This chapter provides insight into different aspects that constitute Minahasan ethnicity by looking at the story, history, and practices of the Minahasan people that form and inform their “tradition of change” to the present stage.1 It starts with general information about the land of Minahasa, how the name came to be used, including how to understand Minahasan ethnicity. This is followed by a discussion on the story of Toar and Lumimuut, a symbol of Minahasan ethnic identity, which then leads into five topics related to Minahasan traditional society: astronomical knowledge, political organization, social-economic practices, medicine, and ethnic religion.
4.1. The Name of Minahasa and Minahasan Ethnicity
The northern tip of Sulawesi Island was known by several different names to the inhabitants, but most notable was Malesung that comes from the word lisung (“mortar”).2 It is a description of a region with a collection of non-volcanic and volcanic mountains. Due to this fact, this land that later became Minahasa is a fertile one. The main agricultural products today are coconut, cloves and other spices. Coffee, a well-known cash-crop in the 19th century, is pretty much left behind.3 Rice is still produced but no longer exported.4 In addition to being a fertile area, Minahasa also contains different minerals, including gold, which has lured several mining companies to operate in the region.
Being just above the equator, Minahasa, which according to archeological finding has been inhabited back to 6000 BC,5 shares tropical seasons with an average rainfall between 2,000 to 3,000 millimeters per year.6 Hui Li et. al. point out that, based on their analysis on paternal genetic affinities between Western Austronesians and Daic population, most likely Minahasan ancestors (as other western Austronesian groups) have originated from the Gulf of Tonkin, the homeland of the Daic, and migrated to Indonesia through the Vietnam corridor.7
The languages spoken in this area are various and classified into Malayopolynesian in the category of Austronesian languages.8 The languages of Tombulu, Toudano (or Toulour), Tonsea, Tontemboan, Tonsawang (or Tombatu) are related and categorized as Proto-Minahasan languages.9 The language of the Bantik and Pasan-Ratahan (or Bentenan) are related to the Sangir in the northern islands of the Minahasa peninsula, while Ponosakan shares resemblances with the language of Mongondow, an ethnic group at the southern border of Minahasa.10 Due to these lingual as well as “physiological and cultural differences,” Schouten categorizes the eight groups (supposed to be nine groups) as “ethnic groups.”11 In this thesis, however, the nine groups are regarded as “sub-ethnic groups” and as a whole comprise Minahasa as an “ethnic group.” The reasons are as follow.
In October 8, 1789, the Resident of Manado J. D. Schierstein wrote to his superior in Ternate about “minhasa,” the meeting of the chiefs at the Dutch fort in Manado to overcome conflicts among the walaks (see definition below).12 This was the earliest known writing in the Latin script where we find the reference minhasa. Later the name Minahasa was used as a political administration, covering all the walak communities in Malesung and vicinities.
From the linguistic point of view, the spelling minahasa comes from the Tombulu, meaning “have become one” or “united.”13 The concept behind it is related to walak sovereignty in Malesung. Walak is a local term signifying a cluster of ro’ong or wanua (settlement/village/dwelling place) of people with a common kinship and ethno-linguistic character.14 A group of walaks of the same group is designated as pakasaan, used today in the sense of Minahasan “tribe” or “sub-ethnic group.”15 While these groups at times engaged in conflict with one another, which is not unusual as it happens with other nations,16 there was a tradition that when their common existence was threatened by outsiders, they would meet together, make an oath, and form a union (maesa). When the threat was overcome, each would go back to their own walak.17
Supit points out that the term Minahasa was used formally as a political administration in the 19th century.18 Along the same lines, Watuseke adds that the recognition of the region as Minahasa began at the end of the 17th century (1693), when the four main groups united (maesa) to repel the onslaught of the king of Manado (Bolaang).19 Others perceive the precursor of Minahasa even further back in history. In a colloquium conducted in May 1982 to date the anniversary of Minahasa, among the dates cast in the ballots were January 10, 1679, when the walak chiefs signed a treaty with the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (V. O. C.) or Dutch East India Company, the year of 1643 when Malesung united against the Spaniards, including the meeting at Watu Pinawetengan “Stone of Allotment,” traditionally understood as the time when the leaders of Malesung designated the territorial boundaries of the four main groups.20
Another event which bears similar importance is the Tondano War 1808-1809 (also known as Minahasa-Dutch war in Tondano) which later gains a prominent place in the history of Minahasa and inevitably reinforces a sense of ethnicity among the children of Toar and Lumimuut.
