UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ GIFTS, BELONGING, AND EMERGING REALITIES AMONG “OTHER MOLUCANS” DURING THE AFTERMATH OF SECTARIAN CONFLICT A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in ANTHROPOLOGY by Hatib Abdul Kadir December 2017 The Dissertation of Hatib Abdul Kadir is approved: __________________________________ Prof. Danilyn Rutherford, chair __________________________________ Prof. Anna Tsing __________________________________ Prof. Patricia Spyer __________________________________ Prof Roy Ellen ___________________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Hatib Abdul Kadir 2017 Table of Content Abstract v Acknowledgements viii Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1 GIFTS, BELONGING, AND EMERGING REALITIES AMONG “OTHER MOLUCCANS” DURING THE AFTERMATH OF SECTARIAN CONFLICT Chapter Two MARKETPLACES AND ETHNIC 48 Chapter Three EMERGING REALITIES AFTER THE KERUSUHAN: 90 CONTINUITIES, AND THE AMBIGUOUS ROLE OF THE TRADER Chapter Four WAR MEMORIES, RUMORS AND BELONGING: 129 MUSLIM BUTONESE AND CHRISTIAN MOLUCCANS IN THE AFTERMATH OF KERUSUHAN Chapter Five TRICKERY AND GIFT-GIVING: EXCHANGE 169 BETWEEN ETHNIC CHINESE, BUTONESE, AND THE STATE IN SOUTH SERAM Chapter Six CONCLUSION 215 Bibliography 237 iii List of Figures Figure 2.1 Buton in Southeast Sulawesi where most migrant traders come from. 54 Figure 2.2 Christian areas located the upland (Halong, Soya Atas, Urimesing, 55 and Ema) and Batu Merah, the center of Muslim market located in the coastal area. Figure 2.3 Map of Ambon Island and the location of Pasar Mardika and Pasar 76 Passo. Figure 4.1 Map of District of Amahai. Soahuku and Aira are located in the corner 130 left iv Abstract Gifts, Belonging, and Emerging Realities Among “Other Moluccans” During the Aftermath of Sectarian Conflict Hatib Abdul Kadir This dissertation is an ethnographic work of the interethnic relationships between Butonese residents of the Moluccas with native Moluccans and ethnic Chinese Moluccans, specifically in the ways the Butonese deal with their identity as an “outsider” (pendatang) in the realm of urban marketplaces and exchanges commodities in the rural areas. The common ground of the relationship is based on debt and exchanges commodities. It is the nature of the debt and exchanges that brings the contravenes of the ethnic relationships. On the one hand, the Butonese have grateful feelings for the generosity of the native Moluccans in providing land for them to farm, but on the other hand, the Butonese feel they are exploited when it comes to reciprocity. Likewise, the Butonese need and rely on the roles of the Chinese traders to provide money and goods, but from their exchange experiences, the Butonese realize that ethnic Chinese have economic interests behind their various generosities. These exchanges lie in mutual suspicion, lack of trust, and trickery. This kind of paradox is historically exacerbated by the social context of a post-conflict society that has not accomplished peace and reconciliation in people's everyday interactions, thus the encounters between Butonese farmers with ethnic Chinese in the shops and the encounters between urban v Butonese traders with native Moluccans in the marketplaces do not necessarily represent peace after the conflict, but rather a relationship that is built based on the pragmatic motives of reciprocity and ongoing mutual suspicions. The main question of this dissertation is how the Butonese, seen as pendatang (“outsiders")and pedagang (trader) in the Moluccas, are not only in struggle over their citizenship, but are also surviving in the realm of economic exchanges. Practically, this dissertation also questions what kind of reciprocities and contravenes consist in the interethnic reciprocity. Focusing on the ethnic correspondences after the conflict and after the decentralization policies of the late 1990s, this dissertation provides the narrations of the Butonese struggling to realign their position that is seen as "second- class". Efforts to be entangled with and be recognized by the autochthonous Moluccans demonstrate that identity is interchangeable. It can be solidified, but in the other contexts, identity can be very messy and fluid. In the post-decentralization era, Butonese have begun to realize that ethnic identity matters. In south Seram Island, rural democratization followed by state funds has opened each neighborhood, regardless of the status of its residents as natives or migrants, to have their own village administration. Rural Butonese have started to ask for their own sovereign kampung (neighborhood) to separate them from the native Moluccan tuan dusun (landowner). Meanwhile, urban Butonese traders in Ambon create their sovereign spaces