SOCIAL STRUCTUR
By: Herman Joseph Seran
1. The Social Structure
Social structure is the organization of a group or a community from the point of view of positions and roles: it is a formal abstraction of social relationships functioning in a community (Kessing, Roger M., 1992: 113). It is, “a network of social positions that are assigned relatively fixed tasks, responsibilities and avenues of communication” (Lundberg, George A., CS., 1963: 141)
The traditional social structure of the Ema Tetun in the kabupaten (administrative distrct) of Belu in general and among the Ema Tetun in the Fehalaran realm in particular basically consists of fukuns, or uma-manaran and uma hun (literally, clan, village clan house with a name and core house). The uma manaran, uma hun, or uma fukun (shortened, uma) in philosophical terms is the center of life of a lineage group formed on the basis of ancestral ties brought about through a patrilineal marriage system based on a bride wealth or dowry pattern called faen kotu. By the faen kotu the dowry or bride wealth given is sufficient to cut the bride off from rights in her own uma or clan and gives her full member status in her husband’s clan. In that manner are first formed the social groups called uma, each one having potential to be the umamane (the wife-giving clan), and the fetosawa (the wife-taking clan). In ages past, marriages in Fehalaran were contracted exclusively by this dyadic social exchange pattern. This system is known by the term inuk tuan - dalan tuan (literally, old track-old path). Any deviation from the system has to be with the consent of the umamane. The term umamane actually means “the man’s home clan”, but it designates the one and only uma where the man gets his wife or life partner. Marriage outside this channel may be countenanced on the basis of consent by the uma involved in regard to another uma, one which is directly included within the same blood lines of ancestry. Thus there sometimes occurs a kind of intermarriage called isin babilak-diin babilak (literally, turning over the body and turning over the ribs) in which a male member of an umamane gets married to a woman from the fetosawa, although such a marriage is rare. So, the main feature of kinship or descent groups between the Ema Tetun of Fehalaran is the fact that they are agnastic descent groups called fetosawa whereas the female-line descent groups are called umamane. But among Ema Tetun in Kabupaten Belu in general, there is a somewhat unusual feature like Lio kinship, as also observed by Howell, and this is the existence of descent groups in both the father’s and mother’s lines (Howell, Signe, 1996: 257). In Ema Tetun-Fehalaran practice, kinship or descent groups are reckoned along male lines, while among the Ema Tetun Fehan in the Wesei-Wehali realm of Southern Belu, the practice is that of reckoning kinship along female lines.
Furthermore uma members are divided and classified into social levels or classes. Such hierarchical social classification with respect to position and roles is known in sociology as social stratification thus resulting in social classes.
In general, placing people in hierarchic and complementary levels on the basis of descent groups is a characteristic of traditional society. H. J. Grijzen, a Dutch controleur or administrative district head of the onderafdeeling (Dutch administrative district) of Beloe in the year1904, conjectured that in former days when feudalistic political rule was still dominant, the people of Timor in general and the Ema Tetun in particular were stratified into three social classes, namely, the Dasi or nobility who held the most essential and internal social position, the Renu or free common people who came on the circle next to the Dasi, and the Klosan or Ata, servants who were not free and who occupied the outermost social ring.
For convenience in the analysis, these social classess will be treated in this order: 1) Klosan or Ata, the slaves; 2), Renu, freemen or common men; and 3), Dasi or the nobility. To get a clearer picture of the social hierarchy of Timor in general and of the Ema Tetun inhabiting Belu district in particular, we must go back to the origin of the social classes in the community formation age through outside influences until the time when H.J.Grijzen wrote his book in the year 1904, that is, after the Dutch had colonized Belu for more than forty years (Parera, A D. M., 1994).
When the people of Timor began to organize themselves during the period of closed societies, the natural law of "survival of the fittest and elimination of the unfit" must have been in effect. Their associations then knew only two forms: first, being friends with a life lived together in close union, with mutual protection and mutual help; and, the second form, being enemies with mutual killing. Any personal relationship outside the closed society unit meant an inimical one and death.
Thus the basic social unit was the clan, which in Belu, particularly among the Ema Tetun was -- and is still called -- a fukun or uma. A fukun is a genealogical unit that meets all the needs, spiritual or worldly, of its members through shared responsibility and shared rights and duties under the leadership of a clan chief whose title is dato (originally datuk in Indonesian language). The dato's position used to be only as the principal man among equals, a primus inter pares. Very often he was also called the dato fukun, head of the clan. The datos did not make up a separate social class above the renu or common people because in a dato's everyday life, he was closely connected with his fellow uma members.
It was possible for a union of several fukuns to get a dato for its head. The members of a fukun used to be divided into two classes, the renu or the common people who were free, and the klosan or ata, domestic servants who were not free.