Earlier in 1799 the V. O. C. was dissolved, and all the walaks were considered to be under the auspices of the Dutch government. At this time, the Netherlands, under France, was at war against the British in the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815). In order to defend Batavia (today Jakarta) from the British fleets, in 1808 Governor General H. W. Dandles requested 2400 soldiers from the Minahasan walaks.21 This 'military draft' was rejected by the Minahasan people and became one of the primary reasons for the Tondano War 1808-1809.22 On June 2, 1808, the leaders of the walaks that disapproved of the military recruitment met in Tondano-Touliang to establish an oath of loyalty, in the case that the Dutch government insisted with force to make them comply. They called themselves “se minaesa” (the united).23
After a futile attempt to discourage the movement, Prediger, the Resident of Manado, brought in a Dutch army from Ternate. The walak leaders met again at Watu Pinawetengan to discuss the matter. According to Giroth Wuntu, after a thorough discussion it was decided that the resistance in Tondano must go on, and those who could not continue, especially those who were far from the Minahasan fortresses in Tondano and close to the Dutch posts, could support with supplies and ammunition, while those who no longer wanted to support the war should not cooperate with the Dutch.24 Months after, 13 walaks out of 26 expressed their desire to submit to Prediger; some were even willing to aid him against the Tondano. Nonetheless, Wuntu postulates that there were those among the 13 walaks who secretly supported the Tondano.25
This war became a symbol of Minahasa heroism. The waraney (warriors) at Moraya fort shouted “kumuru e Minaesa!” (get down Minaesa!) when they shot their canons toward the colonial army joined by their co-opted kawanua (compatriots).26 On August 4, 1809, the two fortresses of the Minahasans, including the Tondano settlements, were destroyed. F. Parengkuan points out that the Dutch committed genocide in Tondano, which gave birth to Minawanua (once a dwelling place).27
In 1810, the region fell for the second time to the British, and Resident Thomas Nelson established a contract with the chiefs, among others for the recognition of Britain's authority by Minahasan walaks and the banning of punishment by way of to'tok (cutting a person into small pieces), which also has been fought by the V. O .C.28 Shortly after, delegations from Britain and the Netherlands met in London and created what is called the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. Herein, one of the rulings was for Britain to return Dutch-occupied territories to the Netherlands, so that their holdings were the same as before the disastrous Napoleonic Wars.29 This was implemented in 1817, and two years later, the Netherlands utilized De Minahassa as a political administration.30 This marked a major socio-religious and political change in the land of To’ar and Lumimu’ut.
The success of the Protestant mission became the answer to the question of unity among the Minahasans post the Tondano War of 1808-1809.31 Mission schools encouraged a sense of brotherhood among the groups, which was something good not only for the mission work as well as the colonial interests but ultimately for the groups themselves. While writers such as Gabriele Weichart emphasize Minahasa as “acted upon” in terms of the communal identification of its people, she does not deny that such identification for “colonial purposes” is only feasible if it is consistent with how the people also identify themselves.32
In the midst of efforts to survive within this colonial reality, Minahasa fell into the categorization of being one of the Dutch collaborators in the archipelago. Down the line, cross sub-ethnic intermarriages, the widespread use of Manado Malay, the fight for independence, and the struggle for autonomy during the post-independence Permesta war (explained below) all contributed to the solidification of Minahasan ethnicity.
