeld hebben. Maar Bartels gaat geheel voorbij aan het feit dat de keuze voor christendom of islam ook een politieke keuze was: associatie en alliantie met Portugezen dan wel met Ternatanen en Javanen. Te stellen dat de adat de kern vormt van de Ambonse identiteit (p. 369), is een tautologie; cultuur vormt altijd de kern van ethnische identiteit. Volgens mij is het hart van de Molukse identiteit het besef van gemeen- schappelijke afkomst, traditie en taal. Dat de Ambonese identiteit de tweedeling van islam versus christendom overstijgt, komt het best tot uiting in het bestaan van pè/a-banden tussen christen- en moslim-dorpen, zoals ook Bartels terecht signaleert. Al met al: niemand met belangstelling voor de Molukken kan dit boek negeren, ook al is het niet voor een wetenschappelijk publiek geschreven. In het bijzonder de Molukkers, maar zij niet alleen, mogen blij zijn met dit boek.

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Don Kulick, Language shift and cultural reproduction; Socialization, self, and syncretism in a Papua New Guinean village. Cambridge/New York/Victoria: Cam- bridge University Press, 1992, xvi + 317 pp., maps, figures, photographs, index. ISBN 0.521.41484.9. Price: US $ 59.95.

CD. GRIJNS

This fascinating book deals with an 'endangered' language of Papua New Guinea where the shift from the vernacular to Tok Pisin is still in its initial phases. In contrast to most other studies of language shift, the 'danger' is not primarily interpreted in terms of pragmatic or socio-economic factors, but 'cosmologically' instead (p. 249), as the result of changing attitudes, perceptions of self, and ideas about language (p. 260). 'Endangered', for that matter, is not a term we find this author using. The scène is set in Gapun, a tiny, isolated village in the lower Sepik- Ramu area, north-west of Madang. In 1986-87 the local vernacular, called Taiap, was spoken actively and fluently by exactly 89 people. However, as of 1987, no village child under ten uses Taiap actively in verbal interaction. Their first language is Tok Pisin; most boys under eight appear not even to understand much Taiap, while many little girls had a highly developed passive competence in Taiap (pp. 7 and 265). This led to the puzzling situation that although all parents firmly stated the wish that their children speak Taiap, at the same time they accepted the ongoing shift in language acquisition and did not take any measures to prevent it. The author's principal purpose is to investigate why these villagers abandon their vernacular. His approach is both anthropological and socio- linguistic. He starts, in Chapter One, with a description of the people and their village, which includes an outline of how they see other people, espe- cially the Westerners, whose 'world, wealth and white skin' eventually will come their way through some 'miraculous transmutation' (p. 60). The second chapter deals with the sociolinguistic setting, with sections on Tok Pisin and shift; awareness of shift; the way languages are used; ideas about different languages, including neighbouring vernaculars, Tok Pisin, English, and Taiap; Taiap and its particular associations with women because of their ties to the land, the clan, and to traditional lifestyles in general. The next two chapters comprise an analysis of two basic dimensions of self (personhood) of the villagers, set out under the denominators of hed and save. Hed is the 'individualistic, irascible, selfish, unbending, haughty, and proud' aspect of the self (p. 19); it is a basic attribute of personhood, already embodied in young children (p. 114), and it is associated with individualism, femininity, child, bad, , backwardness, being uneducated, and speaking Taiap (p. 20). There is a distinctively female speech genre called kros, which is a public proclamation of conflict in the

