Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
This article was downloaded by: [The University of British Columbia]On: 22 April 2013, At: 00:25Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
The Asia Pacific Journal ofAnthropologyPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtap20
Cloths of Civilisation: Kain Timur in theBird's Head of West PapuaJaap TimmerVersion of record first published: 03 Aug 2011.
To cite this article: Jaap Timmer (2011): Cloths of Civilisation: Kain Timur in the Bird's Head ofWest Papua, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 12:4, 383-401
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2011.587020
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden.
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representationthat the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of anyinstructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primarysources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings,demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Cloths of Civilisation: Kain Timur in theBird’s Head of West PapuaJaap Timmer
This article presents a diachronic perspective on the exchange of cloths (kain timur) and
the transformations in their importance over time with social and political changes in the
Bird’s Head region of the province of West Papua. Providing insight into the
transformations in kain timur exchange sheds light on the history of the region, long
characterised by influences from other islands in Eastern Indonesia while simultaneously
displaying distinctly Papuan cultural and linguistic features. The exchange of kain timur
has evolved amid colonial and post-colonial influences such as missionisation,
government administration, education, migration, and the exploitation of resources.
The most prominent current meaning of the exchange of kain timur is the safeguarding
of the moral community in regard to marriage practices and married life. As material
objects kain timur are considered authentic cultural products that mark local identity. In
contrast to other Melanesian art forms kain timur has to date attracted little attention
from art collectors, anthropologists, and tourists.
Keywords: Cloth Exchange; Identity; Colonisation; Missionisation; Post-Colonialism;
Bird’s Head Region; Eastern Indonesia
Introduction
The Bird’s Head (Kepala Burung) region of the contemporary province of West
Papua is at once the westernmost part of the island of New Guinea and the
easternmost sphere of influence of the Indonesian islands on the cultures of Papua:
where Southeast Asia meets Oceania. It may be viewed as Papua’s door to the other
islands of Eastern Indonesia, in particular the Moluccas. From the perspective of the
other islanders, it is the entry point into Papua, not only today but for hundreds of
years previously. While most people in the Bird’s Head live relatively isolated in small
rural patrilocal settlements engaged in gardening and fishing, they are linked to each
other and the outside world in intricate ways. Even far from the coast Eastern
Jaap Timmer is a lecturer and researcher. Correspondence to: Jaap Timmer, Department of Anthropology,
Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University, NSW 2109 Australia. Email: [email protected]
ISSN 1444-2213 (print)/ISSN 1740-9314 (online)/11/040383-19
# 2011 The Australian National University
DOI: 10.1080/14442213.2011.587020
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology
Vol. 12, No. 4, August 2011, pp. 383�401
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
Indonesia, and indeed the whole of Indonesia, is regarded as a realm of wealth,
power, and magic. With missionisation and colonial administration in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Netherlands became a site of power and
imagination. Imported cloths known as kain timur played a role in these
interconnections.
The local Malay term kain timur is used widely in the Bird’s Head and refers to a
set of cultural and social practices involving duties, rights, cloth names, and magic
surrounding the exchange of cloths. Originating from eastern Indonesian islands,
cloth was for centuries imported into west New Guinea in exchange for slaves and
forest products. As I discuss below, there are many varieties of cloth that are locally
distinguished by criteria such as design, age, and renown in exchange cycles.
In the past, kain timur arrived with connotations of power and wealth located in
foreign lands to the west, where powers were assumed to be greater and the people
wealthier. After arrival, they became exchange objects, gained meaning as items for
bride wealth and compensation payments, and offerings to ancestors and other
spirits. The introduction of kain timur had a profound effect on the social structure
and cultures of many communities in the Bird’s Head. With missionisation and
colonial administration, the cloths became signs of backwardness and obstacles to
modern development. In the following few decades, people have held on to their
cloth to preserve civilisation and as a sign of identity
The textiles came into the Bird’s Head as part of the sosolot networks of trade and
exchange that linked the coasts and islands of Eastern Indonesia (Goodman 2006).
Sosolot is a term of uncertain origin, possibly Malay, (Goodman 2006, p. 1) which
Van Hille (1905) points out that the seventeenth century explorer Johannes Keyts
defined it as a marked jurisdiction of a ‘hill or harbour, where a flag was planted and
where no other may trade on pain of death’ (sic).
The main hubs of the sosolot traders were the Seram Laut and Gorom archipelagos
off the easternmost tip of the Moluccan island of Seram, which formed a trade hub
between the Moluccans and the island of New Guinea for over five hundred years
(Ellen 2003). They gained trade prominence because they monopolised trade to
Papua. While groups along the western shores of the Bomberai Peninsula (Onin) and
Kowiai enjoyed trade relations with Moluccan islands across the Seram Sea, west
coastal Bird’s Head communities were oriented towards the sultanates of Tidore and
Ternate.
The Raja Ampat Islands, the western coastal stretches of the Bird’s Head and the
Onin Peninsula were important centres of trade. Representatives of the eastern
Indonesian sultans of Ternate and Tidore appointed local representatives as raja and
kapitan. These agents ensured regular production and collection of plumes, slaves,
massoi bark (Cryptocaria massoia), trepang, (sea cucumber) and other valuable
products demanded by the sultans. In return, commodities including textiles and
beads (manik-manik) entered the interior of the Bird’s Head, the Onin Peninsula, and
the Mimika area (see Swadling 1996).
384 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
Cosmology, mythology, trade, and mobility linked Papuan leaders and their
networks of trading communities to the Moluccas. For example, many communities
along the southern shore of the Bird’s Head belonged to the sphere of influence of the
Papuan kingdom of Sailolof, of which leaders were appointed as tributaries of the
sultan of Tidore. Local myths, origin stories, and explanations of the unequal division
of wealth in the world, portray Tidore and its vassal Sailolof as centres of wealth and
knowledge (Timmer 2000a, 2000b). The raja of Sailolof resided on the island of
Salawati, one of the Raja Ampat Islands situated to the west of the Birds Head. For
centuries, the Raja Ampat islanders, many of whom are Muslim, recognised the
authority of the Moluccan leaders and that the value attached to cloth expressed this
sense of power and authority residing in lands across the Seram Sea.
