Ecology of Sulawesi. Tony Whitten
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of Gowa. They began fighting in 1666 and the Bungaya Treaty was signed a year later forbidding all foreign traders to live in Makassar, and transferring jurisdiction over Bulukumbu-Bira, Maros, Bantaeng and the Makassar fort (Hadimuljono and Muttalib 1979; Andaya 1981). There were several uprisings in Makassar during the following century and the town was totally destroyed at least twice. At this time the Dutch had little or no interest in the land they now ruled, because their main aim had been the suppression of a competitor. The main export during the 18th century had been slaves. After the subjugation of Makassar many Bugis, particularly from Wajo, emigrated and founded royal dynasties in Kutai (East Kalimantan), Johore and Selangor (Peninsular Malaysia). In 1737 the Wajo king of Kutai liberated the Wajo state from Bone, which had become increasingly more powerful, and established the most successful Indonesian maritime commercial operation of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Since most of the written early history of Sulawesi and neighbouring islands was concerned with maritime trade, the life of the traditional nomadic people of East Indonesian seas, the Bajau, is quite well known. The Bajau used to be a group of maritime hunter-gatherers and although now largely settled, they can still be met with around Sulawesi's eastern islands. In contrast to the Bugis who, although seafaring, were based on land or in beach settlements, the Bajau spent more or less their whole lives on or around boats. Another major contrast was the Bugis habit of leaving their family behind when travelling whereas the Bajau always travelled as a family.
The Bajau economy was based primarily on collecting, preparing and selling 'tripang', a collective name for a few types of edible sea cucumbers, a group of echinoderm animals (which also include starfish, brittlestars, and sea urchins) (p. 227). Sea cucumbers are bottom-dwelling (benthic) creatures and are either collected at low tides or dived for in shallow water. The most sought-after tripang were apparently painstakingly prepared by a Bajau group known as the Turijene who were based in the Spermonde Archipelago, particularly around the island of Kuring Aring, 17 km west of Ujung Pandang. All the tripang, together with tortoiseshell, pearls, birds' nests and giant clams, were sold to Bugis seafarers for the China trade in food, tonic and medicine, and this formed the basis of the interdependence of these two groups. Tripang was not eaten by any Malay people even when other food was scarce and, strangely, the Bajau rarely if ever used nets or traps for catching fish, preferring instead to use harpoons and spears.
The narrow entrance to Kendari Bay was discovered in 1839 at which time the east and southeast of Sulawesi were very sparsely populated (fig. 1.38). Inland people in this area have moved south only in the last century or so. A few Bugis and Gowan settlements were established and were dominated alternately by maritime powers such as Luwu and Ternate. Kendari Bay was the only major trading focus in the southeast but this was occasionally abandoned because of the tribal disputes and raids on traders by the inland people. The Bajau did not have a particularly cordial relationship with the Bugis and Gowan traders, but generally had peaceful relations with the inland Tolaki people. This was not always the case, however, and it seems that the Bajau were probably in frequent conflict with, for example, the Toloinang of south Tomori Bay (Sopher 1978).
The Banggai Islands, or more specifically the small islands between Peleng and Banggai, were another traditional centre of Bajau activity; in the 1840s, 100 to 150 boats gathered there at certain times of the year. The Banggai people, of the Towana group, accepted the presence of the Bajau and traded produce from their dry-field agriculture with them. Other centres of Bajau activity were Tomori Bay (west Tolo Bay), Dondo Bay (off Toli-Toli), the Sabalana Islands, and Wowoni Island (Sopher 1978).
