Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works Faculty Publications Spring 1995 Making-up the Toraja? The Appropriation of Tourism, Anthropology, and Museums for Politics in Upland Sulawesi, Indonesia Kathleen M. Adams Loyola University Chicago, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/anthropology_facpubs Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Adams, K. (1995). "Making-up the Toraja? The Appropriation of Tourism, Anthropology, and Museums for Politics in Upland Sulawesi, Indonesia." Ethnology, 34(2), p. 143-153. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. © University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, 1995. MAKING-UPTHE TORAJA? THE APPROPRIATIONOF TOURISM, ANTHROPOLOGY,AND MUSEUMS FOR POLITICS IN UPLAND SULAWESI, INDONESIA1 KathleenM. Adams Loyola Universityof Chicago Overthe past fifteenyears anthropologists studying ethnic phenomena have rejected olderconceptions of culturalidentity and tradition as stable,bounded realities born out of the past, turninginstead to embracea notionof culturalidentity as a dynamic, ongoingprocess of negotiationand political contestation. As the essays in Hobsbawm and Ranger'svolume (1983) as well as recentworks by Keesing(1989), Linnekin (1983), Clifford(1988), Handler(1988), andothers have shown, traditional identities do not simplydraw on the wellspringsof the pastbut are infusedwith the politics of the present. Startingfrom the notionthat tradition is a politicalconstruction, yet anchoredin the concernwith the politics of cultureand identity,this essay examines how a hinterlandgroup of Indonesianpeople, much scrutinizedby both tourists and anthropologists,is now drawingon and manipulatingthese very global powersfor its own ends. While much has been written on the ways in which culture is manipulatedfor the consumptionof outsiders(cf. MacCannell1973; Greenwood 1989 [1977]; Cohen 1988), the focus here is on the ways in which outsidersare co- optedfor local powercontests. As this case suggests,no longercan anthropologists andtourists imagine themselves as peripheralto local constructionsof identityand power. Moreover,the literatureon ethnic tourismtends to assume that tourism inevitablybrings a loss of agencyto localpeoples. This articleproposes problematiz- ing such global assumptions.As the Torajamaterial suggests, in the face of tourism (and anthropologicalcelebrity), Torajanscontinue to be active strategists and ingeniouscultural politicians. In the following pages I explore how, in the present context of tourism, nationalism,Christianization, and anthropologicalstudy, Torajanideas aboutthe ancestralauthority of the elite areactively being re-evaluated and contested by lower- rankingmembers of society.While those without claims to aristocraticstatus struggle to propagatetheir own versions of Torajanculture (versions which challengethe elites' sanitized representationsof "Torajawith make-up"),Torajan aristocrats engagein a varietyof enterprisesdesigned to bolstertheir own local pre-eminence. In this contest, anthropologyand tourismfigure prominentlyin both nobles' and commoners'interested versions of cultureand status. Today,politically savvy Torajans recognize anthropology and tourism's potential for validatingand amplifying particular versions of culture.As illustration,this essay describesseveral cases in which anthropologistsand tourists are drawn into the 143 ETHNOLOGYvol. 34 no. 2, Spring 1995, pp. 143-53. ETHNOLOGY, c/o Departmentof Anthropology, The University of Pittsburgh,Pittsburgh PA 15260 USA Copyrighto 1995 The University of Pittsburgh.All rights reserved. This content downloaded from 147.126.10.40 on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:12:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 144 ETHNOLOGY authority-buildingprojects of both elites and commoners, and explores some of the ironies inherent to these local battles over the representationof cultural traditions. THE SA'DAN TORAJA: PAST AND PRESENT In a nation of 185 million, the Sa'dan Toraja people of upland Sulawesi, with whom I conducted over two years of field research in 1984-1985, 1987, and 1991, are a small minority of approximately 350,000. They are marginalized by island geography, religion, and a diffuse power structure. The Toraja's closest neighbors are the lowland Islamicized Makassareseand Buginese peoples, the dominant ethnic groups of the region. In contrast to the highly developed kingdoms of these neighboring peoples, the Toraja never had a centralized political kingdom. In the past, these swidden and wet-rice agriculturalists lived in scattered mountain-top