Ambonese

PRONUNCIATION: AHM-bawn-eez
LOCATION: Indonesia (Moluccas)
POPULATION: Over 800,000
LANGUAGE: Ambonese; Ambon Malay
RELIGION: Christianity; Islam
RELATED ARTICLES: Vol. 3: Indonesians

INTRODUCTION

No later than 40,000 years ago, the first humans entered the Moluccas, the same basic stock that would go on to settle Papua New Guinea, the Melanesian islands, and Australia. However, with the exception of parts of Halmahera (including the important former sultanate on Ternate), the present population of the Moluccas ("Maluku" in Indonesian) speaks Austronesian languages brought by farming and seafaring people from Sulawesi beginning 4,500 years ago. In physical terms, the Ambonese and other Moluccan groups represent a mixture of the aborigines and these newcomers.

Produced exclusively in the Moluccas until the late 18th century AD and traded as far as Syria as early as the 18th century BC, cloves first came into high international demand during the Han dynasty in China and the Roman Empire in the West. Traders en route between the north Javanese ports and the clove-trading sultanate of Ternate (Muslim since the 15th century) made stopovers at Hitu on the north coast of Ambon island. A year after capturing Malacca in 1511, the Portuguese sent an expedition under Antonio de Abreu to the famed Spice Islands, landing at Hitu. They set up a fort there in 1522, from which Hitu Muslims (with Ternatan aid) were to drive them in 1575. In the meantime, however, the first conversions to Catholicism occurred in 1538, to be greatly augmented by the work of St. Francis Xavier in 1565 (three decades later, 50,000 converts are recorded).

After their expulsion from Hitu, the Portuguese transferred to the south coast where they established the fort that would become Kota Ambon (Ambon City). This the Dutch captured in alliance with the Hitu Muslims in 1605, desecrating the Catholic churches and deporting the "white" and "black" (mestizo) Portuguese. The single-minded Dutch pursuit of the spice monopoly led to the notorious massacre of English traders in 1623 and to the hongi tochten, annual sweeps to locate and destroy spice trees (and growers) outside the monopoly areas. Cloves were permitted to grow only on Ambon, no longer on Ternate and Tidore. The Dutch pressed Ambonese men and boats into service on the hongi tochten, offering villages land rights in proportion to their contribution.

The spice monopoly made Kota Ambon a rich town, the "Queen of the East" beside which Batavia and Manila were said to pale. Fond of European dance and dress, the local notables shared this wealth and some of the power, joining a representative council in the archipelago at the side of Dutch East India Company officials. As coffee, tea, and sugar came to overshadow spices in the 18th-century European market, the city began to decline. In any case, the British occupation of Ambon from 1796 to 1802 released cloves for cultivation elsewhere.

The Ambonese played a prominent role in the expansion of Dutch power in the archipelago, forming half of the colonial military (KNIL) and a disproportionate percentage of the bureaucracy. Priding themselves on their loyalty and discipline, Ambonese soldiers received higher pay and rations than non-Ambonese; the Javanese called them "dogs of the Dutch" and "black Dutchmen." From the 1880s on, Ambonese (as many as 10% by 1930) migrated to fill jobs as soldiers, clerks, and minor professionals for which Ambon's educational system, the best in Netherlands Indies, qualified them. Christian Ambonese in particular felt more tied to the Dutch than to other "native" peoples.

Strategic to both the Japanese and the Allies, Ambon, especially Kota Ambon, was devastated in World War II. After the war, Christian Ambonese, having identified more with the Dutch than with other "native" peoples, tried to set up an independent nation, the Republic of the Southern Moluccas (RMS), waging a guerilla war against the Indonesian national army until the capture of the RMS president in 1956. After the 1950 transfer of sovereignty to Indonesia, the Dutch government brought ex-KNIL soldiers to refugee camps in the Netherlands; with their expectation to return home to fight for the RMS frustrated, the soldiers and their families continued as a neglected minority in the "mother country." It was only after some Moluccan youth resorted to terrorism in the 1970s that the Dutch government focused its attention on the problems of this 40,000-strong community, beginning programs for bicultural education and job procurement.