Trade, travel, and tribute linked the Bird’s Head to a ‘global’ network of external
relations. The southern shores of the Bird’s Head and the Bomberai Peninsula were
strongly linked. South coast Bird’s Head communities are related to regions across
the Bintuni Bay and the MacCluer Gulf and are thus indirectly linked with Seram
(Moluccas). To the east, the Bird’s Head is linked to Cenderawasih Bay and the north
coast as well as to the Raja Ampat Islands. These connections were particularly
intense during the trade contacts between East Asia and Southeast Asia (3,000�4,000
years ago), the spread of Islam (beginning around 1,000 years ago), and the
expansion of the Javanese Majapahit dynasty all the way to one of its Papuan
dependencies in Onin in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The rise and decline
of the Netherlands East India Company’s (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or
VOC) involvement in the so-called Spice Islands (1602�1799), the emergence of trade
in Birds’ of Paradise feathers to Europe in the sixteenth century, and the spread of
kain timur from eastern Indonesian islands in the region, led to further intensifica-
tion of trade links between the Birds Head region and parts of now eastern Indonesia.
During the nineteenth century, Europeans began to appreciate the beauty of bird of
paradise feathers to decorate hats, and the island of New Guinea was an important
source of feathers (Swadling 1996). Age-old trade posts along the coast of the Bird’s
Head became increasingly important for those rajas instrumental in the collection
and transportation of local products and slaves. The influence of raja on the northern
and western shores of the Onin Peninsula lasted till the 1920s, when missionaries,
Dutch military personnel and administrators, and traders became more dominant
and marginalised the position of the raja (see below).
In modern times, changes have generally occurred more rapidly than in the
colonial and pre-colonial periods. In the post-colonial period a widespread network
of boats and (more limited but developing), airstrips and roads has increased people’s
mobility. The state is now present in many ways: Aid posts, schools, churches, and
mosques now service most areas. A majority of people are Protestant, while Islam
represents an equally strong but much older faith linked to ethnic identity for
communities along the western shores. In the centre of the Bird’s Head and in urban
centres there are Roman Catholic communities.
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 385
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
Missionisation, education, and government administration, as well as the
exploitation of natural resources (in particular oil and gas, timber and mining),
have had a great impact. Moreover, contemporary migration from other parts of
Indonesia, either as part of government-sponsored programmes or independently, is
putting unprecedented pressure on natural resources and tends to strain inter-ethnic
relations, while also providing opportunities for marriage, trade, travel, and new
knowledge. The region continues to be characterised by influences from other islands
of the eastern part of Indonesia while displaying cultural and linguistic features that
are distinctively Papuan. It is in this historical context that kain timur is still
meaningful.
The Meanings of Kain Timur
Travels to and goods from the Moluccas linked Papuans with a supposedly more
civilised and more powerful world. Kain timur, part of this link, are endowed with
meanings to the lives of the indigenous people of Papua. Cloths were exchanged for
marital rights, to compensate for transgressions of rules or for deaths in war, and
employed to maintain relations with the dead. As payment for marital rights, the
payment of the first marriage gift is followed by a cycle of exchanges between affines
that take place at the birth of children, initiation, and mortuary rites. The cycle goes
on into the children of the marriage’s generation and into the next generation. Kain
timur are also important for ensuring the reproduction of society by keeping alive
long-distance exchange relations. This intimate relationship between cloth, the
human life-cycle and the reproduction of society, is apparent in other parts of West
Papua, such as the Humboldt Bay and Lake Sentani (Hermkens 2007), and in
Melanesia in general (for example Weiner 1989, 1992, Bolton 2003, and Hermkens
2005).
Old kain timur, imported into the Bird’s Head centuries ago, are connected to
supernatural powers of the ancestors by playing a role in rituals for their worship. In
many places cloth takes on properties ‘connecting humans with the world of spirits
and divinities, and with one another’ (Schneider 2006, p. 204). In some cases the
provenance of kain timur as belonging to one’s kin group, rests on claims that certain
pieces of cloth originate from subterranean sources and appeared from holes in the
earth in times long past. Other cloths were born in sago trees, while yet others were
unearthed from the graves of Muslims in the region. Such cloths are precious and no
longer circulated as a material item, but play a role in spiritual exchanges with
ancestors. These stories deny the origin of kain timur in trade.
Today kain timur are most prominently associated with the past and with the
need to identify with a present that is even more global. Below, I trace the
evolving history of the exchange of kain timur, the transformations in their
importance over time, the related social and political changes in the region, and
then I consider the present significance of kain timur. Unlike most studies of
exchange, this article deploys a diachronic perspective. By providing insight into
386 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
the transformations in kain timur exchange overtime, the history of the region
becomes clearer.
Production and Classification of Kain Timur
While bark cloth and other fibre products were made all over West Papua, at the time
of colonial contact weaving technology was restricted to the village of Sarmi on the
North coast, ‘where small pieces of cloth were made on a simple loom’ (Kooijman
1992, p. 11). Research suggests that the most classic kain timur in the Bird’s Head
originate from the Lesser Sunda islands of Flores, Sumba, Timor, Lembata, and Alor
(Elmberg 1968, Pouwer 1957, Miedema 1986). Women on these islands weave these
cloths; some entered the trade routes to become the possession of men and traded by
men in the Bird’s Head. These classic kain timur are essentially ikat cloths*or parts
of cloths as they fall apart with the years.