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book,Reviews 151 form of accusatory monologues. Kroses are manifestations of having hed and are typically related to the use of Taiap. Save ('knowledge', especially about appropriate behaviour and speech) is also present in even the youngest babies, but it 'breaks open', develops gradually, and is associated with collectivism (the men's house), masculinity, adulthood, good, , modernity, being educated, and speaking Tok Pisin. (Originally, Tok Pisin was brought in by males.) The most powerful way save is displayed is in oratorical speeches (p. 122), which are still closely connected with the men's house. Repetitions and frequent code-switching are typical of this verbal genre, and, unlike kroses, these orations are consensus-oriented. Here the basic code is always Tok Pisin. 'Through its close associations with oratory, men, consensus and modernity, Tok Pisin has become incorporated into the villagers' verbal repertoires not just as one more language, but as a ripe and meaningful symbolic resource that villagers can draw upon to assert their social competence and to show their save' (pp. 148-49). Chapter Five is entitled 'Preparing to change'. Change, total change, is welcomed by the villagers (p. 160). They are anxiously awaiting the general metamorphosis their cargo-oriented world view predicts. Their traditional framework fits well into what they understand to be Christian doctrine (as shown by the long, revealing text on pp. 157-60). Tok Pisin is the language used by the Church and it is also connected with 'coming up' (development) (p. 187), whereas Taiap is connected with the past - 'a past they devalue and wish to be free of (p. 189). The two concluding chapters focus on language acquisition by children. From their first words on, children's utterances are considered to be in Tok Pisin (p. 202). Many caregivers (often siblings) do not actively command Taiap or choose Tok Pisin as the appropriate code in verbal interaction with the child, with the result that the children become monolingual. There is a type of narrative accounts called stori, the topics of which are self-ex- perienced events or, e.g., past fights between villages, or anecdotes about particular persons. The stori and the listeners' reactions are traditionally structured, and spoken in Tok Pisin. In learning to stori, children acquire fundamental knowledge about what a villager's self should be. The acceptability of a stori does not depend on the particular language used to teil it, but on the way it is presented and on the correct use of language (pp. 234-47). Remarkably, the incorporation of Tok Pisin into the villagers' speech pattern did not develop into a rigid diglossia with Tok Pisin as a High and Taiap as a Low code (p. 253). Tok Pisin became absorbed into the vil- lagers' talk through constant mixes and switches. This form of incorpora- tion, as Kulick interprets it, is clearly linked to the symbolic associations ascribed to the two languages. It also seems to reflect the fact that the two basic aspects of self (hed and save), as Kulick observes, are never entirely separated.

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The core of Kulick's conclusions is that the macro-sociological changes that are occurring have not caused language shift, but that they them- selves have been caused by cultural shift (p. 260). Here lies the heart of the general importance of this book: language shift is approached as part of a process of culture shift and it is skilfully demonstrated that the study of languages in contact unequivocally implies the study of cultures in contact. The book is written in a clear and often narrative style, which makes it pleasant reading. It can be highly recommended to students of cultural anthropology and of sociolinguistics. The latter will particularly appreciate the elaborate Introduction, in which the theories are discussed that try to explain the extremely complicated linguistic situation of New Guinea, while a very useful survey of studies on language shift is also offered. The many direct quotations (in English translation) taken from typical speech genres enable the reader to evaluate the author's interpretations. The book is carefully edited and handsomely produced.

Gerard Termorshuizen, In de binnenlanden van Java; Vier negentiende-eeuwse reisverhalen. Leiden: KITLV Uitge- verij, 1993, 102 pp. ISBN 90.6718.057.2. Price: ƒ 15,00.

TIM HOPPEN

Elk jaar laat het KITLV, ter gelegenheid van de Boekenweek, een boek verschijnen. Gerard Termorshuizen is de tweede in deze reeks met In de binnenlanden van Java. Deze publikatie bevat een viertal reisverhalen die oorspronkelijk verschenen zijn in de Bataviasche Courant in de jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw. Bij de verbreiding van de kennis over land en volk van Nederlands-Indië was, bij gebrek aan andere periodieken, een belangrijke rol weggelegd voor de gouvernementskrant; van 1816 tot 1828 was dit de Bataviasche Courant. In de zeventiende en achttiende eeuw was de VOC in de eerste plaats een handeldrijvende instelling geweest en geen besturende. Zij was, ook op Java, voornamelijk geïnteresseerd in nederzettingen aan de kusten van waaruit zij handel kon drijven en zeeroutes controleren. Aan de meer landinwaarts gelegen gebieden werd niet of nauwelijks aandacht besteed, waardoor het kon gebeuren dat Nederland vanaf 1800 als koloniale - gendheid het bestuur ging voeren over een kolonie die grotendeels terra incognita was. In het begin van de negentiende eeuw was het dus maat- schappelijk en politiek gezien noodzakelijk om de Indische archipel in kaart te brengen en te onderzoeken op haar (economisch) potentieel. Dit schetst het maatschappelijk belang van de vroeg negentiende-eeuwse reis- verslagen, en wijst tegelijkertijd op de historische waarde van dit boek.

