Igor Sitnikov: The Sulu and Celebes Seas Region: the Present in the Past

Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Sulu and Celebes Seas Region: the Present in the Past

Abstract

Key words: Asia-Pacific; maritime cross-cultural exchange; barter; piracy; sea nomads.

This paper is devoted to the problem of change and stability in cross-cultural exchange patterns in the region of the Sulu and Celebes Seas. The main interest to the region is connected with the more wide study of Austronesian speakers’ common cultural patterns. The specific forms of cross-cultural exchange are among them. Discussing exchange activity in the Sulu and Celebes Seas region the current interdisciplinary study focuses on such its pristine forms as barter, and piracy. The purpose of the paper is to give a hypothetical answer on the question why in present reality the region is characterized by stability of such pristine way of cross-cultural exchange. Literature which was used for the study includes world and local news; academic and popular articles; area studies monographs, researches in international politics and cultural anthropology.

It is supposed that the main reason for those pristine forms of cross-cultural exchange stability in the Sulu and Celebes Seas region is a long term absence of any strong political power there. From the period of the first sea nomads’ migration, probably around 10,000 years ago, and until now the Sulu and Celebes Seas region remains a grey area, occupied by small competing groups of inhabitants. One type of those groups very likely is represented by the descendants of those sea nomads, who in the period of their migration in the region were in the Mesolithic stage of development. Till now several ethnic groups live there in nomadic and semi-nomadic way. At the same time from the prehistoric times those nomadic and semi-nomadic ethnic groups were involved in barter form of cross-cultural exchange with the ethnic groups of another type. That second type of ethnic groups, which engaged the dominant position with reference to the sea nomads, combines mainly agricultural way of life with sporadic seafaring expeditions, which resulted in development of such forms of cross-cultural exchange as barter, raids and piracy. Historically the targets of their raids varied from the nomadic groups to the agriculture-seafaring groups of the same type and to the subjects of colonial powers in colonial period. Very likely, that type of ethnic groups preserves the early Melanesians’ Neolithic- and Malays’ Bronze-level cultural patterns. It is supposed, that the early Melanesians and Malays brought into Malay Archipelago such cultural patterns as the domestic pig, agricultural techniques, betel-chewing, sea-going outrigger and composite canoes, ceremonial cannibalism and headhunting, human sacrifice, highly ritualized warfare, secret societies with graded membership, men’s club-houses, and more complex social organization. Later Islamization of those two types of ethnic groups didn’t bring much change in their everyday life. Muslim tiny Sultanates, which started to appear in the Sulu and Celebes Seas region from 14th century were not powerful enough to control intergroup relationships and their cross-cultural exchange traditions. European colonial powers of Spanish, Dutch and British also were not successful to change that behavior. New formed nation-states of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei also didn’t do much: in nowadays environment, the aggressive behavior of the agriculture-seafaring groups transformed into political inter-clan feuds, religious extremism, kidnapping for ransom with continuing piracy.

Igor Sitnikov

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Igor Sitnikov and Miklukho-Maklai

I was born in Ryazan city (Russia, 3 hours from Moscow) in 1961. 30 years I lived in the Soviet Union on the bank of Oka-river, which is a border between a huge forest and a wide steppe. Then 12 years I spend in the Russia on the same bank, under the same sky. I like Oka, and the steppe with multitude of small slow rivers, and the forest, that carries the name of vanished people “Meshchera”. When I was a schoolboy I had read a book about the famous Russian anthropologist Miklukho-Maklai, who studied peoples of Papua New Guinea. His life was amazing for my childish imagination. I dreamed about long voyages in vast waters of the Pacific Ocean. I was envious of Tur Heyerdal, who could travel along the Pacific islands and to Charles Gogin, who could draw beautiful Tahiti women.If I could imagine that I will become an artist and will live in Pacific?

Saisiyat (賽夏)

The Saisiyat believe that a long time ago, a tribe of three-foot tall, dark-skinned dwarfs once taught them to farm, sing, and dance, but also harassed and threatened the women.
Long ago, a tribe of dark-skinned pygmies arrived in the area inhabited by the Saisiyat. They were skilled in the arts of magic. The Taai (known as the Short People) gave the Saisiyat seeds and taught them the knowledge of agriculture, how to hold ceremonies and offer sacrifices to gods or ancestors.
Therefore the Saisiyat regarded the Taai as their benefactors. Whenever rituals and ceremonies were held, the Saisiyat always invited the Taai to be their guests, and they enjoyed drinking and having fun together.
The Taai, however, gradually began to encroach upon the Saisiyat women. To avoid disrupting harmonious relations between the tribes, those women who were violated remained silent. The Saisiyat tribal elders urged patience for the good of the whole tribe. The Taai, however, stepped up their encroachments on the Saisiyat. When the Saisiyat had had enough, they swore to avenge the insult on the Taai.
The Saisiyat knew that the Taai were particularly fond of climbing on a loquat tree that overhung a precipice. Two Saisiyat youths thereupon took it upon themselves to saw the tree halfway through. That evening, the Taai, not suspecting a thing, climbed one-by-one up into the tree. As more and more Taai scaled the tree, it could no longer take the weight and the trunk snapped. All of the Taai who had been sitting in the tree went over the edge. Those that weren't killed in the initial fall were drowned.
However two Taais, who had escaped the ambush, placed a curse on the Saisiyat tribe, leading to a succession of disasters and poor harvests. In an effort to lift the curse, the Saisiyat sang Taai songs and performed Taai dances to plead for forgiveness while also appealing for fair weather and a bountiful harvest. That is the origin of the Saisiyat tribe's pygmy spirit ritual.

The pygmy spirit ritual gives raise a hypothesis by a Japanese archeologist, Kano Tadao, that the prehistoric peoples living in Taiwan included Negritoes.