Eastern Toraja

By John Beierle and Martin J. Malone

Bare'e, Oost-Toradja, Poso-Todjo, Re'e speakers, To Lage, Toradja Timur.

The name Toraja is derived from a term meaning "people of the mountains" or "highlanders", applied by lowland populations to indigenous inhabitants of the high mountain ranges and interior valleys of central Celebes (Sulawesi). The Eastern Toraja are located primarily around Lake Poso and the valleys of the Poso, Laa, and Kalaena rivers. They are bounded by the Western Toraja on the west, by Mori and Loinang tribes on the east, by the Gulf of Tomini on the north, and by the Buginese (Makassar) kingdom of Luwu on the south, at approximately latitude 1.5 to 2 degrees south to longitude 120 to 122 degrees east. They are customarily divided into three major branches, Western, Eastern, and Southern Toraja. According to LeBar (1972: 130), these divisions reflect differing degrees of exposure to cultural influences stemming from the old Hindu-Javanese states of southwestern Celebes...and nearby Borneo." This summary deals only with the Eastern or Bare'e-speaking Toraja. The Eastern Toraja are composed of numerous local groups who share a relatively homogeneous language and culture. These groups form several regional clusters: (1) the Poso-Todjo groups along the Gulf of Tomini and the neck of the eastern peninsula; (2) the Poso Lake groups; (3) those of the upper valley of the Laa, east of Lake Poso; and (4) the groups of the upper Kaleana, south of Lake Poso. The (To) Wana and the (To) Ampana people living to the east of Lake Poso who were included by Kruyt in his Eastern Toraja classification should probably be considered as separate groups because of certain linguistic (they speak the Taa or Tae' language rather than Bare'e), physical, and cultural characteristics.

The 1961 population estimate for the Eastern Toraja was 100,000, compared with a 1935 estimate of 60,000 and a 1930 census figure of 30,000 (LeBar 1972: 132). If these estimates are at all accurate they would indicate a steady increase in population.

The Bare'e language, spoken by all of the Eastern Toraja with only dialectical differences, belongs to the Toraja group of languages which, along with several other language groups, is classified by the Voegelins within a Central and Southern Celebes cluster defined as a geographical rather than a linguistic unit. The Voegelins suggest that all of these languages may form the Celebes subgroup of Hesperonesian within the Austronesian language family (Voegelin & Voegelin 1977: 99-102).

It is believed that the Toraja migrated to Celebes from Southeast Asia some 4,000 years ago. There is evidence of relations with the coastal Buginese and Luwunese as early as the sixteenth century. Trade relations between the Toraja and the Muslim lowlanders intensified in the late nineteenth century with coffee and slaves being exchanged for guns, salt, and textiles. It was not until the arrival of the Dutch in 1905/1906 that the Toraja became united under a single political authority. Calvinist Reformed Church missionaries arrived in the area around 1913, precipitating dramatic sociocultural changes in Toraja society. It has been suggested that the activities of these Protestant missionaries were major factors in stimulating a unifying sense of Toraja identity. During World War II the area was occupied by Japanese forces. In 1949, the region was declared a part of the new nation of Indonesia.

Pre-contact settlements were found near lakes and rivers, but were sited on well-fortified hilltops and mountain ridges because of the danger of headhunting raids. The villages were unoccupied, however, except during raids. Generally, the people lived on their farms. There were about forty to two hundred inhabitants per village living in about two to ten houses. Each house usually contained four to six nuclear families, although cases of houses with sixteen families are mentioned (Downs 1956: 5). Some groups built single family dwellings (Onda'e and Lage). Each village consisted of dwellings laid out in no particular pattern, as well as rice barns, and a temple. The water supply was usually located at the bottom of the hill, which meant that a siege could not last very long. With Dutch control, the Eastern Toraja were forced to move their settlements to the valley floors along the roads.

The Eastern Toraja are primarily dry rice cultivators. Wet rice was introduced by the Dutch after 1905, but did not become a significant crop. Maize is the second most important crop, but it is eaten only when the rice supply is low. Coix agrestis, millet, and a variety of fruits and vegetables are also cultivated. All of these crops are produced by means of swidden agriculture. Hunting and fishing (especially around Lake Poso) are also of economic importance.