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Aan de post-VOC reisliteratuur is in het verleden weinig aandacht besteed, zodat het verheugend is om een publikatie over dit onderwerp te mogen verwelkomen. Twee van de reisverhalen zijn van de hand van de bekende Duitse botanicus Carl Ludwig Blume. Hij onderneemt een barre tocht in de residentie Bantam, en brengt daarmee als eerste Europeaan een bezoek aan de heilige graven van de Badoej, een bevolkingsgroep die, volgens Blume, op de vlucht voor de oprukkende Islam de wijk had genomen naar het ontoegankelijke Westjavaanse berggebied. Ook bestijgt Blume de vulkaan Tjerimai, op Midden-Java. Het derde (en fraaiste) verhaal is afkomstig van de resident van de Preanger Regentschappen R. van der Capellen, broer van de toenmalige gouverneur-generaal. Het is een aangrijpend en goed geschreven verslag van de verschrikkelijke gevolgen van de uitbarsting van de vulkaan Galoenggoeng in oktober 1822. Van der Capellen schijnt zijn stuk voor een belangrijk deel gebaseerd te hebben op het verslag van de niet onbekende Belgische schilder A.A.J. Payen. Dit roept overigens meteen de vraag op wanneer Payens aantekeningen gepubliceerd worden. Het laatste reisverhaal is anoniem verschenen, hetgeen niet ongebruikelijk was in de toenmalige koloniale pers, en beschrijft een tocht in de residentie Krawang alwaar wederom een vulkaan bedwongen wordt. Een terugkerend element in de verhalen is de verwoestende kracht van de natuur (vulkaanuitbarstingen, buiten hun oevers tredende rivieren, ver- nietigende bosbranden). Daarnaast weerspiegelen de verhalen de opko- mende verlichtingsideeën, waaronder de aandacht voor (natuurweten- schappen en de veranderende visie op de inheemse bevolking. Het boek is voorzien van een heldere inleiding van Termorshuizen, waarmee de verhalen tegen een duidelijke historische achtergrond ge- plaatst worden. In de binnenlanden van Java is een geslaagd boekwerk, hetgeen niet in de laatste plaats veroorzaakt wordt door de 16 schitterende illustraties, deels van de eerder genoemde Payen.

Monique Zaini-Lajoubert, L'image de la femme dans les littératures modernes indonésienne et malaise. Paris: Association Archipel, Cahier d'Archipel 24, 1994, ix + 221 pp. ISBN 2.910513.02.5.

NIELS MULDER

This charming little book is about the images of women in the modern literature in Malay and Indonesian written in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The images presented are chosen from some sixty novels selected according to the importance of the roles women play in them. The period covered runs from the middle of the nineteenth century up to the

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late 1980s. The author tells us that hers is the first scholarly attempt at developing diachronic images over such a long period. The other relevant studies, of which she is highly aware, either concern brief spans of time or are simply synchronic. These investigations, for instance, those by Henri Chambert-Loir (1977), Jakob Sumardjo (1981), C.M.S. (Tineke) Hellwig (1990), and Harry Aveling (Swami Anand Haridas) (1986), generally draw the conclusion that the image of women is a rather static, non-progressive, and therefore, pessimistic one, irrespective of whether the literature analysed has been written by men or by women (pp. 85-7). By taking a long time-frame, the author hopes to overcome this pessimism while proposing an evolutionary perspective running from female dependency to a promise of autonomy (up to 1942), then on to 'a happy consequence of the diversification of the role of women: the growth of their autonomy (1942-1980s)'. The evolving images have not developed by themselves, but are the product of a variety of historical, social, political, and literary factors, which the author aims to illustrate (pp. 1-5). Although this reviewer is only competent to judge the Indonesian materials discussed, while the author herself allots considerable space to Malaysian literature, it is clear that she has endeavoured to accomplish a very ambitious project in the space of no more than 146 substantive pages, including footnotes, the rest of the book being consumed by a very French-style exhaustive thirty-page Bibliography, a far too detailed seventeen-page Index, and illustrations and blancs amounting to another twenty-eight pages. From the comments interspersed throughout the text, it is obvious that Zaini has fallen into the trap of her preoccupations: namely, the image, and the concrete position, of women should evolve from dependency to emancipation in a world that moves from mystification to rationality. Accordingly, she proposes that, in the most recent period, beliefs in the merely give the novelist the opportunity to exposé their absurdity (p. 93), and that male authors are increasingly tending to depict the woman as career-oriented and sceptical about marriage, which in the end they cannot escape, while their female colleagues make their woman characters move from dependency to liberation (p. 115). Naturally, in the presentation of her materials, she has already had to be very selective to provide such theses with a semblance of truth. Then, by treating the 1970s and 1980s in Indonesia only through the eyes of the very popular women's author La Rose and the acclaimed literary talent Nh. Dini, she is forced to reach conclusions that contradict her master interpretations. Although there are a few 'feminist' authors, and although some woman characters begin moving into the wider public world, the main trend seems to be that women still acquiesce in their kodrat, their destiny as mothers and spouses who play second fiddle to their menfolk. So she finishes her book with the summary of an interview with Titiek W.S. who, like La Rose, seems to feel perfectly fulfilled by playing her