To produce ikat (Indonesian, ‘to tie’, ‘to bind’) women apply a weaving technique
that uses a resist dyeing process on either the warp or weft before the threads are
woven to create a pattern or design. The weft must be precisely tied and dyed so that
the patterns interlock and reinforce each other when the fabric is woven. The main
fibre is cotton. Women spin it manually (even today) particularly for textiles that
have a special character. They die thread individually, with the weft being dyed black,
red, or blue. The blue is made from indigo, usually from the leaves of Indigofera
tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa soaked and mixed with coral lime. The red is a
mixture of bark and roots of the Great Morinda (Indian mulberry) or Mengkudu tree
(Morinda citrifolia) with the ground up leaves and bark of the Golden Flamboyant
tree (Peltophorum pterocarpum) and pressed candlenut oil as a fixer.
Figure 1 Unfolding a kain timur during a bride price payment in Klamono, Sorong,
1995. (Photo: Jaap Timmer.)
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 387
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
Not all kain timur are ikat. Indian cotton prints, European imitations of Indian
trade cloths and woven textiles from South Sulawesi have also found their way into
the Bird’s Head and can be categorised as kain timur. Among the lowest ranking kain
timur are chequered Dutch tablecloths from the 1940s and 1950s. People distinguish
between kain timur not so much in terms of these origins but according to pattern,
colour, age, and status. Dutch tablecloths and cloths made by local people (see
below), even though they approach the colours and patterns of the highly valued
classic cloths, are not highly priced.
Jelle Miedema conducted a detailed study of the classification of kain timur among
the people of the Kebar Valley in the northeast of the Bird’s Head in the late 1970s.
Miedema managed to shed some light on shady and unstable categories of cloths
during a period when people were not keen to talk about cloths because the
government considered them uncivilised and as delaying development (Miedema
Figure 2 Displaying kain timur to be negotiated during a bride price ceremony in
Klamono, Sorong, 1995. (Photo: Jaap Timmer)
388 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
1984, pp. 82�3). Kebar people and their neighbours, Karon and Meakh on the Kebar
Valley, differentiate between nine and twenty-six different kinds of kain timur
including Toba, Toba Set, Toba Fiaf, Karok, Karok Far, Cita, Sip (see Miedema 1984,
p. 82, Table 19). Toba is the most valuable cloth for all groups on the Kebar Valley,
and for most groups throughout the Bird’s Head.
A typical Toba with the value of ten barang would be equivalent to six pigs (three
male and three female) and a variety of other items, such as bead and shell bracelets,
large glass beads, a long piece of red, black, or dark blue calico or smaller jewellery
(also trade goods, manik-manik). This is not a standard though; the value of kain
timur varies significantly and depends on the status of the trading partner and the
history and foreseeable future of the trade connections. The value of cloth is assessed
by its age (determined on the basis of colour fading and wear) and the number of
lines of ikat. The more the cloth has faded and the more ikat it has the higher its
Figure 3 Displaying a precious kain pusaka during a bride price payment in Klamono,
Sorong, 1995. (Photo: Jaap Timmer)
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 389
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
value. The shape of the ikat lines also features among the assessment criteria. For the
most valuable cloths, mostly Toba, people know the origin and trade history (see
Miedema 1984, pp. 84�7).
In the 1980s some South Sulawesi migrants as well as Papuan women began to
weave kain timur from cotton. This local production process is confined to weaving.
The threads are bought at markets in urban centres such as Sorong and Manokwari.
They are dyed using artificial colours that approach the popular traditional colours,
yet people quickly notice differences in hue. These locally produced cloths enter
cycles of exchange, but present-day local opinion considers that they will never
become highly valued heirlooms as ‘original kain timur’.
Cultural Changes Evoked by the Introduction of Kain Timur
In the Ayamaru Lakes region in the centre of the Bird’s Head, the introduction of
exotic cloths gave rise to an intensification of regional trade with a pronounced
establishment of ‘surplus-manipulating big-men’ (Miedema 1988). Applying a
regional perspective, Miedema demonstrates a centre�periphery model in which
peripheral groups, such as the Kebar, the Ayfat, the Moi, and the Tehit, practised
restricted exchange before being drawn into the system of affinal payments based on
cloth exchanges just before the arrival of missionaries. In relation to the epicentre of
cloth exchange, coastal communities played a role as middlemen providing Ayamaru
with cloths while themselves being subject to the Raja of Onin, the Raja of Arguni,
and the Raja of Kokas. As indicated above, these rajas took coastal people as slaves for
whom they bartered cloth and other valuable objects (Miedema 1988, p. 505).
Miedema attempted to find a conclusion about where kain timur entered the Bird’s
Head and along which trade routes these objects began to affect the communities in
the interior. He concluded that kain timur were introduced into the southwestern
regions of the Bird’s Head around four hundred years ago. Some two hundred years
later, these cloths found their way into the Kebar Valley (Miedema & Reesink 2004,
p. 68) after travelling through the Ayamaru Lakes region from where they were
exchanged until the outer-eastern Bird’s Head groups, such as the Hatam and Sougb
people.
In terms of the effects kain timur, the introduction of kain timur through trade can
be linked to demographic changes and the evolution of new patterns of leadership
(Miedema & Reesink 2004, p. 68, in line with the earlier conclusion of Miedema
1994). Cloths triggered people to amend direct exchange of women for exogamous
marriages to a freer exchange of women for cloth (bride price). Cloths were
exchanged for human lives, a characteristic that the cloth acquired during the process
of entering the Bird’s Head. Traders often exchanged cloths for human labour
(‘slaves’). In the interior of the Bird’s Head, marrying women into other groups
became a strategy to obtain kain timur (Miedema & Reesink 2004, p. 68).
In line with observations by earlier Bird’s Head ethnographers (Elmberg 1968 and
Pouwer 1957), Miedema and Reesink found that the evolving kain timur bride price
390 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
system some four hundred years ago gave rise to surplus amassing ‘big men’. The
most prominent ‘big men’ are found in the Ayamaru region and neighbouring
regions to the southwest coast, that is, along the trade route along which the cloths
entered the Bird’s Head.