Although the art of weaving is not very well developed among the Bare'e speaking Toraja, they are highly skilled at making cloth (FOEJA or FUYA) from tree-bark. Other crafts include basketry and mat making, pottery manufacture, dug-out canoe construction, and the working of copper and brass. Iron working is a well developed craft among the Eastern Toraja, wih every village having at least one smith and a smithy. The Toraja attribute great magical force to iron, so that annual ceremonies are necessary to neutralize the force and prevent the spirit of the smithy from causing illness in the village.

Although there are no professional traders among the Eastern Toraja, there is much intertribal trade. Travelling for the purpose of trade is largely concentrated in the period between the harvesting of the rice crops and when the new rice first begins to sprout. Main products exchanged in trade are rattan, beeswax, and damar. Under Dutch influence the growing of coconut trees has been greatly increased, and thus, also, the export of copra.

Generally women make tree-bark clothes (FOEJA), manufacture pottery, and raise pigs, while men work metal, hunt, do the heavy work in the fields, and prepare salt from sea water. Both sexes are involved in basket and mat making.

Land has its clearly defined boundaries among the Eastern Toraja; each "tribe" (a group of neighboring villages) has its own land to allocate. Each village uses as much land as it needs to feed itself, moving to another part of the tribal territory when the land becomes exhausted. Annually, the villages distribute the land to individual families for cultivation, although these families still retain certain rights over any virgin land outside the tribal territory that it has cleared. The virgin forest, called PANGALE, is open to everyone for hunting, collecting, or tilling, but it is considered advisable to ensure the cooperation and friendship of the nearest tribe by the gift of small presents. Land can also be acquired by a tribe through purchase or gift.

All the families in a village formed a localized corporate kin group, with all members related by blood or marriage. Descent among the Eastern Toraja is bilateral. One could affiliate with either one's mother's, father's , or spouse's village. This principle seems also to apply to extended families --corporate kin groups headed by a chief or headman who looked after family property. This extended family acted as a ceremonial unit, as well as a source of the bride-price, although in the latter case the nonlocalized personal kindred also had a significant role (LeBar 1972: 132).

Kinship terminology is mainly generational, with no distinction made between the matrilateral and patrilateral kin (Hawaiian type).

Premarital sex is permitted among the Eastern Toraja. Marriage is generally endogamous within the village or at least with someone from a neighboring village. The boy informs his parents about the girl of his choice, but generally both boy and girl follow their parents' decision if there is a difference in opinion. Marriage arrangements are undertaken by a "go-between". The marriage ceremony itself consists of a festive procession of the groom to his bride's house, the deliverance of the so-called AOE-PAPITOE -- consisting of seven objects which form the nucleus of the bride-price -- and a joint meal enjoyed by all. The bride- price is paid by the groom's family to the relatives of the girl, but it may not exceed the amount paid for the girl's mother. Until the bride-price is paid, however, any children produced by the couple belong to their mother. Polygyny was traditionally rare, but in areas influenced by Islam, it became more common. Each wife had a separate house. Divorce is infrequent, the guilty party having to pay a fine. The families of both individuals, however, work hard to prevent the separation. First cousin marriages, once forbidden, are now fairly common, especially when accompanied by a ritual offering. According to Adriani and Kruyt (1950-51: 2, 318), post-marital residence is primarily matrilocal.

The basic domestic unit is the extended family, usually headed by the senior male member of the household. This extended family usually consists of from four to six nuclear families.

The Toraja child is pampered to extreme. There is no conscious guidance of the child for the simple reason that parents are unable to impose their will upon their children. The child raises itself by listening to adult conversations and imitating adult behavior, learning those things that it must know and be able to do in order to fill its place in society.

Villages consist of closely related families, and the so-called "tribes" are essentially groups of neighboring villages whose members are aware of descent from a common mother-village. Affiliation with a village can be through one's mother's, father's, or spouse's side of the family. Traditionally there were two classes consisting of freemen and slaves (who were debtors and war captives). Near the Buginese (Makassar) kingdoms, the slave class was hereditary. On the whole, slaves were not treated badly; the institution, along with head-hunting, was abolished by the Dutch in 1905.