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'traditional' role (pp. 171-2). In a way the author seems disappointed that the Malay world has not moved in the direction she hypothesized. I think that her frustrated hopes have much to do with her nebulous grasp of extra-literary factors and the history of ideas. It is very possible to defend the thesis that the high points of women's ideals of liberation were reached in the period of rampant nationalism co-incident with the revolu- tion when beliefs in social constructability and liberation were widely held. Authors like Soewarsih Djojopoespito, Armijn Pané, and Achdiat Karta Mihardja can be comfortably interpreted in this way. Such high hopes for the human and social potential for improvement have already been dashed as we move into the late 1960s, when on the one hand, we see a spate of absurdist writings and, on the other, an impressive series of mystically- inclined novels that proclaim in supernatural causation and inevit- ability more than anything else, a theme that even spilled over into the so- called 'pop' novels. The 1970s witnessed the maturation of the New Order with its widely accepted, yet conservative, Pancasila and Wanita doctrines. This period also marked the onset of a still expanding process of Islamization which cannot be considered very conducive to women's liberation. At the same time it is clear that certain male authors are not simply preoccupied with female careers other than as the fulfilment of fate. Examples are Umar Kayam (Sri Sumarah dan Bawuk, 1975), Linus Suryadi AG (Pengakuan Pariyem, 1981), and, even, Y.B. Mangunwijaya (Burung-burung Manyar, 1981), while Iskasiah Sumarto (Astiti Rahayu, 1976) also shies away from breaking free. I wonder why neither this literature, nor the important popular 'pop' genre, has not even been mentioned. As I observed before, Zaini's book is charming, and of modest size. Too small to pack in all she set out to achieve. I trust that she perseveres with the subject because the extent of her reading, vide the references, is impressively wide. I do hope, though, that she will not dally in speculation about the images of women in a deeper past, an intention to which she has already alluded (p. 4). If she were to place her investigations and inter- pretations within a firmer framework of Indonesian-Malaysian and world cultural history, her next book should be worth looking forward to, and the excess of pages could be filled more productively than in the present volume.

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Rosalia Sciortino, CARE-takers of CURE; A study of health centre nurses in rural Central Java. Amsterdam: Jolly/Het Spinhuis Publishers, 1992, 318 pp. ISBN 90. 9005532.0.