Over three decades earlier Kamma advanced an indigenous theory of the
development of marriage systems among Maybrat of Ayamaru (1970). He reported
the account of one his main informants, Daud Salosa, about kain timur. Daud told
Kamma about three successive periods of cultural practice. Initially, people practised
direct exchange of sisters and only paid valuables, such as pigs and birds of paradise,
as compensation for damage due to vendetta and the like. In a later phase, a system of
asymmetrical cross-cousin marriage came to the fore (Pouwer 1957, p. 303). More
importance became attached to payment for marital rights. The last period began at
least four centuries ago and is characterised by increasing involvement in exchange of
slaves for cloths. Kamma called this period the ‘capitalist’ revolution because it
entailed the accumulation of wealth by ‘big men’.1
Kamma and Miedema argue that this indigenous theory of the evolution of a
cultural practice theory neatly explains the increasing competition between big-men
who wanted to establish dominance in the Ayamaru area. This competition was the
driving force behind transformations of marriage exchange patterns. Central to
Miedema’s explanation is his construction of the historical development of an
elaborate exchange system in which big-men began to dominate the exchange of
women to access kain timur. Miedema (1986, 1988, 1994) suggests possible
adaptations of Ayamaru people to accept the emergence of this elite of determined
cloth exchangers, or bobot (Maybrat, ‘big men’).
His analysis places particular emphasis on the changes that allowed big-men to
control women and establish powerful positions in Maybrat society. This mostly
concerns men’s allegation of women as evil, as the keepers and users of lethal powers.
Miedema shows that big-men could thus dominate kain timur exchange, as women
became merely subjects for exchange (in line with Elmberg 1968, pp. 26, 31). For the
reconstruction of historical developments, Miedema’s discussion of ‘a striking
ambiguity concerning the position of women, particularly in the center of the kain
timur complex, expressed in the occurrence... accusations of witchcraft’ (Miedema
1994, p. 136) is only one perspective on witchcraft (evil powers) as a means of male
domination.
Kain Timur Keeping the Balance
During my fieldwork among the Imyan in the Teminabuan area at the south-coast of
the Bird’s Head in the mid 1990s, informants suggested that Maybrat speakers in the
Ayamaru region, drew the Imyan into cloth payments by asking for cloths in
exchange for their daughters. Imyan had to adapt to this because they were eager to
keep up exchange relations with the more powerful Maybrat to prevent them from
raiding for sago and young women. Apparently, Imyan had been subject to
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 391
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
intimidation by Maybrat to the north, while being raided by sea-faring groups
originating from either the east (Inanwatan) or the west (Raja Ampat). People narrate
how traders from the Raja Ampat region exchanged cloths with Imyan for forest
products and slaves. The cloths they obtained through trade were, informants
stressed, not enough to meet the Maybrat demands.
Significantly, these stories do not concern payments for marital rights or
transformation(s) of leadership; they centre on the importance of cloths in
exchanges for establishing and maintaining relations between na (Imyan, ‘people’)
and also between people and ni (Imyan, ‘spirits) or, in the Indonesian terms
commonly used by Christian Imyan nowadays, between humankind (manusia) and
God. Such stories reflect a concern with inter-group relationships and the capacity
to successfully engage with ancestral, non-ancestral spirits, and since they became
Christians (since the 1950s), with God. They illuminate the experience of changing
moral relationships, both among Imyan and between Imyan communities and the
larger world.
Imyan stories about kain timur also revolve around Bauk, the initiator of a ritual
tradition called wuon. Wuon is central to the Imyan: the tradition is recognised as
providing a rich way of being and an identity for all members of society,
distinguishing them from other groups. Wuon designates a vast body of lore focussed
on communication with celestial beings, spirits, and the dead. During male
initiations involving ritual exchanges of goods, wuon knowledge promotes individual
male status and celebrates a hierarchy based on divisions between those who know
and those who do not know the secrets of wuon. Wuon knowledge is esoteric in the
sense that it belongs to the inner circle of initiated men.
While I have not learned where Bauk allegedly came from, it is likely that he
came either from the Raja Ampat Islands or the Onin Peninsula a few hundred
years ago. Other stories tell of local people travelling to Onin in order to get cloths
and to learn about the situation there. People in the Teminabuan region undertook
these ventures. They wanted to know when trading parties would come to
Teminabuan so that people could prepare slaves and forest products to exchange
for cloth.
Perhaps one of the most spectacular of these accounts is the one that tells of a man
from Wersar who misbehaves in front of a visiting Onin raja because he hopes to be
enslaved and brought to Onin. He is successful in being captured and taken to Onin
where he is put to work in the gardens of the raja. One day he witnesses an Islamic
funeral at which the body of the deceased is wrapped in cloths before it is committed
to the earth. The next night he manages to escape, digs up the buried body, and takes
the cloths. Then he walks to the sea, steals a canoe, and rows to the other side of the
MacCluer Gulf. After a week, he arrives in Wersar where he shows two magnificent
cloths. This hero is still talked about with much exaltation and the two cloths are
safely stored away in an old man’s house and are considered powerful items (kain
pusaka in Indonesian).
392 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
Kain Timur Becomes a Development Question
When colonial involvement in West New Guinea increased in the post-World War II
period, the administration assessed local ways in terms of their goals. From the early
1950s, the Dutch increased their efforts at human and economic develop following
decades of neglect. This led to critical reflection on which aspects of traditional
culture fitted in the envisaged modern world. Hence missionary and government
agents in the Bird’s Head, in particular in Ayamaru and Teminabuan, became
preoccupied with the ‘kain timur question’, that is, that the exchange of kain timur
impeded development. Kain timur was classified with practices like (cargo) cults and
headhunting, as uncivilised and not belonging to a modern world.