Traditionally village chiefs were elected from among the headmen of extended families. Selection was based on personal characteristics and wealth in water buffalo. Chiefs were not powerful except in the areas near the Buginese kingdoms (Luwu and Mori) where the Buginese kings (DATUS) gave them tax collecting authority. This situation allowed the chiefs to increase their own wealth and power through trading opportunities and association with the powerful Islamic sultanates. In most areas, villages were autonomous and tended to be hostile to almost all others not closely related. There was rarely any political organization above the village level. Tribes were not organized into formal political units. While the outside kingdoms often received tribute from the villages, they had no control over their internal affairs.

Ridicule, shame, supernatural sanctions, black magic, and the fear of possible banishment, are all means of informally enforcing conformity within Toraja society. Of these, ridicule and the fear of banishment seem the strongest measures in making even the most independent and contrary Toraja bow before the will of the community and the force of the ADAT (customary law). If anyone did not wish to submit to the will of the community, despite the measures taken above, the only thing left for the recalcitrant was to move to another village to which that person was related. In a community in which individuals are mutually dependent on one another for their successful existence, failure to aid a fellow tribesperson in need was remembered, and when that individual in turn needed assistance, he or she would find that no help was forthcoming.

Until European contact, the Eastern Toraja villages lived in a state of semi-perpetual hostility with each other. Respect and tribute were occasionally paid to neighboring kingdoms, but the internal affairs of the Eastern Toraja were their own. Inter- village head-hunting served to provide the heads necessary for many rituals and to pacify spirits (ANITU) who would otherwise feed on the Eastern Toraja. These heads were considered essential to the general welfare and were required at the death of a chief or at the erection of a new village temple. Under the Dutch administration, warfare was ended.

Traditional Eastern Toraja religion was principally concerned with agriculture, and with a secondary but important emphasis on ancestor worship. There were gods of the upper and under worlds (above and below earth), and a great variety of spirits who were found throughout the earth in rocks, trees, water, etc. There were many gods and spirits associated exclusively with agriculture, and each family had its own agricultural spirits. The Eastern Toraja also engaged in secondary death rites, during which the bones of the deceased were cleaned and rededicated before burial in caves. These rites were costly, requiring the accumulation of much food and other wealth, including sacrificial buffalo. As the result, they were held at infrequent intervals. After the Dutch obtained control of the area, secondary burial rites were prohibited on sanitary grounds (LeBar 1972: 133). The traditional religion has now been replaced or fragmented in many areas, first as the result of the spread of Islam from the south and later by Christianity, which was widely propagated by the Dutch.

Knowledge of, and contact with, the gods and spirits is mainly confined to shamans, who are women or men choosing to dress and act like women. The ancestors are of concern to everyone. Shamans (TADU) are principally curers. They have guardian spirits whom they can send to the other worlds to retrieve people's souls and cure illness. Soul loss is believed to be a widespread cause of illness. There are also other religious practitioners with particular skills such as in curing smallpox or rainmaking. These are called SANDO, and can be either men or women. Divination and soothsayers (MONTOGOE) are important for understanding the will and guidance of gods and spirits. Another person with a religious function is the head-hunting leader or TADULAKO. In former times, witches and sorcerers were also significant figures in the society (Downs 1956: 37ff.).

A major part of the religious life of the Eastern Toraja is concerned with rituals. The major ones practiced by the Toraja are involved with head-hunting, initiations, funerals, and agriculture (particularly those involved in the growing of rice). Other ceremonies include special offerings in case of normally prohibited marriages, curing ceremonies, ceremonies connected with the consecration of a house, and those involved in conducting ordeals or divining.

The Toraja enjoy a great variety of dances, but perhaps their favorite is the RAEGO, performed by a double ring of dancers, women on the inside and men on the outside, circling slowly to the accompaniment of songs with alternating solo and chorus parts. War dances consist of mock dueling, often interspersed with grotesque clowning and obscene gesturing. Poetry is another enjoyable pastime of the Toraja, for the people are very sensitive to its rhythm and rhyme and delight in its profuse metaphorization. Various metrical patterns are used for different types of subject matter. Prose literature encompasses a wide variety of themes such as tales of animals, spirits, and journeys to the land of souls. This literature also includes proverbs, riddles and short anecdotes. Many of the themes appearing in Toraja literature can be traced to Indonesian folklore such as the spectral tarsier who experiences the same sort of adventures as those of the KANTIL or PLANDOK, the dwarf-deer of Javanese and Malay stories. Music among the Toraja is not very well developed. The most pleasing musical instruments are the nose- flute and the jewsharp, probably because of the soft quality of their music. Other instruments include both single and double headed drums, bamboo and rice-stalk flutes, coconut shell viols with rattan strings and bows, bamboo "harps", and bamboo "buzzers". Of the many games played by the Torajas, top-spinning contests are one of their favorite pastimes, although it is restricted by taboos during certain times of the year (Kennedy 1935: 544-545).