Under the New Order regime (1966–1998), the government policies promoting the emergence of a Muslim technocratic elite in the country as a whole as well as the largely spontaneous, non-government-directed influx of Muslim transmigrants into Maluku (especially Bugis and Butonese from their poorer provinces) threatened the fragile balance in the region between Christians and Muslims, heretofore evenly matched in numbers (a situation almost unique in Indonesia). Christian Ambonese, whose high education level gave them dominance in the bureaucracy, resented the Muslim newcomers from Sulawesi for taking increasing control over the regional economy (though they had not begrudged local Christian Chinese their economic power). Moreover, Christian Ambonese feared they would be pushed out of the bureaucracy by increasingly educated and increasingly numerous Muslims, who for their part saw the Christians as continuing to shut them out of positions of power in the province.

Post-Suharto democratization and decentralization intensified competition and tension between the two groups; hostility erupted into mass inter-ethnic/inter-religious violence, beginning in Kota Ambon (initially only between Protestant Ambonese and Muslim transmigrants but eventually involving Catholic and Muslim Ambonese) and then spreading to other parts of the province and to neighboring North Maluku. News of the conflict provoked many Muslims in other parts of Indonesia. Mass rallies in Jakarta called for jihad in Maluku, thousands of Laskar Jihad vigilantes streamed into the province to fight Christians (even as the Ambonese themselves, Christians and Muslims, were becoming tired of the violence), and anti-Christian/Chinese and anti-Hindu/Balinese rioting broke out on Lombok. The conflicts in Maluku and North Maluku ultimately killed 3,000-4,000 people; these constituted the worst episode of collective violence in Indonesia since the 1965–1966 anti-leftist massacres, surpassing even the Dayak-Madurese conflict in Kalimantan in 1997. The "Maluku wars" displaced between 123,000 and 370,000 people, comparable to the numbers displaced by Indonesia's far more murderous 1975 invasion of East Timor. Since hostilities subsided in 2002 after a peace accord, Kota Ambon, heavily devastated by the fighting (including its state and Christian universities), remains segregated along religious lines (with people not being able to return to their homes if they are not of the majority religion of their neighborhood), but commerce and other contacts have resumed between Christians and Muslims.

LOCATION AND HOMELAND

For Indonesians from outside the region, "Ambon," including the island, the city, and the people, is the "Moluccas," hence, anyone hailing from any of this diverse array of islands is likely to be called an "Ambonese" (orang Ambon). However, in the strict sense, the Ambonese ethnic group comprises the populations of the islands of Ambon, Haruku, Saparua, and the western portion of the much larger "mother island" of Seram. The two "peninsulas" of Ambon Island itself, Hitu and Leitimur, were once separate islands but are now linked by an extremely narrow isthmus. The long bay formed by the joining of the two land masses provides excellent shelter for ships, and it was on the southern shore of the bay that the city of Ambon (Kota Ambon) rose. The relatively high precipitation level and the quality of the volcanic soils favor agriculture, although much of the land is too steep for cultivation. Off the long stretches of beach are coral reefs that, however, have in many places been ruined by people fishing with dynamite or digging for sand to make cement.

The population of Ambon has grown very rapidly: in 1971, Central Maluku counted 378,870 people; by 1980, Ambon island alone had 651,000 inhabitants. In 2005, the two regencies corresponding to the Ambonese homeland plus Ambon city had a combined population of nearly 700,000. The growth of Kota Ambon appears even more dramatic when one considers that the population of 234,000 (up from 209,000 in 1980 and 80,000 in 1959) must squeeze into 4 sq km (1.5 sq mi) between the shore and the hills, with only some relief from reclaiming land from the sea and building houses up the hillsides.