To investigate and evaluate how to deal with such practices, the government
employed anthropologists. Especially during the period when Jan van Baal was
governor of Netherlands New Guinea from 1953 to 1958, government anthropolo-
gists reported extensively to the Bureau for Native Affairs in Hollandia which
collected and processed large amounts of anthropological, medical, and demographic
data.2 From Teminabuan and Ayamaru, both missionaries and government officials
reported extensively on the kain timur question and the anthropologists Pouwer and
Elmberg were posted in the region to conduct research on the possibilities of breaking
the dominant role of cloth among the local peoples.3 The data were intended to
provide insights into the causes of the problems that the administration encountered
with respect to economic development of the Papuans.
Elmberg and Pouwer demonstrated that a majority of the cloth exchanges were
performed as part of the wuon ritual cycles and their associated feast houses.4
Typically, these cycles moved between two locations: a sachefra (Maybrat, ‘skull
house’) situated on a hilltop and a sebiach (Maybrat, ‘ceremonial long-house’) at the
foot of the hill. The skulls and bones of the deceased were kept in the skull house and
the spirits of these ancestors were called upon during the unfolding of sacred cloths.
These cloths, glossed in Indonesian as kain pusaka (heirloom cloths), were not
usually traded but were offered to spirits in rituals to ensure a large harvest from a
sago garden or a swift and prosperous exchange of less sacred cloths.
During certain stages of the ritual cycles, guests or trading partners from near and
far were invited to come to a newly built long-house. The guests were given food and
presents to induce them to trade cloth. According to Pouwer, these gatherings
functioned as an exchange: ‘it is here where the heart of the kain timur exchange
beats’ (1993, p. 122, my translation). Before the long-house ritual exchanges took
place, several platforms or stands were raised on which skulls of ancestors of the
organisers of the feasts were displayed. ‘Death, illness, accident, suspicion of black
magic, poor harvest of taro, drought*considered as visitations ascribed to
dissatisfied deceased*get the process of feasts and collective transactions going or
might serve as the excuse for it’ (Pouwer 1993, p. 122, my translation).
In the exchange of cloth in the Ayamaru region bobot assume the exchange
liabilities of their kinsfolk in a system where one, in theory, pays a hundred percent
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 393
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
interest in cloths for the loan of cloths. Before the Dutch began to influence the
Ayamaru in ways that seriously affected their culture, the bobot was, as Elmberg
(1968, p. 20) suggests, a primus inter pares of small kin groups, a leader of
ceremonies, and a pivot for the ritual cycle. During that time the cloth in the area was
of limited quantity, but high quality, consisting only of the inherited sacred cloths.
During the post-war period of Dutch colonisation increased trade with areas to the
south of the Bird’s Head increased the stock of cloth in the Ayamaru area. In the
1960s informants suggested to Elmberg (1968, pp. 174�5) that previously only bark-
cloth (made by women) had been exchanged and that when these cloths returned to
their first donors they were buried in caves or in the ground where they rotted away.
When ikat cloths became more common ‘hoarding started and the number of cloths
that were demanded in exchanges rose. Now men apparently wanted something more
out of the transactions: access to the pile of cloths’ (Elmberg 1968, p. 175). It became
important to hold more feasts in order to gain more cloth. This can be seen as an
attempt by the people to bring about economic prosperity through this trade in cloth.
Moreover, the increasing availability of European goods, such as rice, clothing, and
torches, made men to seek control over cloth exchange in order to gain access to
money and new goods. Men, according to Barnett (1959), were mostly concerned
with proving themselves to be outstanding warriors as well as wealthy bobot. They
were thus concerned with prestige and were perceived to live in a state of distress.
Dutch government officials wanted them to settle peacefully with their families and
relatives in villages; they discouraged their violent acts. Afraid of punitive measures
by the police, the bobot found themselves deprived of the violent means necessary to
maintain their reputation. At the same time, due to the more peaceful situation,
people were able to travel longer distances and enter relations with people they did
not formerly dare to approach (Massink 1996, p. 496).
This laid the ground for a ‘rapacious pursuit’ (Barnett 1959, p. 1016) of cloth
which increased the prices for marital rights and fines. At the same time the marriage
rate went down and domestic quarrels became common because arranged marriages
were not fulfilled (Massink 1996, p. 493). This was of great concern to the
administration and missionaries who required orderliness and peace to control and
teach.
Van Baal, both Governor and founder of the Bureau of Native Affairs, saw the
evolving situation as an illustration of what he glossed as ‘erring acculturation’
(1960), that is, counterproductive transformations in people’s attitudes to life due to
their confrontation with the Western world.5 He and the Dutch administration in
general thought that such activities as exchanging cloth among the people of the
western Bird’s Head, were hampering the natives’ integration into an emerging
Western state system and modern economy. Most administrators working in New
Guinea at that time were convinced they had to manage a process of cultural
interaction between the western administration and modern economy and the
indigenous cultures. Most did not see this task in a narrow way, rather they saw
themselves as largely responsible for relating the structures, goals and values of Dutch
394 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
colonial administration and modern economy to radically different, if not backward
and uncivilised, cultures of Papuan societies.
Abolishing Kain Timur
The first government official to be concerned with cloth exchange and elite control of
it was Piet Merkelijn, head of the Teminabuan district in the early 1950s. In
Merkelijn’s official report to the Bureau of Native Affairs he reports that bobot in
the Ayamaru region strongly opposed development because these men were more
concerned with maintaining their own position. He suggested abandoning the
exchange of cloths, but at the same time expressed fear of the resulting disruption of
society (Merkelijn 1951, p. 24). As a result, during Merkelijn’s period no decisive
measure was taken. Three years later, in 1953, the Assistant District Officer Jan
Massink began to show great concern about the rapid rise in the value of cloths and
the interest of local men in collecting them in large amounts.