According to Toraja beliefs, illness is the result of punishment by supernaturals for the transgression of customs or for the omission of offerings and rituals or the outcome of action by evil forces, such as sorcerers, witches, spirits, etc. When sorcery is involved, disease is believed to result either by the seizing of someone's TANOANA or life force, or by the introduction of some object into the body. In addition all kinds of actions, happenings and situations can cause illness. The Toraja call these latter causative factors MEASA. One of the chief methods of curing is to retrieve the TANOANA of the sick person from the supernatural beings who have taken it away, through the actions of the TADU or shaman, who, with the assistance of guardian spirits (WURAKE), journeys to the spirit world for this purpose. Other therapeutic methods employed by the SANDO is to spit chewed medicinal leaves over the patient and squeeze out the object believed to be the cause of the disease. In addition to the above the Eastern Toraja are highly conversant with a wide variety of plants, animals (and animal products), and even minerals (e.g., salt), which are found in the natural environment and used in everyday medicine.

The TANAONA (life-force or soul) can leave or return to the body at will, chiefly through the top of the head, or by way of the nose and joints. The TANAONA is thought to reside in many parts of the body particularly in blood, hair, nails, etc. Death occurs when the TANAONA is permanently separated from the body. With the exception of certain tribes of the Palu River valley which have adopted Islamic burial customs, all of the Eastern Toraja groups observe two separate funerals, one soon after death, and the other, generally a communal affair, a year or two later. Final disposal of the body occurs after the second ceremony. Following death, the corpse is laid out in state under a canopy for one or two days, and is then placed in a coffin made of a hollowed-out log split lengthwise into two halves. Bearers carry the coffin away and then either bury it in the ground or place it on a raised platform constructed for this purpose outside the confines of the village. At the second or communal funeral ceremony held a year or two later, the corpse is prepared for final disposal. The coffin is removed from the platform or dug up, the bones cleaned, wrapped in bundles of bark cloth, and carried to the village in baskets. The ceremony which follows is called MOMPEMATE or TENGKE in which the souls of the deceased -- the Toraja believe that there are multiple TANAONA -- are "led" by the litanies of the TADU priestesses to the land of the departed. Traditionally it was believed that the souls wander restlessly between the earth and what was called WAYU WUNE, the "ante-room" to the land of the spirits. After the MOMPEMATE rites the bones are transferred to small coffins called SOSORONGA and either buried in the earth or placed in caves (Kennedy 1935: 545-547). Common slaves, dead-born children and people who die from smallpox or leprosy are not put into coffins but instead wrapped in tree-bark and buried.

Documents referred to in this section are included in this eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Eastern Toraja file consists of five documents, one in English (Downs 1956) and the other four are translations from the Dutch (Adriani and Kruyt: 1950-1951). Kruyt was a missionary and Adriani was a linguist. Their combined fieldwork stretched from the 1890s to the 1940s. The four Adriani and Kruyt works making up the bulk of this file provide a very comprehensive study of traditional Toraja ethnography, ranging in coverage generally from the precontact to early contact periods. The monograph by Downs, an anthropologist, is a critical analysis of the works of Adriani and Kruyt and is a more concise and manageable summary of Eastern Toraja culture, although its major concentration is on religion.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary was written by John Beierle in September 1996, and supplemented with additional information from the article, "Toradja" by Martin J. Malone, in Sixty Cultures: A Guide to the HRAF Probability Files. 1977. Robert O. Lagacé, ed. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, Inc.