Since colonial days, when they were disproportionately represented in the military and bureaucracy, the Ambonese have settled in cities throughout the archipelago, particularly Makassar and Jakarta. In addition, there are 40,000 Ambonese in the Netherlands, mostly former soldiers of the KNIL (Dutch colonial army) and their families who came for "temporary" refuge after Indonesian independence.

LANGUAGE

A member of the Central Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family (and thus more distant from Bahasa Indonesia than the languages of Madagascar and the Philippines), the Ambonese language is closely related to dialects in West Seram and, on a higher level, groups with the Austronesian languages in Timor.

At the end of the colonial period (1950), Dutch was widely known in Kota Ambon. As the city has always attracted migrants and sojourners from elsewhere in the archipelago, the dominant language, however, has been a version of the Malay lingua franca, Bahasa Melayu Ambon. Malay in its local variant, as well as Bahasa Indonesia, is displacing the indigenous speech.

FOLKLORE

A Christianized origin myth places the first people on the slopes of Mount Nunusaku in western Seram. There they lived in abundance until the Fall (as in Genesis), when they scattered to Ambon and other islands.

The short British occupation during the Napoleonic Wars produced two heroes whose resistance to the reimposition of Dutch rule earned them national honor. Thomas Matulessy, a.k.a. Pattimura, had served the British as a sergeant major before leading an uprising against the returning Dutch. The daughter of another rebel leader, Martha Christina Tiahahu, continued her father's struggle after his death and, when captured, refused to inform on her co-rebels; she eventually starved herself on the way to exile on Java.

An example of a ghost story is the legend of Soya Atas village. The daughter of the head of the village fell in love with a Dutch official. Because of her father's disapproval, she drowned herself. Her ghost is said to kidnap foreign men or small babies; the victims disappear, only to be found after a few days either dead or in shock. Only a drink of water given by the present head of the village can revive them.

In order to deter thieves, farmers put up matakau figures in their fields suggestive of a curse (e.g., a grasshopper symbolizes stomach pains like an insect crawling about inside the body). The owners of young coconut trees have the church council pray for their protection; a potential thief knows that theft will lead to misfortune.

RELIGION

The Ambonese divide almost evenly into Christians (51%) and Muslims (49%). Except for five mixed villages, the rest (42) are either exclusively Christian or Muslim. Traders from Ternate and the north Java coast introduced Islam to Hitu (north Ambon) well in advance of the Portuguese, who in turn brought Catholic missionaries such as St. Francis Xavier. The Dutch uprooted these early Catholic communities. Conversions to Protestantism (the Dutch Reformed Church) accelerated only in the 19th century.

Indigenous beliefs focusing on ancestral spirits remain strong, though they coexist more harmoniously with Islam than with Protestantism. Village halls (baileu), which formerly one could enter only after asking permission of the spirits dwelling there, contain a mystically charged stone (batu pamali) used as an altar for sacrifices and other offerings. In some places, the heads of goats slaughtered in Islamic rites are placed on the stone in the baileu, alongside skulls from previous years. When getting wood from the forest for a school, church, or the baileu itself, one hangs the head of a sacrificed goat from an old baileu pillar. Before the Dutch forbade the practice, the taking of human heads was crucial to traditional rituals, including weddings (as part of the bride-price).

Coexisting with Muslim and Christian religious authorities, the mauweng mediates between humans and ancestral spirits, particularly in rites for success in agriculture. This folk religious specialist also heals the sick by employing divination techniques to learn the underlying cause of disease, i.e., what is displeasing the ancestors (modern medicines are considered effective only for treating symptoms).

Since the 1863 abolition of the clove monopoly deprived village heads of the basis of much of their power, in Christian villages, ministers (always originally outsiders to the village) have challenged their authority. The mauweng have supported the village heads, but the balance tends now to favor the minister.

MAJOR HOLIDAYS

In villages, the most important festival is the cuci negeri, the annual village cleansing. The baileu, as well as every house and yard, is thoroughly cleaned; one family's failure to do so would invite fatal illness or crop failure for the whole community. Village leaders make speeches to the ancestors who established the baileu, the springs, and the holy places and pray to God to grant well-being. Eating, drinking, and general merrymaking follow the ceremonies. In Soiya, however, scheduling the cuci negeri for the Friday before Christmas reduces the scale of the celebration.