Where the colonial leaders at first bribed influential men with material items
including cloth (and thus entering into the local value system that cloth exchange
brings along), now they wanted to outlaw the exchange of cloth by ordering the same
leaders to hand over all the cloths to the police. Being concerned about establishing a
society where regular labour, punctuality and order reigned, the colonial government
in Ayamaru planned to abolish cloth exchange and therewith the prestige economy
planned and controlled by bobot. However, the Dutch still needed these big-men, as
leaders, to persuade the people to comply with colonial policies. But these men and
others were continually travelling and villages and houses were often left unattended,
as we read in colonial reports (see, for example, Massink 1954, 1955a, 1955b, 1996).
Massink wrote that the accumulation of cloth by only a few ‘big-men’ led to ‘social
abuses: particularly dangerous, for example, was the tendency of bobot to build
around him a group of debtors who then had to work for him, sometimes for the rest
of their lives when they did not manage to release themselves from the debt.
‘Definitely the situation was a matter of disguised slavery’ (Massink 1996, p. 493, my
translation). Moreover, the production of crops in new gardens was not intended to
supply the teachers, missionaries, or government officials, but to maintain and
extend relations with others through the exchanges of cloths. Girls were kept from
going to school because their fathers were afraid that they would not later agree to
marriages that would fit with their father’s cloth exchange concerns (Pouwer 1993,
p. 123).
Alongside these moral judgements, the increasing concern with cloth exchange can
be explained as the result of Western influences and related expectations. This is
illustrated in a case study from the late 1950s. Pouwer notes how one of the raja of
the Ayamaru region, Raja Abraham Kambuaya, saw himself presented with his two
conflicting functions: ‘on the one hand he was a ‘cloth grabber’ in a prestige economy
and on the other he was head of a village in the context of a welfare economy’
(Pouwer 1993, p. 117, my translation). This conflict arose because Kambuaya found
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 395
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
himself in what Pouwer labels as a ‘kantelend tijdperk’ (toppling era, altering epoch),
a period characterised by many transformations and moral conflicts caused by
contradicting concerns.
Concerns diverged because of the government and mission interference in local
affairs and the local people’s understanding of the changes that these institutions and
the presence of white people brought about. In this confusing period, Kambuaya did
his utmost to ‘cover his bets’ in his play with cloths by assisting the colonial
administration in their efforts to bring about economic development in Western
terms, while he tried to meet the requirements in terms of kinship and payments of
cloth expected from a bobot (‘big-man’). In both contexts, the stake was prestige,
participation, and equality.
In the mid 1950s, Massink urged the people to do away with cloths and lift the rule
that brides and fines be paid with these cloths. In his review of the situation some
four decades later, Massink (1996, p. 493) writes that people’s entanglement in
the cloth exchange was actually more complex than he saw back then. The
government officials saw that the situation was one of marriage payments going
wrong which brought all kinds of social wrongs, including the problem of people not
staying in their villages but always moving in search of cloths. The officials who
proposed the radical abolition in 1954 did not consider that cloths were also
important to life cycles, fertility, and favourable relations with the dead.
During the attempts at abolishing the exchange of kain timur, the colonial officials
received support from the many young men who were supposed to meet expectations
of huge amounts of cloths for a marriage and who feared their subsequent
subordinate position to bobot leaders who financed the marriages (Pouwer 1993,
p. 123, Massink 1996, p. 497). Only a few bobot like Raja Kambuaya agreed that
modern development and the road to prosperity in terms of Western wealth and
health was blocked by the unbridled exchange in cloth. Raja Kambuaya decided that
cloths destined for exchange (kain jalan or wandering cloths) were to be handed over
to the government and that, as urged by all bobot, sacred cloths (kain pusaka)*being
important for ritual*would be stamped and given back to their owners. Many village
leaders and bobot followed Kambuaya. When, during one of the collection sessions,
Massink playfully remarked that the cloths should be burned, people took this
seriously and actually burned their cloths. Though the immediate results were clear to
government officials, who saw that people started building houses in the villages and
returned there and that the birth rate went up, the importance of cloths to the people
of the Ayamaru and Teminabuan regions did not diminish (Pouwer 1993, p. 123).
Indonesian Modernity
When the territory was transferred to Indonesia in the early 1960s, civilising efforts
continued*Papuans were to become proper Indonesian citizens and still had to
prepare themselves for a modern economy. In particular during the New Order
period (1965�98) under President Soeharto, Imyan were regularly and consistently
396 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
informed about the importance of national development and the sincere dedication
of the government to bring them as ‘underdeveloped people’ (masyarakat tertinggal)
or an ‘estranged minority’ (masyarakat terasing) into the mainstream of Indonesian
life. Imyan were often reminded that their ‘culture’ (kebudayaan) and ‘customs’
(adat) deviate in a negative sense from mainstream Indonesian culture and that this
hampers their integration and their development. Like the Dutch government
officials, the Indonesian bureaucrats saw kain timur as matter out of place in modern
times, yet no radical attempt at abolition has been undertaken by the Indonesian
government. Kain timur continues as a central element in many of the cultures of the
Bird’s Head.
The impact of the positions taken by the colonial administration and later the
Indonesian administration towards cloth exchange was to motivate people to
distinguish between the cloth and the modern economy. ‘Kain timur’ became part
of an adat (Indonesian, ‘custom’) tradition of knowledge, while economic develop-
ment became associated with pemerintah (Indonesian ‘state’, ‘government’). Inter-
estingly, Raja Abraham Kambuaya is currently considered by the government to be an
early example of a progressive person who understood that in order to become
wealthy by making money out of raising chickens and selling sago, one must put
aside the exchange of cloths. Many admire Kambuaya’s achievements including his
success in getting three of his children to study at secondary schools and universities.
At the same time, Imyan consider total abolition of the use of cloths unwise
because it would disrupt the moral order of their community. Nevertheless, the
obligations related to cloth payments are increasingly felt as a burden. The burden
comes from the complexity of the game of give-and-take within a network of more
than twenty people, geographically extending over a distance of several days’ walk.