1.1. The Klosan or Ata
The klosan or ata made up a class of domestic slaves. These were the captives acquired by winning in wars, those sentenced to death but ransomed by somebody else, and those sold away by their own clans for non-fulfillment of a task allotted by adat or tradition.
Slaves who had just been newly won in war often got considerably rough treatment. They could be physically punished or killed. But if they behaved well, they usually got decent care, trust and favorable treatment from their owners. Domestic slaves were private, not clan, property. Usually good and faithful ones, especially the children of slaves, those born within the clan, got equal treatment, or sometimes even better than that given to the children of members of the clan. Sexual congress of domestic slaves with their master happened often, and children of such unions generally got good treatment, even eventually the same rights and tasks as other members of the clan. Virtually all slaves were originally political captives or prisoners of war, now being prepared to get the status of members of the clan, their new home, in order to strengthen the home front, the clan of their masters.
But when eventually the society, which had hitherto been a closed one, began to recognize the economic and social aspects of relationships in a larger society, then the practice of slavery was steered in that direction. Slave trade in Timor livened up with the arrival of people from the West. Tribal warfare got a new incentive for the kidnapping of people from other clans and selling them. Even fukun members became much too ready to take action on fellow clan members who had not yet fully paid debts owed according to adat or customary law. By this means, many offspring of sisters to clansmen were sold. Ordinarily, on account of the adoption system or kaba in the fetosawa-umamane alliance by inter-clan marriage, such a situation must have given rise to anger and revenge from other related fukuns.
In H. J. Grijzen’s notes (in Mededeelingen Omtrent Beloe in Hidden Timor,1904: Ch. IV), it is said that the Resident Minister Ter Herbruggen (+1761) hunted and captured the Timorese for slaves with the use of hunting dogs (in a manner comparable to the former practice of catching Negro slaves). The Resident Minister van Aste (1784-1789) acquired 1000 slaves for the market. But in the Resident Ministers' political game of playing off the native tribes against each other, the most successful one was Resident Hazaert (1808-1833) who gave added incentive for war and rebellion among the rajas (local princes) of Timor, which meant an increase in the Timor slave trade.
These are the facts of what has been cynically interpreted by some Western writers as that the inhabitants of Timor were wild, uncivilized and cannibalistic. "...anurackgenogen in die Bohlern der Felsen...immer in Waffen, immer in Kriege...Menschenfrasser..."(in Algenemen archiv fur Ethnogrephie und Linguistik, 1806, as quoted from the travel reports of Peron and Freycinet).
After the Dutch had supported and increased the slave trade in Timor for centuries, then, through the Pax Neerlandica or Pax Netherlandica (peace under the Netherlands), Holland herself stopped the sale of slaves in the beginning of the 20th century (Widyosiswoyo, Supartono, 1992).
1.2 The Renu
Renu simply means people, citizens; essentially, it means free clan members. Members of the clan are those born in the fukun or uma of parents who are clan members, or those adopted from other fukuns connected with it by a fetosawa- umamane alliance by marriage, or through the traditional adoption ceremony called the kaba. The kaba rite consists of an anointing with betel-areca nut spittle performed by the respective heads of clans related as fetosawa-umamane. A fukun member, after a ceremony of invocation to the souls of the ancestors, is placed on the knee of the chief of the uma manaran which is to receive him; he is anointed with betel-areca nut spittle on his forehead and on his navel to signify that from that moment he is to leave his old village and go to live in his new adopted village.
This ceremony was relevant during those times when each clan owned territory that had strict boundaries. In the present time when most territorial limits are practically in disuse, and in a few places where such boundaries are completely obsolete, such a ceremony would only be an empty one.
Even a stranger who has no claim to any fetosawa-umamane relationship may receive asylum in a clan as a helin an or refugee; he may also be subsequently received as a full clan member through the simple ceremony of invoking the souls of the ancestors together with a kukun etun or ancestral feast.
All those with the status of clan members have equal rights and duties and are protected and treated with the same justice. All needs, spiritual and corporeal, in all matters whether political, economic, social or cultural, are collectively taken care of under the leadership of the head of the clan. Those who have undergone the kaba or adoption into the fukun, as well as those that have taken asylum in that clan, have rights and duties of the same weight as those of their fellow clan members who may have been such from birth according to parental status.
Suppose for example that in clan X there are three siblings, A, B, and C, and in clan Y there is also another set of three siblings, D, E, and F, as well as another member received in asylum, a helin-an called G. Now, D, E, and F of the second clan have no blood relationship with A, B and C because their parents have been adopted from fukun Z. Subsequently A from clan X is adopted into clan Y to become a fellow clan member of D, E, F, and G. Suppose B in clan X gets into such a difficulty as a lawsuit involving a fine; then his sibling A, now in clan Y, would not owe him any assistance or have the duty to help him. A may feel husar moras (literally, "a painful navel"), that is, fraternal pity at seeing his brother in that difficulty, and privately, he may give voluntary help of harik kotuk sorin (literally, "standing behind and nearby"). Perhaps, he may ask help from his alin maun group (literally, "brothers"). On the other hand, whenever A's fellow clan members D, E, F and G get involved in litigation, A has a positive duty to help them.
