Language, Identity, and Marginality in Indonesia: The Changing Nature of Ritual Speech on the Island of Sumba

Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language

by Joel C. Kuipers

The rapid spread of Indonesian as the national language of Indonesia has diminished the significance of local languages. On the island of Sumba, this shift has displaced a once vibrant tradition of ritual poetic speech, but has also given rise to new and hybrid forms of poetic expression. This book analyzes language change in relation to political marginality, revealing that political coercion or cognitive process of "style reduction" may offer a partial explanation, but equally important is the role of linguistic ideologies.

Genres: Linguistics

204 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

Reviews

[Shaan Amin · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting look at the removal of specific Sumbanese vocal registers (particularly performative male anger), and how they've been changed by numerous forces, including but not limited to:

(1) transparent educational practices for simpler forms and absence of education for complex forms (previously, there were opaque educational practices for all);

(2) improvements in public order brought by Dutch control of Sumba leading to migration of Sumbanese population into more fertile lowlands ("rhizomes" where "garden talk" happens), and away from the more rugged+defensible highland (ancestral villages, which are the only appropriate place for certain types of ritual speech);

(3) inability to back up verbal violence with physical violence (monopolized violence) and removal of ritual language from matters of state cuts the rug out from under "angry men", who find themselves superseded by "cunning men";

(4) as ritual language fluency drops, people can produce less but can still *respond*... this renders the language, as a practiced medium of exchange, more and more responsive as fluency withers.

I would have loved a bit more on how the replacement of these norms isn't just a reflection of Dutch practice, but of Javanese disdain for kasar behavior, and how this is now central to Indonesian bureaucratic practice. This is mentioned, but I'd have liked more. The focus is overwhelmingly on the Dutch.

[Missy J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by the Eastern part of Indonesia, that is sparsely populated, climate-wise drier and little explored. So I grabbed this book from the library. "Language, Identity and Marginality in Indonesia: The Changing Nature of Ritual Speech on the Island of Sumba" looks closely at the Weyewa tribe on the western highlands of Sumba, who used to practice various ritual speeches in the past. However, a number of reasons, which Kuipers broadly terms as "language ideology," have seen a decrease in the people, who can actually do the speech and also limited the ritual speech to just "lamenting."

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Place, Identity, and the shifting forms of cultivated speech: a geography of marginality
Chapter 3: Towering in rage and cowering in fear: emotion, self and verbal expression in Sumba
Chapter 4: Changing forms of political expression: the role of Ideologies of audience completeness
Chapter 5: Ideologies of personal naming and language shift
Chapter 6: From miracles to classrooms: changing forms of erasure in the learning of ritual speech
Chapter 7: Conclusions

The book is only around 150 pages (excluding references) and includes some black-and-white photos taken by the author during his research in Sumba. Two big thumbs up for the Weyewa speeches that were translated into English. I'm grateful that they were included in the book. In my view they constituted the most interesting part of the book. Extremely beautiful poetry! It was fascinating to see how diverse the "ritual speech" could be, from lamenting about being an orphan to being the angry leader of a village and encouraging subordinates to work for you, because of the ancestral spirits. However, for a person without any "linguist" background (like me), it was difficult to follow what the author intended to say. The sub-headings to each chapter could have been displayed more clearly. Sometimes the writing was dry due to its academic nature. Other than that, some of the background information provided on Sumba was incredibly interesting. These included descriptions of how the Dutch governed the island, how the Japanese built an airstrip (with the goal of expanding into Australia during WWII) using forced labor, the recent conversions to Christianity in order to obtain an education and be a more proper "Indonesian" citizen, the given name conversions, how a person was seen in the past vs. now (how a deceased person was identified together with his belongings reminded me of Egyptian mummies) and what Weyewa people view as a "complete audience."

[mahatmanto · Rating 3 out of 5]

ini juga dibeli ketika hendak ke sumba.
buku mengenai bahasa, khususnya dialek sumba barat dan tengah. sayang sekali, informan saya kebanyakan justru dari sumba timur. namun demikian lumayanlah, para informan ini tahu juga dialek barat, berhubung asal-usul mereka juga dari barat.
mengenal bahasa setempat itu penting bagi saya yang waktu itu meminati studi tektonika, untuk mencari analoginya dengan tindakan merangkai dalam tekstil dan arsitektur.
text, textile dan architecture dalam studi tektonika itu bisa dibicarakan bersama.