Seven days after Idul Fitri, the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, young men in Mamala village strike each other with rattan brooms (consisting of the sharp central spines of pine fronds) until they draw blood. The wounds disappear after the application of a locally made coconut oil.

RITES OF PASSAGE

There are three ways to get married: by proposal (kawin minta); by elopement (kawin lari or lari bini); or by the man's "moving in" (kawin masuk).

For kawin minta, a young man first informs his family of his choice for a bride. His famili (all his paternal and maternal relatives) gathers to discuss arrangements for the bride-price, the wedding ceremony, etc. Once agreed, they send a delegation to the young woman's parents asking for a time when they can issue the marriage proposal. The man's kin sends a spokesperson at the time set by the woman's kin. After paying the customary forms of respect to the woman's kin, giving the young man's full name (including those of his family and clan) the spokesperson of his kin negotiates the amount of the bride-price and other arrangements with the young woman's kin. The bride-price must be paid in full before a Christian or Muslim wedding ceremony can be held; otherwise, the ancestors will be offended and may cause death to the couple's children. The slowness of the woman's father in accepting the man's side's terms often results in a postponement of the religious ceremony and in the birth of children out of wedlock, a situation very unsatisfactory to Christian authorities.

Marriage by elopement avoids all these negotiations and, thus, is by far the most popular form of wedding. The young man may prefer this method in order to avoid rejection, or his family might prefer it in order to spare themselves the shame of a refused proposal. Although the woman's kin do not prefer elopement in principle, they sometimes agree to it beforehand as a way for them to reduce the bride-price without losing face. The young man's brothers or friends help him to "abduct" his bride and carry away all her clothes and other things. If the young woman's family knows beforehand, the young man leaves a letter in a white envelope on the girl's bed explaining in flowery language who has taken their daughter and that she is safe. After a week in hiding, the young woman is brought to the young man's house for the wedding rite and feast. During the feast, the bride offers around a tray of cigarettes and drinks to show that she is officially a wife. All friends and neighbors are invited so that the marriage will be public.

While generally it is the bride who comes to live with the groom's family, under the third type of wedding, kawin masuk, the groom moves in with the bride's family. He may choose this if his own family cannot afford the bride-price (in which case he himself must work for his in-laws in lieu thereof), if his family does not approve of the match because of differences in status between the sides, or if the woman is an only child and the man must join the woman's clan.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS

Before the Dutch, related lineages originating in Seram formed soa, headed by an upu who was assisted by a military commander (malessi) and a religious leader (mauweng). Under Ternatan hegemony, soa formed federations (uli). Ambonese also applied the Javanese terms for "state" (negeri) and "king" (raja) to their own villages and village headmen.

The Dutch abolished these federations, replacing them with a system of independent villages run by councils (saniri). The highest council was the Saniri Rajapatih, consisting of the village head and the soa heads. The next lower council, the Saniri Negeri Lengkap, added to the above the various village officials: the tuan tanah, an expert on traditional land inheritance law; the panglima, formerly a military leader; the kewang, forest police; and the marinyo, the town-crier. Finally, the Saniri Negeri Besar included all adult males but was convened very rarely, usually only for village-head elections. In recent times, the once-hereditary village headmanship has become largely ceremonial, with the soa heads rotating de facto governing duties among themselves.

While the distinction persists between a village's "original inhabitants" (the descendants of the village founder, as such the village elite) and "newcomers," Ambonese society recognizes many translocal organizations. Every village belongs to either the Patasiwa or the Patalima faction, a division tracing back to the manipulations of the Sultan of Ternate and referring to federations on either side of the Mala River on Seram. More significant is the pela, an alliance linking two villages, often very distant and of different religions. The allies draw blood with knives and dip the bloody knives in water. They seal an oath of alliance by drinking the water containing each other's blood. The villages provide famine relief to each other and refuge in war; a Muslim village will contribute funds to its pela partner's Christian church and vice versa.