settlements, maintaining social ties through an elaborate system of ritual exchanges (Nooy-Palm 1979). Only with the arrival of the Dutch colonial forces in 1906 were the Sa'dan Toraja united under a single political authority. Several years after the Dutch annexationof the highlands, missionaries from the Dutch Reformed Church began proselytizing amongst the Toraja.2Conversion was initially slow but gathered tremendous momentum in the 1950s and 1960s. This growth can be attributedpartially to the effects of Christianschools in the highlands and partially to the newly independentIndonesian government's policy of encourag- ing animistic groups to abandontheir ways of the past and join the folds of a world religion. Today, over 80 per cent of the Sa'dan Torajaare Christiansand the Church is central to the lives and identities of many highlanders. With over 90 per cent of Indonesia's inhabitantsdescribing themselves as Muslims, Torajansare self-conscious of their identity as a Christian minority. Toraja society is hierarchically organized on the basis of age, descent, wealth, and occupation. In precolonial times there were three broad social tiers: the aristocracy, commoners, and slaves.3 Status was determined by birth, although economic aptitude or failure facilitated some degree of social mobility. Slavery is now outlawed in Indonesia and rank is a sensitive topic in Tana Toraja. Internationaland domestic tourism to the Toraja highlands is a relatively recent phenomenon. During the 1950s and early 1960s poor roads and Muslim guerrilla movements made travel in South Sulawesi a risky endeavor. However, in the late 1960s Indonesia's President Suhartobegan actively encouragingthe development of tourism as an industry. After initially concentratingon expanding tourism in Bali, Java, and Sumatra, in 1974 the government began vigorously cultivating and promoting Tana Toraja and other outer island destinations (Spillane 1987). Spotlighting colorful Torajan funeral rituals, eerily carved effigies of the dead, and scenic traditional villages, the touristic marketing of the Toraja was extremely successful. Whereas in 1973 only 422 foreigners voyaged to the highlands, by 1991 over 215,000 foreign and domestic tourists were visiting the region annually. This content downloaded from 147.126.10.40 on Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:12:16 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions MAKING-UP THE TORAJA? 145 Justas tourismin TanaToraja began to developrapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, so did anthropologicalresearch in the highlands.Whereas only threeanthropologists conductedextended research on Torajanculture prior to the mid-1970s(Crystal 1971, 1974, 1989; Koubi 1982; Nooy-Palm 1975, 1979), by the early 1990s many anthropologistsand graduate students had studied Torajan culture from almost every imaginableangle (Adams 1984, 1988, 1991, 1993;Coville 1988, 1989;Hollan 1984, 1988; Hollan and Wellenkamp1994; Tangdilintin1981; Volkman 1985, 1990; Waterson1981, 1984; Wellenkamp1984, 1988; Yamashita1988). The tales of touristsand the writingsof anthropologistshave made Torajans into internationalcelebrities, their culture an entity to be studied,dissected, photographed, and packagedfor export (Adams 1990a). Today's Torajansare inundatedwith outsider images of their culture. Glossy travel brochuresherald the Toraja as "HeavenlyKings" living in a "landwhere time standsstill." Indonesiantelevision shows highlighttraditionally dressed Torajasingers perchedon ornatelycarved Torajarice barns.Tee-shirts are emblazonedwith sketchesof "TorajanWarriors." And postcardssold as far awayas Jakartafeature photographs of Torajatombs and waterbuffalo sacrifices. There even arevideos in Indonesianand English document- ing the "Death Ceremonyof the Torajans"for sale in local shops. In short, contemporaryTorajans are not only ethnicallyself-conscious, but avid consumers, manipulators,and critics of the ethnographicand touristic images of their culture. TORAJAWITH MAKE-UP My introductionto the politicsof identityin TanaToraja began on my thirdday in the field. Needing a map of the area, I was pointedby several young aspiring Torajanguides in the directionof a smallgeneral store near the market.On entering the store, it immediatelybecame clear that the shopownerhad been told who I was. Greetingme warmly, he asked me to sit and talk with him and his friend about anthropologyin TanaToraja. His companion,an articulateintellectual in his fifties, introducedhimself as the grandsonof Tammu, the co-authorof the Torajan- Indonesiandictionary which I carriedin