in the marketplaces to block against the domination of failed local Moluccan class traders. All of these cases, both in the urban and rural areas, demonstrate the solidification of ethnic vi identity in the post-conflict and decentralization era. Nonetheless, the solidification of ethnicities and religions is always 'violated' by "weird" stories such as sex affairs and casual relations during rural workdays and pig-hunting cooperation in the garden between the Moluccans and the Butonese, or the Christians and the Muslims. Influences such as love, lust, and anxiety against an uncontrollable pest, as well as feelings of regret after the conflict, make the solidification of ethnic and religious consciousness sometimes irrelevant. The solidification of ethnic belonging becomes even more in question when in an attempt to be recognized as a citizen of the Moluccas, the Butonese create stories about their “poetics of place” in their lives before the conflict, their memories of their involvement in the war and their return from being displaced from their own origins in Buton to Moluccas. These narrations demonstrate that the Butonese in the Moluccans have a greater sense of belonging to the Moluccas rather than to their own origins in Buton, Southeast Sulawesi. Nonetheless, although the Butonese have this sense of belonging to the Moluccas, it does not permit them to be easily accepted as ' Moluccan' given their involvement in trade and as tenants for the cash crops that make them inherently seen as "outsiders". Thus, this dissertation describes that identity and ethnic relationship are about enigmatic stories of contravenes such as in the nature of debt, gift exch vii Acknowledgements Throughout the years of completing my doctoral degree, there have been many people I would like to acknowledge and appreciate. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the people of Buton, Moluccas and in the town of Ambon, both in Pasar Batu Merah and in Pasar Mardika, as well as the people in rural South Seram in the two villages of Aira and Tanjung. Thank you all for sharing stories, knowledge and experiences, and allowing me to attend and keep up with your activities. I would especially like to thank Munawwir Borut for his invaluable assistance as he accompanied me and enriched my research in Ambon ever since 2013. My gratitude also goes to Fuad Azuz and Faidah Azuz Sialana who accepted me into their lives and allowed me to stay in their house during my research in 2014. Thanks to Riz Sangadji, Ariel Salamena, and Bilal Tuhulele for introducing me to many native Moluccan traders and young politicians in Ambon including Caca Irma Holle, Sunardiyanto, and their families. I am eternally grateful to Rudy Rahabeat, Manaf Tubaka, Yance Rumahuru, Abidin Wakano, and Ernas Said for the intellectual friendship and discussions during my fieldwork in Ambon. I also give fond thanks to Muhammad Acep and Fandi who brought me to more than fifty traders to interview. Thank you to Acep for taking me to meet his displaced Butonese family in Southeast Sulawesi. My deep gratitude extends also to Muhammad Ali who accompanied me to dig in the archives in the Department of History, Pattimura University, the Balai Kebudayaan in Maluku, and Perpustakaan Rumphius. In Masohi, I thank Bapa Mo Tualeka and Mama Asma Latuconsina, and Fadly Maralatu who always opened their doors for me to stay during my fieldwork. I also appreciate Abang Ancha Tunny Sapsuha for sharing his knowledge as a journalist in Seram. I also offer deep thanks to the Butonese Moluccas farmers, Bapa Komar, Mama Yora, and Mama Pad who have been working hard in maintaining their trees and lands, including all of the properties that are entrusted to the native Moluccans. These people also took care of me when I fell ill because of the dengue fever that affected me during the viii fieldwork on Seram Island. Thanks also to Fadly Pane and Bang Zul from Tanjung who gave me much knowledge about Moluccas political ecology, environment, and local food. Special thanks to Ayudi Bonerate who accompanied me while walking through the forest in South Seram. In the United States, I have been extremely privileged to study anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I wish to thank to Danilyn Rutherford, the chairman of my doctoral committee, and Anna Tsing for their intellectual creativity that will be the model for my scholarly trajectory. Danilyn and Anna guided and encouraged me during my years as a doctoral student. I feel immensely privileged to have had the opportunity to work with them and to study under their supervision. I also wish to express my gratitude to the other committee members Patricia Spyer and Roy Ellen that gave me feedback through numerous valuable