A. NIEHOF

Sciortino's doctoral thesis, of which this book is the published version, puts nurses in the limelight. By focusing on the functioning of nurses in the Indonesian health care system, the workings of the system are laid bare. The pivotal position of nurses in the professional medical hierarchy inevit- ably leads to a critical analysis of the relations between nurses and other formal medical specialists: doctors and midwives. Because these nurses are attached to rural health centres, their relationship to traditional medical specialists in rural Central Java is also given due attention. The multi-level perspective is worked out against a historical background, which sheds light on the development of nursing as a vocation and as a profession. Thus, the book is not a conventional study in medical anthropology. Central themes are the balance between care and cure in nursing practice and ideology, and the opposition of public versus private sector. In the functioning of the rural health centre (puskesmas) the themes blend. The picture that emerges will be familiar to anyone who has lived and worked in rural areas in Indonesia for any length of time. The doctor more often absent than present, who, as the head of the health centre, has matters other than medication to attend to, and the nurses, male and female, who carry out medication by providing endless series of pills and injections. In the public sector nurses perform curative roles for which they are not trained, actually acting against the law. The doctors condone this situation because it suits them. The clients accept it because they do not know any better. To them, the perawat (nurse) has taken the place of the former mantri, who, as I recall, used to be called 'tukang suntik' (injection giver, 'needie pusher'). Health care officials prefer not to know. Neither party seems to benefit from denouncing the abuses in the public sector. In the private sector nurses compete with doctors. The latter have fewer scruples in denouncing the private curative practices of nurses. Conse- quently, nurses will not openly admit to having a private pratice. They say they just help people who call upon their services. The role of nurses in preventive medicine, as community health care workers, is officially proclaimed to be the core of the role model of nurses at rural health centres. In actual fact, however, nurses do not attach much priority to preventive health care. Since Indonesia adopted a primary health care strategy in 1971, preventive health care is an official policy aim. But nurses, who are also private entrepreneurs, prefer carrying out curative tasks at the health centre instead of taking an active part in outreach and posyandu activities. Reading this account of the sad state of affairs in rural

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 157 health care, one wonders how Indonesia has managed at all to reduce mortality, notably infant mortality, substantially during the past ten years. The picture drawn by Sciortino is truthful but superficial and, in spite of its multi-level perspective, constricted. It is superficial because it does not probe into the concepts of preventive health care and community health. In the dissertation of Solita Koesoebjono-Sarwono, entitled Community Participation in Primary Health Care in an Indonesian Setting (Leiden, 1993), the behaviour of health personnel in the posyandu is called 'ritualistic', like the ritualistic use of health statistics by health care officials, as noted by Sciortino. Nurses play their parts in these rituals, as is expected of them. An anthropologist should pay attention to the meaning and function of the ritualistic aspects of community health care and the modelling of the nurse's role in accordance to it. The embeddedness of health and health care behaviour in the social and cultural structures is hardly touched upon in the book, although there is a small but coherent body of literature on the medical anthropology of Indonesia. Some of its titles are mentioned perfunctorily in the bibliography but are nowhere referred to in the text. As for the limitations of the picture painted by Sciortino, the relationship between nurse, midwife, and traditional birth attendant deserves more attention than it receives. The relationship between midwife and traditional birth attendant is presented as purely antagonistic. This is a gross simplification of reality. In this sense it is not a truthful picture. The aspects of interdependency, complementarity, and even mutual respect, which also characterize this relationship, as I have been able to observe during many years in the field, are completely left out. Much of the literature on this subject was available at the time Sciortino was writing her book. It is a pity that it was not used. A recent addition, which I would like to mention here, is Anna Alisjahbana's dissertation, entitled The Implementation of the Risk Approach on Pregnancy Outcome by Traditional Birth Attendants: The Tanjungsari Study in West-Java, Indonesia (Rotterdam, 1993). Alisyahbana shows that it is quite possible to develop an integrative approach despite the structural and legal constraints. Compared to the Tanjungsari effort to improve the quality of primary health care delivery, Sciortino's appeal to anthropologists to contribute to qualitative indicators for improving health care delivery (p. 265) sounds a bit hollow. Surely, there is more to be done than that, as several projects (Hydrick's project in the thirties, the Serpong project, the Mojokerto project, the Tanjungsari study) have demonstrated.

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B. Plaisier, Over bruggen en grenzen; De communicatie van het evangelie in het Torajagebied (1913-1942). Zoe- termeer: Boekencentrum, 1993, xiv + 701 pp. ISBN 90.239.1216.0. Price: ƒ 97.50.