One of the earliest dates in the history of Central Sulawesi was 1555 when the Portuguese built a fort at Parigi. In 1602 two Muslim Minangk-abau traders from West Sumatra settled in Palu and Parigi to develop commercial interests and to propagate their faith. In 1680 Palu and Toli-Toli were under the influence of the Sultan of Ternate but the Dutch East India Company had growing interests and established an outpost in Parigi in 1730 to trade in gold (Davis 1976). Meanwhile the people in the hills lived in fortified stockades, and the earthworks that once surrounded these stockades are still visible in villages such as Besoa, Padang Lolo, and Bala (Anon. 1981b). Given the generally low fertility of the hill soils, it is interesting that many old villages and megalithic remains are on or around the beds of long- 'dead' lakes (Davis 1976). The small clans of people were frequently warring and when a peace was settled it was customary to smash plates. This is symbolic and represents the feeling that 'as the shards lay divided and yet together in one place, so shall we all return to our hearths knowing we belong together'. One such place is Poka Pinjang ('broken dish') on the path to the peak of Mt. Rantemario, Enrekang (p. 511), where shards of Chinese porcelain have been found (van Steenis 1937). The shy inland Towana people of the eastern peninsula also paid tribute to the Sultan of Ternate, but later came under the influence of the kings of Bungku to the southwest, and Tojo to the northwest. These rulers did not exert direct rule over this group of Towana, but indirectly through Towana leaders and elders. Tributes of beeswax and small bamboo tubes of uncooked rice were given to the rulers (Atkinson 1979). A succinct description of the culture of the people around Poso and the effects on them of early western influence is available (Kruyt 1929).
Figure 1.38 A sketch map of Sulawesi drawn in 1795 to illustrate just how poorly known the eastern coasts were.
After Woodard 1805
The British took over the Dutch colonial possessions between 1811 and 1816 and it was not until the early years of this century that the Dutch began to exert their rule over all of Sulawesi. In fact, by the late 19th century Minahasa had already received considerable assistance from the Dutch and from Christian mission societies. The degree of support is illustrated by the fact that by 1900 there were 1,200 inhabitants for every school in Minahasa, but 50,000 inhabitants for every school in Java. The Dutch rule of Sulawesi began with much blood being shed, particularly in battles with people in Bone. Until this period remote areas such as Toraja land had withstood or had simply not experienced incursions and assaults into their territory, but now they were brought under an island-wide administration. There then followed 35 years of peace-probably the longest period in Sulawesi's history-during which roads, irrigation schemes and administrative structures and institutions were established.
The Japanese occupied Sulawesi in 1942 but the move towards independence was not entertained until the final five months of the war. Then, Dr. Sam Ratulangi, a Manadonese, and Andi Pangiran, son of the Sultan of Bone, were sent to Jakarta to assist in the preparations for the birth of the infant republic. Ratulangi became the first governor of Sulawesi but was imprisoned after the Australian allied forces handed over the administration to the Dutch in January 1946. By the end of that year a guerrilla operation against the Dutch was well under way and the Dutch responded with their bloodiest campaign anywhere in Indonesia. On 17th August 1950, the Dutch accepted the independence of Indonesia. At this time Sulawesi was a single province. In July 1950, an intermittent rebellion with Islamic and regional goals erupted in and around Luwu and its forces became allied with the Darul Islam movement of West Java. By 1958, when this movement was at its peak, only the cities in South Sulawesi were under government control, and towns such as Soroako, now the centre of an international tin-mining operation, suffered severe privations (Robinson 1983; Kirk 1986). Order was restored in the early 1960s. In the regional rebellions of 1958-61, Minahasa (together with West and North Sumatra) declared their independence from the rest of the Republic, but few lives were lost before national unity was restored.
Present-day People
Despite the relatively small size and population of Sulawesi, the number and make-up of the ethnic groups is extremely complex.41 Early linguists used to ascribe a large number of language groups to Sulawesi. For example, one analysis recognized just one language group in each of Taiwan, the Philippines, Sumatra and Borneo, whereas for Sulawesi nine were recognized. More recent work has lessened the distinctiveness of Sulawesi languages but, even so, two of the nine language families found in Western Malayo-Polynesia are confined to Sulawesi. Linguists classify languages in a stricter fashion than do lay people, and the fifty ways of saying 'no' in Central Sulawesi alone do not necessarily represent different languages (Davis 1976). Rather this has arisen through small kingdoms or states being relatively isolated for long