LIVING CONDITIONS

While traditional dwellings were built on wooden piles, contemporary Muslim and Christian houses sit on the ground. These houses have a square floor plan with an open veranda (dego-dego) in the front. The frame consists of tree trunk sections or wooden beams, while the walls are made of plaited sago-palm leaf (gaba-gaba). As most houses lack windows, the steep roofs have holes in the corners to release smoke. Sometimes there is a room in back serving as a kitchen. The houses of village leaders are in the European style, partially brick with windows and separate rooms inside.

Villages usually consist of houses grouped closely along a main road, though houses may also be separated by fenced yards. Each village includes a baileu, the village head's house, a church or mosque, the clergy's house, and small shops.

In Kota Ambon, in addition to buses, becak pedicabs provide the most common means of transport; the city has more than 2,000 becak that, not all being able to share the streets at a single time, are divided into three color-coded groups (red, white, and yellow). Of the local boat types, the patakora from Ternate is regarded as the best. Big boats (jungku and orambi) carry merchandise to Kota Ambon.
Maluku province has a Human Development Index (combining measures of income, health, and education) of 69.2 (2005 score), almost as high as Indonesia's national HDI of 69.6. Kota Ambon's HDI is considerably higher at 76.2, while the two surrounding regencies, Central Maluku (a portion of the earlier province of that name) and Western Seram, have lower HDIs (respectively, 67.7 and 64.8). Maluku has a higher HDI than all the nearby provinces other than North Sulawesi. The closest, North Maluku, at 67, has one of the country's lowest. However, this is despite the fact that Maluku's GDP per capita is only US$3,637, among the lowest in Indonesia (US$9,784 for West Sumatra, US$8,360 for North Sulawesi, but US$6,293 for Central Java and US$6,151 for West Nusa Tenggara). Kota Ambon's GDP per capita (US$5,699) was higher, but still rather low. In 2000, the province's rate of infant mortality stood at 60.63 deaths per 1,000 live births (though only almost half this in Kota Ambon).

FAMILY LIFE

Perhaps under Muslim and Christian influence, kinship is patrilineal as expressed, for instance, in newlywed couples' residing with the groom's family.

A household includes parents, unmarried children, and married sons with their wives and children. An individual belongs to a clan (rumah tau, matarumah, or fam) of patrilineally related kin who has a name and possesses rights to titles (political office), land, and sacred stones and springs; one must marry outside the clan. Women join their husband's clan (unless she is an only child, in which case the man joins his wife's clan). The rumah tau has a meeting house built by the clan founder containing weapons, cloth, and other heirlooms, which are under the hereditary stewardship of a clan leader.

CLOTHING

Elements of traditional Ambonese clothing preserve influences from 16th century Portuguese fashion. While younger women wear bright pink, yellow, and blue Western-style dresses to church, older women wear long black dresses with long sleeves and a highly prized sash made of beads.

FOOD

As the sago palm grows abundantly in the local swamps, sago-palm starch is the staple; rice supplements sago-palm starch but does not displace it. A 6- to 15-year-old tree can be cut down for food. The preparer beats the tree core to loosen the flour-rich fibers. These are then washed and squeezed through a filter to obtain the starch, which is formed into squares (tuman). The tuman are either grilled or made into a thick porridge (pepeda).

Other foods are bananas and papayas, available all year round. Freshly grilled fish is served with colo-colo, a sauce of chopped onions, chili, and tomatoes. Kohu-kohu is a pungent salad of shredded tuna meat, bean sprouts, onions, and cabbage. Also eaten with a spice mixture are laor, seaworms who come to shore to breed in March and April. Local menus do not announce it, but black dog is also cooked. From the sap of the lontar palm, local people distill wine (moke).

