The People of the Alas Valley: A Study of an Ethnic Group of Northern Sumatra.
Korom, Frank J.
The work under review is a revision of the author's doctoral
dissertation, which was completed at Oxford University in 1990 under the
esteemed social anthropologist Rodney Needham, who has contributed a
very brief preface. Briefly stated, Iwabuchi's study is an
ethnohistorical and ethnographic depiction of the Alas people, who
inhabit an eponymous region of northern Sumatra. Alasland was first
colonized by the Dutch in 1904, when nearly one-sixth of the population
was massacred by the intruding soldiers. It later came under Japanese
rule during the Second World War, finally becoming part of the Republic
of Indonesia after its declaration of independence.
Due to the exigencies of colonialism and war, the Alas people
suffered greatly. There was economic decline, ecological degradation and
cultural decay. Moreover, the post-independence years were fraught with
peril due to bandits, arson, and murderers who exploited the
deteriorating condition of the region. A very bleak scenario indeed for
an ethnographer's first field foray. But this is partially the
reason why Iwabuchi chose the region and this ethnic group. Moreover,
aside from sporadic Dutch accounts, the Alas were virtually missing from
published works written about Sumatra. Seeing the culture dying before
his (and their) very eyes, Iwabuchi felt determined to learn their
language, gain their trust and publish a monograph attesting to the
lingering vitality of the "traditional" way of life. Iwabuchi
was not an intruder into this cultural environment, for two village
elders residing at his ethnographic site - the village of Kute Melie
(Koeto Moelio) - wholeheartedly encouraged him to write the study. They
too realized that their culture was undergoing radical change and wanted
to have it recorded for future generations.
Given the (post-)modern trend in cultural anthropology to see such
attempts at recording a "dying" society and its culture in
terms of a "salvage" paradigm, one could easily dismiss
Iwabuchi's study as a work belonging to a bygone era, were it not
for the fact that his meticulousness makes the study a goldmine of
information. True, it does not advance anthropological theory to any
great extent, since it is a rather conservative social anthropological
study done in the best British fashion. Nonetheless, it does provide us
with a detailed, historically and contextually framed, account of one
Alas village, its family and household structure, the elaborate system
of descent groups and kinship terminology, as well as the system of
marriage and affinal relationships. All this is accomplished within an
ethnohistorical framework drawing on primary and secondary sources
written in both Dutch and Bahasa Indonesia.
Iwabuchi's historical framework is especially gratifying, since
he avoids the temptation to view the evolution of Alas culture in
isolation from its neighbors. The Alas homeland, he argues, has been
influenced after 1904, at least, by the Gayo culture on the northern
border and by the Karo Batak culture to the south. These claims are not
only based on written colonial accounts but argued along linguistic
lines, using indigenous terminology for the dual-lineage system employed
in Kute Melie, which is situated in the southern portion of Alasland and
closely aligned with the Batak culture, in which the dual system of
lineage is also employed. This central (and perhaps predictable) point
is convincingly argued with a wealth of meticulous ethnographic facts,
and Iwabuchi calls for further microethnographic studies of other Alas
villages in the north to determine whether or not his conclusions apply
to all of Alasland or simply to his host community.
Iwabuchi regrets, however, that there is such a dearth of
anthropological studies of the region upon which to base hypotheses
concerning social change. Although accounts of the Alas do exist in a
number of languages, they are fragmentary, and Iwabuchi correctly warns
that any speculations about social change must be posited cautiously.
Nonetheless, the evidence he presents seems to support his critique of
some sources that suggest radical social change only after 1980.
Iwabuchi demonstrates that cultural change had been occurring in
Alasland since 1912, if not during the preceding decade of Dutch
incursion. This conclusion is based upon social structure and material
culture. For example, Iwabuchi forcefully argues that prior to Dutch
colonialism, the basic corporate group was the clan. After the Dutch -
and later the Indonesians - arrived, the clan gave way to the village as
the smallest political unit for administrative purposes.
One cannot argue with Iwabuchi on ethnographic grounds about his
major points. However, a critique of the study might begin with what the
monograph lacks. We learn a great deal about the numerous aspects of
Alas culture that have declined during the last century, but we read
very little about any possible strategies devised by the Alas to deal
with their cultural crisis. We do not, for example, learn anything about
what sorts of new cultural forms are emerging as older ones disappear
(or are reworked). Instead, the reader is simply told of a culture
doomed to decay, a remnant of its former self. While it is certainly
true that many so-called "endangered" people see themselves
within such a bleak salvage paradigm, it is still the responsibility of
every fieldworker to seek out the innovations developed by a society to
deal with incongruity. It is hoped that Iwabuchi, or his students, will
take up this task in the future.
FRANK J. KOROM MUSEUM OF INTERNATIONAL FOLK ART, SANTA FE