• ADAT communities -- districts or territories -- category 634

• ALAND -- ricebarns -- category 343

• BANDORO -- lesser community officials below the village head -- category 624

• BATITONG -- werewolves -- category 754

• BOMBO -- the soul -- categories 774, 775

• BUA' -- districts under Dutch administration -- category 634

• BUGI' ritual -- a ritual or exorcism; a rite to protect the community from plagues, epidemics, etc. -- categories 789, 751, 796

• DATU -- Buginese or Makassarese overlords -- category 648

• DEATA -- gods, goddesses, ancestral spirits -- categories 776, 775

• DESA -- a division of the KECAMATAN into villages or clusters of villages --category 634

• KAMPUNG -- a division of a district into villages -- category 621

• KAPA -- the penalty to be paid by the marriage partner when he/she dissolves the marriage bond -- categories 684, 586

• KAUNAN -- slaves -- category 567

• KECAMATAN -- an administrative unit or regency -- category 631

• KOMBONGAN -- an animated public forum for voicing and resolving grievances --categories 571, 627

• LEMBANG -- territorial units composed of villages -- category 634

• MA'BUA -- see MARO

• MA'NENE' -- ancestor rituals -- Category 769

• MARAPUAN -- a cognatic descent group or ramage -- category 612

• MARO -- "smoke rising" rituals associated with the house -- categories 796, 342

• MEROK -- a feast given to raise one's prestige -- categories 574, 796, 527

• MOMPELELEKA -- the headhunting feast -- category 727

• MONTOGOE -- soothsayers -- category 791

• PESUNG -- offerings -- category 782

• RAPU -- a sub-ramage -- category 612

• SANDO -- a medical practitioner with a reputation for healing -- category 756

• SAROAN -- wards -- categories 621, 571

• SIRI -- honor and shame -- category 577

• TADEA -- a curse or accusation (with magical connotations) used against an enemy as an excuse for battle -- categories 721, 789

• TADOELAKO -- war leader -- category 701

• TAU-TAU -- the image or effigy of the deceased used at funerals - - categories 532, 764

• TO MA'KAYO -- "death priest" (Sangalla) -- category 767

• TO MA'DAMPI -- medicine man or woman -- category 756 (sometimes with 793)

• TO MEBALUN -- undertakers or "death priests" -- category 767

• TO MAKAKA -- nobles -- category 565

• TO BIASA -- commoners -- category 565

• TO MINAA -- ritual specialists or priests -- category 793

• TO PARENGNGE -- district heads (under the Dutch); nobles -- categories 634, 565

• TONGKONAN -- important house; members of a sub-ramage-- categories 592, 554, 612, 342

• village chief -- category 622

Adriani, N. (1950). De Bare'e sprekende Toradjas van Midden- Celebes (de Oost-toradjas) [The Bare'e-speaking Toradja of Central Celebes (the East Toradja)]. 2nd ed., Vol. 1. By N. Adriani and Albert C. Kruyt. Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij.

Adriani, N. (1951). De Bare'e sprekende Toradjas van Midden- Celebes (de Oost-toradjas). Tweede deel [The Bare'e-speaking Toradja of Central Celebes (the East Toradja)]. 2nd ed., Vol. 2. By N. Adriani and Albert C. Kruyt. Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij.

Adriani, N. (1951). De Bare'e sprekende Toradjas van Midden- Celebes (de Oost-toradjas). Derde deel [The Bare'e-speaking Toradja of Central Celebes (the East Toradja)]. 2nd ed., Vol.3. By N. Adriani and Albert C. Kruyt. Amsterdam: Noord-Hollandsche Uitgevers Maatschappij.

Downs, Richard Erskine. (1956). The religion of the Bare'e-speaking Toradja of Central Celebes. 's-Gravenhage, Uitgeverij Excelsior.

Kennedy, Raymond. (1935) The ethnology of the Greater Sunda Islands. Ph.D. dissertation. New Haven, Yale University.

LeBar, Frank M., ed. (1972). Ethnic groups of Insular Southeast Asia, Vol. 1, pp. 132-33. New Haven: HRAF Press.

Robert O. Lagace, ed. (1977). "Toradja". IN: Sixty Cultures: A Guide to the HRAF Probability Sample Files (Part A): 408-414. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files, Inc.

Voegelin, C. F. and F. M. Voegelin. (1977). Classification and index of the world's languages. New York: Elsevier.