EDUCATION

Since the 19th century, when Christian missionaries built schools, Ambon has enjoyed one of the highest education levels in the archipelago. This has allowed many local Ambonese to migrate to other parts of the country as office workers. In 2005, Maluku province's level of literacy stood at 96.16%, very high by Indonesian national standards and comparable or superior to provinces with much higher GDPs per capita. (See also the article entitled Indonesians. )

CULTURAL HERITAGE

Throughout Indonesia, the Ambonese are famous for singing (Western-style) music. Cassettes of local songs and singers are popular nationwide. Traditional instruments include the tifa (a single-membrane drum) and the ukulele. The latter forms part of the kroncong ensemble, a sentimental Portuguese-derived musical style, one of whose cradles was Ambon. Bamboo flutes are also played; orchestras of bamboo flutes open church services. Famous dances are the lenso and the cakalele (a war dance).

WORK

Most people continue to obtain a living by agriculture, which involves slash-and-burn cultivation of tubers and peanuts. The Dutch brought potatoes, which remain a minor crop, grown on mountain slopes. Other crops are coffee, sugarcane, cassava, maize, and fruits (bananas, mango, mangosteen, durian, and gandaria, the last having medicinal value). Coconut production satisfies regional consumption. Farmers grow tobacco for their own use under the eaves of their houses, where they can benefit from rainwater coming off the roof; the leaves are dried on the roof itself. Although a Dutch clove monopoly no longer confines clove cultivation to Ambon, the spice continues to be grown, requiring little work from the farmer but yielding a substantial profit on the market (as an ingredient in Indonesian-made cigarettes, kretek). Farmers sell their surplus crops to obtain money for taxes, school fees, and daily necessities that they cannot produce themselves.

People hunt for deer, wild boar, and cassowary birds using traps that may endanger unwary humans. Fishing by hook, harpoon, and net also adds protein to the diet.

SPORTS

Children's toys include hoops from old bicycle wheels and stilts from palm trunks. Billiards is a popular pastime. Children play in the early evening, as the afternoon is too hot.

ENTERTAINMENT AND RECREATION

See the article entitled Indonesians.

FOLK ART, CRAFTS, AND HOBBIES

"Paintings" (usually intricate still-lifes of flowers) are fashioned from thin slices of mother-of-pearl. Large models of boats made entirely of cloves and wire are common souvenirs. Embroidered baju kurung (long shirts) are also produced. The woodcarvings and ikat (tie-dyed) cloth available in Kota Ambon generally come from the more traditional Tanimbar islands to the southeast.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

See the article entitled Indonesians.

GENDER ISSUES

Maluku's Gender-Related Development Index (combining measures of women's health, education, and income relative to men's) is 62.6, somewhat higher than Indonesia's national GDI of 59.2 (2002 scores). The province's Gender Empowerment Measure (reflecting women's participation and power in political and economic life relative to men's), however, is 51.8, rather lower than the national GEM of 54.6. Kota Ambon itself, however, has a GDI of 71.3, higher than Jakarta's (which is the highest among the country's province-level administrative divisions) and a GEM of 59.4, higher than North Sulawesi's (which is number one among province-level administrative divisions). This contrasts sharply with the immediately surrounding province of Maluku Tengah, which has a GDI of 54.1 and a GEM of 34.3.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Jonge de Nico, ed. Indonesia in Focus: Ancient Traditions—Modern Times. Meppel: Edu'Actief, 1988.

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LeBar, Frank M., ed. Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia. Vol 1; Indonesia, Andaman Islands, and Madagascar. New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1972.

Loveband, Anne and Ken Young. "Migration, Provocateurs and Communal Conflict: The Cases of Ambon and West Kalimantan." In Charles A. Coppel, ed., Violent Conflicts in Indonesia: Analysis, Representation, Resolution. London: Routledge, 2006.

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Subyakto. "Kebudayaan Ambon" (Ambonese culture). In Manusia dan kebudayaan di Indonesia (Man and Culture in Indonesia, edited by Koentjaraningrat). Jakarta: Djambatan, 1975.

—revised by A. J. Abalahin