A.J. PLAISIER

Een vraag die de geesten blijft boeien is die van de communicatie. Wat gebeurt er als een belangrijke boodschap overgedragen wordt van de een op de ander? De communicatiewetenschap heeft hier allerlei modellen voor ontwikkeld. Deze kwestie wordt nog interessanter en nog ingewikkelder wanneer de communicatie verschillen in cultuur en religie wil overbruggen. Het boek van B. Plaisier, traceert dit communicatieproces in concreto, namelijk in de overdracht van het evangelie in het Torajagebied (Zuid- Sulawesi, Indonesië) van 1913 tot 1942. De communicators in dit proces zijn de zendelingen van de Gereformeerde Zendings Bond. De interesse in dit onderwerp is mede ingegeven door de observatie van de schrijver, die zelf als zendingspredikant heeft gewerkt in het Toraja- gebied. De vraag is hoe het komt dat veel specifieke inhoudelijke aspecten van de boodschap zoals die door de zendelingen is overgedragen niet of heel anders zijn overgekomen bij de ontvangers, in dit geval de Toraja's. Deze specifieke kenmerken betreffen vooral een aantal gereformeerde ge- loofsvormen die de zendelingen, afkomstig uit de traditie van het gere- formeerd protestantisme, lief en dierbaar waren. Kennelijk liep commu- nicatie, ook van het evangelie, volgens een andere dynamiek dan de zenders beoogden. Daarmee is voor de schrijver niet gezegd dat de com- municatie is mislukt, maar wel dat de uitkomst 'verrassend' is. Daarmee is ook de betekenis van de gereformeerde geloofsvorm niet ontkend, maar wel tot voorwerp van nadere reflectie gemaakt. Wat het boek mede boeiend maakt is de methode. Het communicatie- proces wordt vanuit twee invalshoeken beschreven. Enerzijds is daar de optiek van de zendingsarbeiders. De bronnen hiervoor zijn vooral hun artikelen in het zendingsblad Alle den Volcke. We krijgen hier een goed beeld van de wijze waarop zij hun werk verrichtten, maar ook van het beeld dat ze zich van de Toraja's vormden, zowel zij die tot het christen- dom over waren gegaan, als de 'heidense'. Anderzijds komt ook de kijk van de Toraja ten aanzien van de boodschappers en de boodschap uitgebreid aan de orde. Hoe hebben zij tegen de zendeling aangekeken en zijn boodschap begrepen? Welke relevantie heeft die boodschap gehad voor hun cultuur en samenleving? De bronnen die hiervoor gebruikt zijn betreffen veelal interviews die de auteur voor het merendeel zelf heeft afgenomen. Het is met name deze invalshoek die het boek tot een waardevolle exploratie maakt. Zo ontstaat een dubbel discours, waarbij de spanningen binnen het communicatieproces duidelijk uitkomen. Met dit boek heeft Plaisier een belangrijke bijdrage geleverd aan de

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 159 geschiedenis van de zending, en tevens aan de beschrijving van de 'for- matieve' periode van een zendingskerk. Het bevat een schat aan gegevens over zendingsstrategieën en vormen van overdracht, achtergrond en spiri- tualiteit van de zendingsarbeiders en cultureel-antropologische gegevens betreffende de Toraja's, maar het zijn het vooral de vraagstukken van cultuur en evangelie die in het middelpunt staan. Dat maakt het boek niet alleen als bron van historie, maar ook als missiologisch boek waardevol. Hoe moet men bijvoorbeeld onderscheid maken tussen cultureel 'neutrale' bestanddelen en heidense religieuze inhouden, hoe krijgt het gist van de evangelieboodschap maatschappelijke en zelfs politieke consequenties? Deze en andere vragen komen uitgebreid en op een boeiende wijze aan de orde.

Nonie Sharp, in association with Markus Wonggor Kai- siëpo, The Morning Star in Papua Barat. North Carlton, Vic, Australia: Arena Publications, 1994, xx + 140 pp. ISBN 0.9598181.3.8.

ANTON PLOEG

This is an intriguing book. lts author, Nonie Sharp, has a long-standing interest in neo-colonialism and indigenous minorities. This is not her first publication about Irian Jaya, earlier she published The Rule of the Sword: The Story of West Irian (1977). The present book builds on her earlier work as well as incorporating the results of discussions she had in 1991 with Markus Wonggor Kaisiëpo, a prominent Irianese politician during the last phase of Dutch administration. His final position was the vice-chair- manship of the short-lived New Guinea Council, the embryonic parliament of Dutch New Guinea. At the time of the Indonesian take-over he went into exile in the Netherlands, where he still lives. In his exile he added Wonggor - crocodile -, the name of his clan, to his other names. Sharp's book consists of two parts of which the second, a personal account by Wonggor Kaisiëpo, is the shorter but more important one. The first part introduces the second. Wonggor Kaisiëpo is from Biak, a group of islands in Cenderawasih Bay, off the north coast of West New Guinea. It is an area which was missionized relatively early and brought under govern- ment control. lts culture became well known largely due to the publica- tions of F.C. Kamma, a Protestant missionary who worked in the area from 1933 until World War II. In 1955 he was awarded a Ph.D. for his analysis of the local religious movements with which the Dutch missionaries had been confronted from almost immediately after their arrival in 1855 and which continued at least until after the War, if not up to the present day. Kamma's dissertation was published in English translation in 1972, entitled