Minahasa was conceived in the story and history of its people. It is a symbol of an ethnic consciousness among the walaks, best described as an adoptive ethnicity, where different yet related groups of people perceive their commonality despite their differences; thus, they weave together their shared story and history, feeling that they are one by descent or by death-facing-oath, and therefore make one's burden as everybody's burden, and one's prosperity as the prosperity of the beloved land.
Minahasa was not a colonial invention. Long before De Minahassa was used to represent a regional administration, and long before Resident Schierstein wrote minhasa to refer to the council of chiefs which congregated at the Dutch fort in Manado-Wenang, minaesa has always been part of the Minahasan people. The Dutch colonial government engineered the unified political administration, but it was Watu Pinawetengan that gave birth to Minahasa. The spirit of minaesa continues to inspire the people of Minahasa, although politically Minahasa proper is no longer under one administration. Thus, as in the expression: Sa kita esa, sumerar kita. Sa kita sumerar, esa kita (If we are one, we separate; if we separate, we are one).
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1 As the title of Wil Lundström-Burghoorn's book Minahasa Civilization: A Tradition of Change (Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1981).
2 The region is embellished with areas that resemble a mortar, along with some big stone-mortars commonly found in the area, such as in Likupang, Sonder, Ratahan, Pontak, and Wulur Mahatus area (H. M. Taulu, Langkah Sedjarah Malesung-Minahasa: dari purba hingga pendjadjahan Belanda, djilid 1 [Manado: Badan Budaja Jajasan Membangun, 1969], ii, 1). F. Watuseke also mentions Taure and Makalesung (Sejarah Minahasa, [Manado: Pertjetakan Negara, 1968], 8).
3 Coffee plants are grown in some places, like in Langowan, but in general it is still unpopular to grow coffee for a cash crop. Schouten is right in saying that the forced cultivation was internalized in the collective memory of the Minahasans (Schouten, Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society, 57-64). It could be that the recovery is on the way; See Chapter 5.2.
4 Taulu points out that since the 1600s Minahasa had been “exporting” rice to the Philippines and Ternate. Around 1840-1856 there were still approximately 2000 tons of rice export per year. Subsequently, the number decreased significantly due to the forced labor and compulsory coffee plantation. In 1919, for the first time rice was imported into Minahasa (Bunga Rampai: Sejarah dan Antropologi Budaya “Minahasa,” Jilid 1 [Manado: Tunas Harapan, 1981], 25).
5 Peter Bellwood, then affiliated with Australian National University, suggests this date following an excavation at the shell-mound archeological site located at Paso village, southwest of Tondano Lake, Minahasa (“Archeological Research in Minahasa and the Talaud Islands, Northeastern Indonesia,” Asian Perspectives, XIX [2] [1976]:245, http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/19177/AP-v19n2-240-288.pdf?sequence=1 [accessed February 3, 2012]).
6 Monografi daerah Sulawesi Utara ([Jakarta]: Proyek Pengembangan Media Kebudayaan, Ditjen. Kebudayaan, Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan RI, 1976), 15.
7 Hui Li et. al. find that Western Austronesian population has a closer link with the Daic populations compare to any other groups in East Asia. Daic is a linguistic family located mainly in South China, the north of the Island Southeast Asians (“Paternal genetic affinity between western Austronesian and Daic populations,” BMC Evolutionary Biology 2008; 8: 146, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2408594/pdf/1471-2148-8-146.pdf [accessed August 28, 2012], 7-9); Cf. Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 13.
8 Wil Lundström-Burghoorn, Minahasa Civilization, 19.
9 As Schouten demonstrates in a figure based on J. N. Sneddon's "The North Sulawesi Microgroups: in Search of Higher Level Connections," Studies in Sulawesi Linguistics (1989):83-107 (Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society, 15).
