ANTHROPOS 106.2011: 57 – 68 Charcoal, Eggplants, and Small Hairy Hominoids Dietary and Behavioural Components of a “Wildman” Image from West Central Flores (Indonesia) Gregory Forth Abstract. – Recent writing on hominoid images from Flores Is- to eastern Indonesia; in fact, two full chapters spe- land reveals local conceptions of creatures, now mostly regard- cifically concern hominoid categories described for ed as extinct, which seem zoologically realistic, or natural rather Flores, an island recently made famous by the dis- than supernatural. Drawing partly on narratives from the Rajong district recorded by J. A. J. Verheijen, this article explores an at- covery of what is claimed to be a new hominin spe- tribute that adds to this realism, and hence the putative creatures’ cies, Homo floresiensis. The present article compris- empirical plausibility: their consumption of wood charcoal part- es a further investigation of one Florenese image, ly in conjunction with eggplants, both of which are claimed to the ngiung of Rajong. More specifically, it reviews have been regularly stolen in the past from human settlements. Reviewing the evidence for charcoal ingestion by animals and new evidence bearing on the ontological status of humans in various parts of the world, including Flores, it is the creatures so named and their possible empirical shown how this dietary practice can counter toxic effects of vari- referents among past or present species inhabiting ous plant foods, including raw eggplant and wild tubers, anoth- Flores Island. In regard to empirical sources of the er, implicit component of the hominoids’ diet. It is further sug- image, most attention will be given to items of pu- gested that this sort of behaviour and local representations more generally of reputedly recently extant hominoids, as well as the tative ngiung consumption, including most notably interactions with Homo sapiens which these entail, should be wood charcoal. taken into account in future anthropological research into the Ngiung are among the seemingly most natural- new hominin chrono-species Homo floresiensis, discovered on istic of Florenese hominoidal images. The Rajong Flores in 2003. [Indonesia, Flores, folklore, Homo floresiensis, dietary behaviour] people, who claim once to have shared their terri- tory with the creatures, reside in the eastern part of Gregory Forth, Professor of Anthropology at the University of the administrative region (regency) of East Mang- Alberta (Canada), has for over 35 years conducted ethnographic garai (Manggarai Timur). In regard to language and fieldwork on the eastern Indonesian islands of Flores and Sumba. culture, the Rajong, like their Rembong neighbours On this basis he has published several books and numerous ar- immediately to the north, are distinct from inhabit- ticles dealing mostly with kinship, religion, traditional narrative, and folk zoology. His most recent book is “Images of the Wild- ants of more westerly parts of the larger Manggarai man in Southeast Asia. An Anthropological Perspective” (Lon- region, and in these respects display closer affini- don 2008). – See also Ref. Cited. ties to groups residing to their east, in the Ngada and recently formed Nage-Keo regencies. These two regencies are home to several ethnolinguistic groups that claim once to have shared their territo- In a recent book (Forth 2008) I explored images of ries with primitive hominoids mostly bearing names putative hominoids which local people claim to ex- quite different fromngiung but which are otherwise ist, or to have existed until recent times, in various represented in fundamentally similar ways. Among parts of Southeast Asia. Most attention was given these are the ebu gogo of the Nage region, creatures https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2011-1-57 Generiert durch IP '170.106.33.19', am 01.10.2021, 07:13:19. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. 58 Gregory Forth that have been hypothetically linked with the recent- creatures as hairy, while in Text 3 a male ngiung ly discovered Homo floresiensis. possesses a beard so long he is able, quite fantasti- Before the publication of my 2008 monograph, cally, to employ it as a cable to lift a kidnap victim. the only source of information on ngiung was a Text 2 describes ngiung as possessing a particular short narrative and a few brief references contained odour, a “putrid smell” which clings to humans with in a doctoral thesis by Maribeth Erb (1987; see whom they come into contact. Texts 2 and 3 both Forth 2008: 63 – ​65). Since then, I have been able to depict the creatures as physically strong. Neither the consult unpublished texts recorded by J. A. J. Ver- odour nor great strength is mentioned in Erb’s de- heijen SVD (1908 – ​1997), a missionary lexicogra- scription. However, both apply to other Florenese pher, linguist, ethnographer, botanist, and zoologist hominoids, and indeed to “wildmen” in other parts who worked on Flores for nearly