The uma or fukun head takes under his leadership all uma members irrespective of their origin. Tasks are apportioned fairly to all fukun members by the simple ceremony of giving to each one a number of corn grains or some fragments of palm midribs, each representing a task. Absent members have their portions sent to them. A member who is unable to fulfill his assigned task is given a traditional punishment such as, for example, banishment from the clan. On such occasions, the clan member who cannot obtain by force the help or contribution of a sister or a female cousin, or is afraid that this kinswoman may be unable to help him, may sell one of her children into slavery as mentioned above.
Grijzen on Belu and Steinmets on North Central Timor (TTU: Timor Tengah Utara) in 1918 have written that Timor villages were generally found on the tops of hills and mountains, abounding with sharp rocks and stones and difficult to attain by traveling on foot. These villages were further enclosed in stone fences or thorny bamboo groves or cactus hedges. The reason for this was the constant warfare between villages. The village, called leo or kanua (read k'nua) in Belu, constituted the center of clan territory.
If the security situation allowed it, a clan member could move into a village to plant a field nearby. The area in which the field was located was called a lo'o. The territory around the Kanua (k'nua) and the lo'o belonged to the fukun concerned. Land cultivated by any clan member became clan property by right of occupancy. But in the meantime, relationships of fetosawa-umamane would go on between umas, and thus, the roofbouw or cultivated land would often have to be deserted after a few years to be overrun by forests again. When the former field is turned back into forest, right of occupancy shifts back to equality for all members both by the fetosawa or wife takers and the umamane, the wife-givers or the wife’s clan, and eventually boundaries get vague in everybody's memory until they are completely forgotten or lost. On that account, Grijzen said that in making a field, anyone would be free to work on a piece of land without the necessity of asking permission from anybody. The intention or desire to plant a field on free land was indicated by hanging leaves around the area or placing some trees there known as tara horak (which literally means to give a prohibition sign). If somebody else should wish to work on the same piece of land, a discussion would be held on the common problem, after which, if no solution is arrived at, the head of the fukun would be consulted. In Belu there are almost no quarrels heard of regarding land boundaries, especially at that time.
There is a special term for land ownership, that is rai nain, which literally means landowner. Landowner or rai nain in this sense refers to the fukun or clan that has worked on that piece of land as its owner from generation to generation.
The term rai nain (rai = land, and nain = master or lord) may also refer to the dryads or spirits in the trees or huge rocks in animistic belief.
Rai oan (oan = child, and rai = land) means the aborigines or indigenous dwellers. Grijzen says that if a Tetunese is asked whose property that vast untilled land is, he would reply ambiguously, "It is the property of the king or the nai and of the dato,” for these have full autonomous jurisdiction on all affairs of the people including their right to work on the land. However, in Belu, there are stories indicating land ownership, as there are also people who call themselves landlords or landowners because their ancestors are of that land: Moris lake rai, tubu lake rai means "we have lived and grown up cultivating this land," and there are those whose ancestors, as they claim, were dropped straight from the sky on those hilltops or any other stated place. Such ownership, however, does not have the force of agrarian law.
At present with the increase in number of uma members and the arrival of newcomers from outside Belu district, the problem of owning land has become increasingly complex. Grabbing of uma-owned lands by non-uma members often occurs. They often sell the land they have grabbed to a third party. Some uma members sell land owned by their uma without the knowledge and agreement of other members. The situation gets more complex because sometimes the local government ignores rights to uma land according to applicable customary law and takes over land specifically owned by certain umas, giving as reason their intention to construct infrastructure such as roads or other public facilities in the public interest. To prevent conflict between rightful owners of land and those not rightfully owning it or between land owners and the government, agrarian laws have been established, these having the function of affirming rights of possession of clan lands, or of those individually owned, by issuing certificates of land ownership.
1.2.1 Development of the Fukun
A fukun (literally, a bamboo internode) denotes the symbolic meaning of uma manaran (literally, house with a name, shortened uma) as a kinship lineage for an exogamous and unilateral kin group. Every fukun or uma, as well as cluster of umas related by fetosawa-umamane associations, usually occupies a village site called a k'nua or leo. The village is usually circular in arrangement, is located on a hill or any high place, and is surrounded by a fence of piled-up stones, on top of which are planted thorny plants such as cactus. This is to make the place safe from enemy attacks, considering that in past ages wars used to be waged between clans for power and mastery over the land (Grijzen, Mededeelingen Omtrent Beloe in Hidden Timor, 1904). H.J. Grijzen, who was a Dutch controleur (administrative head) of the onderafdeeling (Dutch administrative district) of Beloe in the early part of the 20th-century, has disclosed that those defeated in such wars used to be held captive and worked as slaves (klosan or ata) or traded away.