10 For further discussion on Minahasan languages, see also J. N. Sneddon, “The Languages of Minahasa, North Celebes,” Oceanic Linguistics, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Summer, 1970), 11-36, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3622930 (accessed January 1, 2012).
11 Schouten fails to include the Bobontehu (or Bawontehu) into the Minahasan sub-groups (Leadership and Social Mobility in a Southeast Asian Society, 13).
12 E. C. Godée-Molsbergen, Geschiedenis van de Minahasa tot 1829 (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1928), 137; See Supit, Minahasa, 141-142.
13 Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 8. Minaesa or nimaesa suggest the same meaning as minahasa. The basic word is the verb maesa or maasa “to unite,” “to become one;” esa means “one.” While the letter “h” in the word Minahasa shows a Tombulu variant, it may also function as a glottal (stop sound), as it appears in the writings during the colonial times, hence mina'asa. Minahasan native speakers sometimes also use “k” in writing to signify a glottal. In this thesis ['] is used, following the literature in Minahasan languages published by Pusat Penerjemahan Alkitab (Bible Translation Center), Tomohon (see, for example, Sirita ni Yusuf: Kejadian 37, 39-50 dalam bahasa Tondano [[S.l.]: Pusat Penerjemahan Bahasa UKIT, 2006]). In this thesis, glottal is omitted in Minahasan familiar names and places. The spelling “Toar,” for example, is pronounced “To'ar,” while “Lumimuut” is “Lumimu'ut.” This is not used in suffixes or prefixes, only in the root words, whether in the middle of the word or at the end of it. For example, ra'ar “sunny,” sera' “fish.”
14 According to Watuseke, the term walak was unknown to the colonial officials because they perceived the chiefs as dorpshoofden (village heads); hence their territories were villages. When they came to use the local term in the sense of a district, it was assumed to come from the Dutch balk “beam.” As Watuseke explains, Adriani, a Dutch linguist, corrected this view saying that walak is “an autochthonous Minahasan word denoting 'relation', 'family', 'tribe'.” He compares the word walak to the Sangirese word balagheng and the Talaud balaghana both with the meanings “tribe,” “fellow companion,” and “remote relation.” The stem is balage and its old form is balag, which is a cognate of the Minahasan walak. Also, there is the Tontemboan expression tu'ur im walak translated by Schwarz (1908:572) as “capital,” “the first settlement of the tribe, from which different branches later dispersed; “the chief of a district” (F. S. Watuseke, “Hukum and other administrative terms in the language of Minahasa” in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land,- en Volkenkunde 142, no:2/3, [1986]:314-324, http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/btlv/article/view/3004/3765 [accessed February 2, 2012]); Supit, Minahasa, 52-53. See the names of the Minahasan walaks in the appendix.
15 Yet the terminology pakasaan is again disputed (see Supit, Minahasa, 53). Supit emphasizes how the term pakasaan became prominent when the Dutch colonial government formalized the territorial boundaries among the groups in the 19th century; previously walak was the term widely used. He suggests that the term pakasaan originates from papakasaan, explained as the principle of “tanggungan bersama,” the collective responsibilities concerning the land belonging to the walak (Supit, Minahasa, 53). On the other hand, Taulu argues that pakasaan is a misnomer resulting from J. G. F. Riedel who, when writing the history of ancient Minahasa in 1870, replaced the glottal with the consonant [k]; hence the word pahasaan (or paasaan) “union” became pakasaan (Sebingkah Sedjarah Perang Minahasa Spanyol, 75-76). However, Taulu may have overlooked that in Tondano and Tontemboan the word pakasaan indeed exists. According to Watuseke, the term pakasaan is from the root esa “one,” meaning “to do something once,” “to cover the entirety at once,” which refers to the “traditional district,” that is the tribal territories, not the administrative district (Sejarah Minahasa, 46, 74). A pakasaan may consist of one walak (as in the case of Pasan, etc) or more (such as for Toudano/Toulour with three walaks: Tondano, Remboken, Kakas). While it may originally signify sub-ethnic territory, the use of the word pakasaan today is understood in the sense of both territory and sub-ethnic group. Minahasan communities originated as groups of kin, who further established (called tumani') new wanua; with more wanua became walak, and from different walaks became pakasaan/pahasaan.