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Koréri: Messianic Movements in the Biak-Numfor Culture Area. Sharp draws heavily on his work. The central concept in the movements for Kamma, and also for Wonggor Kaisiëpo and Sharp, is koréri which Kamma translates as salvation, but Sharp as cultural renewal, progress, and the promise of it. Sharp's focus on the political implications of koréri in the context of the Indonesian take- over of West New Guinea, of what she has called 'The Rule of the Sword', is in line with this shift in meaning. She traces a change in the movements from millenarian to nationalistic and pragmatic. Wonggor Kaisiëpo pro- moted these practical ends by his instigating co-operative village projects in the late 1930s. The koréri movement, which held sway from 1938 to 1943, proclaimed West New Guinea a principality, ruled over by the female prophet of the movement. At that time, however, less than half the population had been brought under administrative control, however slightly, so that very many West New Guineans were unaware that their homelands were claimed by other West New Guineans to be part of a West New Guinea principality. The movement was anti-government and anti-mission. Referring to the mission, Sharp writes that this rejection resulted from their insistence on 'the exclusive truth of Christianity', reducing koréri to a 'false hope' (p. 10). Kamma himself was well aware that koréri followers were hostile towards the mission. He writes that during an earlier movement he had been on their death list (1972:133). The most impressive part of the book is indubitably Wonggor Kaisiëpo's personal story. He describes himself as a 'koréri man', since he feels koréri is alive within him. His account is a contextualized autobiography of a Melanesian Big Man, relating his differences with the missionaries and also with the administration, first about the role of New Guineans and New Guinean cultures in colonial Dutch New Guinea, later over their giving in to the Indonesian claims to West New Guinea. For Wonggor Kaisiëpo this still rankles as a betrayal. For him, J. van Baal sided, also at the time he was governor of Dutch New Guinea, with the Indonesians in the Dutch- Indonesian dispute over West New Guinea (p. 99). The Gereja Kristen Injili (GKI), the Evangelical Christian Church which Protestant missions instituted in 1956, he calls in some passages the Gereja Kristen Iskariot, in others Greater Kristen Indonesia. However, the context to his autobiography is not merely set in the context of the colonial and post-colonial histories, but is also embedded in the work of koréri. Wonggor Kaisiëpo's life is a testimony to koréri. It is what Maurice Leenhardt would have called iived myth'. His confidence in koréri remains. The hero in his story is Arnold Ap, whose affecting photograph is the frontispiece of the book. Ap was also from Biak, and from the very part which is central in the koréri myth (p. 64). He attempted to revitalize New Guinea art manifestations. The Indonesian authorities had him arrested and in 1983 he was killed, according to the authorized

Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:00:26PM via free access Book Reviews 161 version, while attempting to escape. For Wonggor Kaisiëpo, Arnold Ap made koréri live again (p. 118) and in his perception as long as koréri lives the cause of the Papuans is not lost. In Sharp's view Wonggor Kaisiëpo 'is not a tragic character' (p. 74). I find it hard to concur with this comment. For, although he feels koréri to be alive within him and within other Papuans, it seems implausible it will bring him the realization of his hopes for a liberated West Papua. And it is doubtful if a free West Papua would bring the advantages Kaisiëpo seems to associate with it. The book is marred by several inaccuracies. For example Mauss' 'Essay sur Ie Don' was first published in 1924, and not in 1950. A number of personal and geographical names are misspelt. More importantly, it is not completely clear if Wongor Kaisiëpo is the sole author of his personal story. Sharp refers to the discussions she had with him and she thanks a Papuan for his help in translating the text from Bahasa Melayu, but she does not state if she has edited it in the process. Hopefully she can cast more light on this in a second printing.

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