On the other hand, many Imyan value cloth as a symbol of their tradition and as a
marker that distinguishes Bird’s Head people from cannibalistic and penis-gourd-
wearing highlanders (‘Dani’), shell eating and betelnut-chewing Cenderawasih Bay
people (‘Biak’, ‘Yapen’), and anthropophagous south New Guinea people (‘Asmat’).6
With reference to peoples of other parts of Indonesia, the people of the Bird’s Head
see cloth as a symbol that stands for their adat*just as certain dances stand for
Balinese adat and gamelan music and wayang kulit shadow plays stand for Javanese
adat. Wayang plays and Balinese dances have been reconstructed as vehicles for the
expression of national sentiment, the local colour creating an illusion of difference
between the locality and the outside world.
While the cloths are considered authentic and original objects of material culture
by the people of the Bird’s Head, art collectors and tourists tend to see them as
imported cloths that are essentially foreign to the region. Where they are seen as
authentic, like on the island of Sumba (where indeed many of the cloths found in the
Bird’s Head originate), art collectors hunt old pieces that are sold for high prices in
the West, and tourists buy cloths as souvenirs. Perhaps because of its alleged
inauthenticity that disrespects local meanings attached to kain timur, the cloth
exchange has also received little attention from foreign, Indonesian, and Papuan
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 397
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
anthropologists. As a result, local production of kain timur is solely for the regional
market and no tourist art kain timur are made or sold in shops or at regional airports.
Conclusion
There are a number of important events in the history of the exchange in kain timur
recounted in this article. The first is that Dutch government officials wanted to
abolish the exchange of cloths because of its centrality in the lives of the people they
wanted to involve in modern economic activities. Together with often heavy-handed
missionaries they patrolled the area to abolish kain timur initiation houses and beat
the initiators to clear the way for conversion to Christianity, for new schooling and a
new social order.
The Dutch government officials Merkelijn and Massink were specifically concerned
with cloth exchange and the latter eventually succeeded in motivating big men to put
an end to excessive forms of exchange. Massink, due to his unequivocal condemna-
tion of traditional practices clearly put his stamp on the area and left behind a
profound impression. When discussing missionisation, many Imyan recall him as a
strict leader. Of course, besides their personal style of engagement, during the 1950s
government and mission increasingly affected the lives and concerns of the local
people. In any case, in Imyan stories about this period, ‘Massink’ and certain names
of missionaries appear as icons that epitomise the rigid manner in which the
government officials and missionaries proceeded.
Initiatory rituals were practised until the mid 1960s. Other major rituals have
disappeared within the last three decades, considered as improper in a modern
Figure 4 Papuan women parading kain timur during the celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the proclamation of the Indonesian nation, 17 August 1995. (Photo: Jaap
Timmer)
398 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
Christian society, but this does not mean that people deny the past and present
importance of these rituals. As for the male initiation cult, in particular, former
knowledge and practices are currently considered of great importance to the future of
society. In particular, in the light of widely perceived deterioration of morals, Imyan
are increasingly concerned with the disciplining role of cloth payments as fines to
guarantee the observance of social rules. I have regularly heard people say that, in the
absence of ‘kain timur’, men would commit adultery and engage in illicit sex at will,
and women would increasingly feel free to use evil powers to kill innocent people.
The exchange of kain timur is largely seen as civilising the people, in contrast to the
official state view which, like the missionary and colonial view, regards this complex
of practices as uncivilised.
Acknowledgement
This article is based on research carried out within the framework of the Netherlands
Organisation for Scientific Research priority program ‘The Irian Jaya Studies: A
Programme for Interdisciplinary Research’, financed by the Netherlands Foundation
for the Advancement of Tropical Research.
Notes
[1] See Liep (1998, pp. 260�62) for a discussion of the use of such terms as ‘primitive capitalism’
in the ethnography of the Bird’s Head.
[2] See, for example, Schoorl’s (1993) list of tasks he was expected to carry out among the Muyu
of South New Guinea, and his 1996 essay on ‘the colonial district commissioner as agent of
development’.
[3] Pouwer was a Dutch government anthropologist and Elmberg, Swedish, was attached to the
Ethnographical Museum in Stockholm. Pouwer planned to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in
the Mamberamo-Baliem area but a few days before his departure from Sweden in 1953, his
visa was countermanded. When he arrived in Hollandia, Van Baal advised him to work in the
Ayamaru region (Elmberg 1968, p. 7).
[4] These are bobot feast houses as described by Elmberg (1965, 1968).
[5] See also Van Baal (1948/9, p. 104).
[6] Dani, Biak, and Asmat are ethnonyms that are widely known to Imyan. Often heard
characterisations of these regional others are na mantion (‘cannibals’) for ‘Asmat’ and ‘Dani’,
na aisya (‘clam people’) for people from the islands of Biak and Yapen because they consume
the chalk of shells. I have heard sermons in which Marind people of South Papua are
compared to Philistine Goliaths.
References
Baal, J. van (1948/9) ‘De Westerse beschaving als constante factor in het hedendaagse acculturatie-
proces’, Indonesie, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 102�39.
Baal, J. van (1960) ‘Erring acculturation’, American Anthropologist, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 108�21.
Barnett, H. G. (1959) ‘Peace and progress in New Guinea’, American Anthropologist, vol. 61,
pp. 1013�9.
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 399
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
Bolton, L. (2003) Unfolding the Moon: Enacting Women’s Kastom in Vanuatu, University of Hawai’i
Press, Honolulu.
Ellen, R. (2003) On the Edge of the Banda Zone: Past and Present in the Social Organisation of a
Moluccan Trading Network, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu.
Elmberg, J.-E. (1965) ‘The Popot feast cycle: Acculturated exchange among the Mejprat Papuans’,
Ethnos, vol. 30, supplement.