16 The conflicts took place primarily because of territorial borders, hunting areas, etc. notwithstanding insignificant issues that were exaggerated, bringing great calamity (Langkah Sedjarah Malesung-Minahasa, djilid 1, 13); Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 30-32. See also Supit, Minahasa, 135-140 about walak conflicts provoked by the Dutch.
17 Supit, Minahasa, 141.
18 Supit, Minahasa, 111-115.
19 The four groups were Tombulu, Tondano, Tonsea, and Tontemboan. The Manado kingdom at this time was under Loloda Mokoagow, the king of Bolaang. When Manado was in power, the son of the king of Manado ruled over Bolaang. The table turned when Loloda Mokoagouw became king of Bolaang; he took over the kingdom of Manado, yet called himself king of Manado. The Bantik, Tonsawang, Pasan-Ratahan, and Ponosakan were his vassals (Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 23-24).
20 Taulu, quoting J. G. F. Riedel, points out that the meeting took place in the seventh century (Bunga Rampai, 6; see Appendix 3). Another date in the ballot was February 14, 1946, which signified a coup d' etat in North Sulawesi by a number of Minahasan KNIL (Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger or The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army) in support of the declaration of Indonesia's independence proclaimed in Java. In this colloquium, the appointed committee decided to celebrate January 10, 1679 as the date for Minahasa's anniversary. As a result, the majority of the participants walked out of the room. There was no agreement. The 27th Regent of Minahasa, A. L. Lelengboto, then appointed November 5, 1428 as the date and pioneered the celebration of the 555th Minahasa anniversary in November 5, 1982. The reasons behind this date was: November 5 is the birthday of the national hero Dr. Sam Ratulangi, and the year 1428 is uniquely taken from the dates of February 14, 1946 and October 28, 1928, this latter day commemorating the Oath of the Youth for one mother land, one nation, and one unified language of Indonesia. It has been a history of itself (ManadoGo.com, November 8, 2011).
21 Supit, Minahasa, 161; Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 34; Taulu, Bunga Rampai 18-19.
22 See R. E. H. Kotambunan, Minahasa 2 & 3: pemerintahan purba sampai kedatangan V. O. C. dan tiga perang Tondano (Manado: s.n., 1985), 47-55.
23 Wenas, Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Minahasa, 49.
24 Giroth Wuntu, Perang Tondano 1661-1809 (Yogyakarta: Galang Press, 2001), 190-191.
25 Wuntu, Perang Tondano 1661-1809, 192.
26 L. Mangindaan writes “kumur e Minahasa!” (“Oud Tondano,” in Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 20, Batavia, [1873]:368, available at http://books.google.fr/books?id=CghJAAAAMAAJ&pg [accessed April 16, 2012], while Taulu writes “Kumuru e Maasa” [Bunga Rampai, 19]).
27 Interview, 17 February 2013; Supit writes: “On one hand the fighters of Minawanua showed a fighting spirit that is hard to find, on the other the Dutch performed an atrocity. Children and elderly were slaughtered so that Minawanua was flooded with blood (Minahasa, 194 [translation mine]); Under the British, the surviving Tondano returned to a new settlement at the northern side of Lake Tondano, divided by the teberan (Tondano River).
28 Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 35.
29 This was the second time Britain took over Minahasa. Previously they took over Minahasa from 1801-1802, which was resolved in the same manner as the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 with the Treaty of Amiëns of 1802 (Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 33).
30 See Watuseke, Sejarah Minahasa, 36.
31 See Chapter Five.
32 “Identitas Minahasa: Sebuah Praktik Kuliner,” Antropologi Indonesia 74 (2004):62.
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