sixty years. Now of Southeast Asia. housed in the library of the Royal Institute for Lin- Another feature not recorded by Erb is the human guistics and Anthropology (KITLV) in Leiden, Ver- use, referred to in two narratives, of forked bamboo heijen’s archive (Verheijen n. d.) includes several combs to attack ngiung; in one case it is explained narratives recorded in Rajong, and among these are that only the combs are effective because the crea- three which specifically concern the creatures called tures are impervious to spears. This is one of rela- ngiung (see Appendix below).1 My present objec- tively few apparently implausible elements found in tive is to consider what the representation of ngiung Verheijen’s texts, and one which, by the same token, contained in Verheijen’s texts adds to an understand- suggests a possible connection with more manifest- ing of this indigenous category, and by extension ly spiritual beings. In other parts of central Flores similar categories found elsewhere on Flores and (Forth 2008) similar hominoids are described as be- in eastern Indonesia. Erb describes ngiung as short, ing morbidly fearful of bamboo combs; but this is hairy “forest spirits” whose females possess long not actually stated with reference to ngiung. In two pendulous breasts. In a story summarized by Erb, narratives, humans further employ dogs to attack ngiung endeavour to kidnap a human child by ex- ngiung, and in the third, ngiung are shown to be es- changing it for one of their own, but in consequence pecially afraid of dogs – a fear identically ascribed are attacked by local villagers who, by firing a cave to other central Florenese hominoids, including the in which a group of ngiung reside, manage to kill Nage ebu gogo. In one text, local humans finally many of the creatures. Although Verheijen’s texts do defeat the ngiung by introducing bees and wasps not make reference to pendulous breasts – nor do into their cave. they describe the creatures as “spirits” – their por- In all three narratives, a single ngiung is de- trayal of the ngiung is basically similar to Erb’s. At scribed as communicating with humans, evidently the same time, they reveal additional features which in a language known to both. In Text 3, the creatures shed new light on the image and raise intriguing are depicted as using weapons (apparently sticks or questions concerning their possible empirical ref- clubs) and employing bamboo containers. In Texts 1 erents. and 3, they abduct, or endeavour to abduct humans (an infant in one instance, an elderly man in anoth- er), and in one case the abduction is motivated by Physical and Behavioural Features anthropophagy. With the possible exception of pos- session of technology (tool use if not manufacture), English synopses of Verheijen’s three Rajong texts these too are all behaviours attributed to other Flo- appear in the Appendix.2 The first text depicts the renese hominoids – and especially in regard to ab- duction of humans, to hominoids in other parts of 1 Although Verheijen initially transcribes the name as “Ra- the world. zong,” it has appeared in print as “Rajong”; hence I employ All three tales represent ngiung as living in the latter transcription. At the same time, whereas Erb writes groups. In at least two instances, they inhabit a cave. “niung,” Verheijen gives the name as “ngiung.” Partly be- Text 3 further describes groups of ngiung residing cause “ngiung” more closely resembles names for similar in several different mutually distant locations. In creatures from other languages and dialects spoken in both the Manggarai and Ngada regencies, I have chosen to follow this same narrative, a particular cave is described in Verheijen’s transcription. some detail: it is situated “high up a long and steep, 2 These are translated mainly from Verheijen’s apparently vertical cliff face” in an area “covered in thick jun- quite literal translations from Rajong to Bahasa Indonesia. gle” where “people never even thought about go- For particular points of translation, I have further referred to the original texts in Rajong, a language related to languages ing.” Moreover, “the path ngiung used to travel to spoken in the Ngada and Nage-Keo regencies with which the cave was very narrow, requiring walking in a I am familiar. single file.” This isolated spot, difficult of access by Anthropos 106.2011 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2011-1-57 Generiert durch IP '170.106.33.19', am 01.10.2021, 07:13:19. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. Charcoal, Eggplants, and Small Hairy Hominoids 59 humans, is similar to other locations Florenese peo- and parts of Africa, as well as attested instances of ples report as once having been inhabited by hom- the same practice involving local cultivators and inoids – and probably none more so than Lia Ula, equally human hunter-gatherers such as African a cave in Nage territory formerly occupied by the pygmies and the Vedda of Sri Lanka (Forth 2008).