Elmberg, J.-E. (1968) Balance and Circulation: Aspects of Tradition and Change Among the Mejprat of
Irian Barat, Ethnographical Museum, Stockholm.
Goodman, T. (2006) The Sosolot: An Eighteenth Century East Indonesian Trade Network, PhD Thesis,
University of Hawai’i.
Hermkens, A.-K. (2005) Engendering objects. Barkcloth and the dynamics of identity in Papua New
Guinea, PhD Thesis, Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Hermkens, A.-K. (2007) ‘Gendered objects. Embodiments of colonial collecting in Dutch New
Guinea’, Journal of Pacific History, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 1�20.
Kooijman, S. (1992) ‘Introduction’, in Art of Northwest New Guinea, ed. S. Greub, Rizzoli, pp, New
York, pp. 11�6.
Liep, J. (1998) ‘Connubia in the making: A comparative view on the kain timur complex’, in eds.
J. Miedema, C. Ode, & R. A. C. Dam, Perspectives on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya,
Indonesia: Proceedings of the Conference, Leiden 13�17 October 1997, Editions Rodopi,
Amsterdam, pp. 259�74.
Massink, J. (1954) ‘De kain timoer kwestie te Ajamaroe’, Het B.B.-blad, Interne voorlichting van de
dienst van Binnenlandse Zaken, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 24�8.
Massink, J. (1955a) Kain-timoer-gegevens uit het Maandverslag van Controleur van Ajamaroe, 20/
2-22/3 1954. Typescript. National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague.
Massink, J. (1955b) Memorie van Overgave van het bestuur over de Onderafdeling Teminabuan
(voorheen Ajamaroe) over de periode van 17 Juni 1953 tot 1 September 1956. Typescript.
National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague.
Massink, J. (1996) ‘De kain-timur-revolutie in Ajamaru’, in Besturen in Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea
1945�1962: ontwikkelingswerk in een periode van politieke onrust, ed. P. Schoorl, KITLV Press,
Leiden, pp. 484�505.
Merkelijn, P. J. (1951) Memorie van Overgave van de Onderafdeling Ajamaroe (voorheen
Inanwatan) over de periode juni 1950�september 1951. Typescript. National Archives of
the Netherlands, The Hague.
Miedema, J. (1984) De Kebar 1855�1980 � Sociale structuur en religie in de Vogelkop van West-
Nieuw-Guinea. Verhandelingen vol. 105. Dordrecht (the Netherlands) Foris Publications,
Cinnaminson, USA.
Miedema, J. (1986) Pre-Capitalism and Cosmology: Description and Analysis of the Meybrat Fishery
and Kain Timur-Complex, Foris Publications, Dordrecht.
Miedema, J. (1988) ‘Anthropology, demography and history: Shortage of women, intertribal
marriage relations, and slave trading in the Bird’s Head of New Guinea’, Bijdragen tot de
Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, vol. 144, pp. 494�509.
Miedema, J. (1994) ‘Trade, migration, and exchange: The Bird’s Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya in a
comparative perspective’, in Migration and Transformations: Regional Perspectives on New
Guinea, eds A. Strathern & G. Sturzenhofecker, Association for Social Anthropology in
Oceania monograph 15, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, pp. 121�53.
Miedema, J. & Reesink, G. (2004) One Head, Many Faces: New Perspectives on the Bird’s Head
Peninsula of New Guinea, KITLV Press, Leiden.
Pouwer, J. (1957) ‘Het vraagstuk van de kain timoer in het Mejbrat-gebied (Ajamaroemeren)’,
Nieuw-Guinea Studien, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 295�319.
Pouwer, J. (1993) ‘Abraham, Raja in een kantelend tijdperk’, in Vrienden en verwanten: liber
amicorum Alex van der Leeden, , eds P. Haenen & A. A. Trouwborst, Universiteit Leiden and
400 J. Timmer
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
the Irian Jaya Studies Project (Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia and
Oceania/Irian Jaya Studies Project), Leiden and Jakarta, pp. 117�33.
Schneider, J. (2006) ‘Cloth and clothing’, in Handbook of Material Culture, eds C. Tilley, W. Keane,
S. Kuchler, M. Rowlands, & P. Spyer, Sage, London, pp. 203�20.
Schoorl, P. (1996) ‘De controleur BB als een agent van ontwikkeling op Nieuw-Guinea’, in Besturen
in Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea 1945�1962: ontwikkelingswerk in een periode van politieke
onrust, ed. P. Schoorl, KITLV Press, Leiden, pp. 7�40.
Swadling, P. (1996) Plumes from Paradise: Trade Cycles in Outer Southeast Asia and their Impact on
New Guinea and Nearby Islands Until 1920, Papua New Guinea National Museum in
association with Robert Brown & Associates, Boroko and Coorparoo (Qld).
Timmer, J. (2000a) Living with Intricate Futures: Order and Confusion in Imyan Worlds, Irian Jaya,
Indonesia, Centre for Pacific Studies, Nijmegen.
Timmer, J. (2000b) The Return of the Kingdom: Agama and the Millenium among the Imyan of
Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Ethnohistory, vol. 47, no. 1, pp. 29�65.
Van Hille, J. W. (1905) ‘Reizen in West-Nieuw-Guinea’, Tijdschrift van het Nederlandsch
Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, vol. 22, pp. 233�330.
Weiner, A. B. (1989) ‘Why cloth? Wealth, gender, and power in Oceania’, in Cloth and Human
Experience, eds A. Weiner & J. Schneider, Smithsonian Institute, Washington and London,
pp. 33�71.
Weiner, A. B. (1992) Inalienable Possessions. The Paradox of Keeping-While-Giving, University of
California Press, Berkeley.
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 401
Dow
nloa
ded
by [
The
Uni
vers
ity o
f B
ritis
h C
olum
bia]
at 0
0:25
22
Apr
il 20
13