In Ema Tetun traditions, the descent group called the uma kain or the household, is a unit inseparable from the descent group known as the fukun or popularly known as uma fukun, uma hun or uma manaran (meaning, village clan house, core house, village clan house with a name). Fukun corresponds in meaning with the term deu in Bunaq language, hu'un in Kemak language, kanaf in Atoni or uab Meto (Meto language), and klen or suku rumah (house clan) in Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language.) The uma manaran, which refers to the clan house, is the symbol of a living alliance, the center of community life embracing all aspects of human needs, such as, economic and social life, the basis for fostering customs and traditions, the basis for moral character and spiritual formation to strengthen the uma members’ personalities.
As center of education and character formation, the uma functions as a basic institution in which, from childhood, the members learn courtesy, practices in friendly association, and the whole system of adat or traditional rules. Learning is done through a lifelong process of socialization and enculturation consisting of full participation in daily activities and important events of uma life. Thus the uma manaran and uma kain carries on their main functions as basic institutions for guaranteeing the well-being of children and the formation of their character, for handing down ethical principles, working skills and other worthy values, and for giving firm support of genuine kinship affinities.
As mentioned above, the uma manaran also functions as a center of moral and spiritual activities, for in the uma are held ceremonies of worship and traditional rites directed to the ancestors. The latter are those already at rest in the sacred world of eternity, a holy world of quietness and peace (Iha kukun ba, iha roman ba, iha metin ba). Worship of the ancestors is usually done under the main house post, the kakuluk manaran, because it is here that all ancestral possessions are kept as well as those of other relatives who have passed away, particularly betel-and-areca boxes and other personal items considered sacred or possessing magic power. The main house post itself symbolizes a stairway and medium of communication of the clan head through the ancestors with the Highest Being, the Creator and Protector of everything in existence. Communication is carried out through the mediating services of the ancestors, and it is done for the purpose of presenting petitions for safety and protection for clan members so that they may be kept away from illness, disasters and other calamities.
Other ceremonies held under the main house post are traditional weddings called hakur fahi ran, meaning “stepping over pig's blood”. The action symbolizes a vow of lifelong fidelity between a man and a woman, with their ancestors in the world beyond witnessing it, as well as the umamane and fetosawa elders and the parents of both parties.
It may therefore be understood that the uma manaran or clan village house functions not only as a building but also as a center of interrelations between structures, people, and ideas or points of view (Carstan, Janet, et al., 1995: 5). Levi Strauss called the uma manaran or village clan house as la maison societe or house societies (Carsten, Janet, et al, 1995: 1). Thus the uma manaran may be described as the center of life of a genealogical association, for it is based on blood ties, descent, and kinship relationships. In the uma manaran every member gets a feeling of security for it is here that his needs -- physiological, material, social and psychological -- are met. His moral bond with his uma is one of pure kinship affinity. Periodic visits to the uma manaran and uma lulik or uma kukun (sacred cult house or dark house) are of great significance for two reasons, first, it is on such occasions that the Ema Tetun feel able to obtain matak no malirin (literally, greenness and coolness) by means of various ceremonies such as tau manas or kaba (literally, to give warmth or anointment). At a philosophical level, matak no malirin symbolizes health in its widest sense. In anthropology, matak no malirin is rendered into translations of varying meaning such as “energy for living”, “the spirit of life”, “the source of life”, “the energy of the cosmos” and “motivation”. Therefore the Ema Tetun’s expression of ba uma (going home for a visit) philosophically means going back to one’s place of origin, going back to the source of life, returning to one’s identity in community living. The second reason is that periodic visits to the Uma (Uma Manaran, Uma Hun, Uma Lulik, or uma kukun) constitute special opportunities for all uma members to renew and reinforce their kinship ties since they come from the same origin. In Lia Tetun (Tetun language) such visits are characterized as kalibur uma hun ida (literally, reunion of those from the same source), recounting their origins or hodi tatoli malu, hodi hatutan husar binan ba malu (meaning, to bind each other by retying their fraternal bonds since they all come from “the same umbilical cord”).
All uma members belong to a clan consisting of those believed to have descended from a common founding ancestor. Several ways by which one may be considered as an uma member, are most fundamental. The first one is birth within a traditional patrilineal marriage by which the child becomes a member of his father's clan after all dowry or bride wealth requirements by customary law have been met. If none of these obligations have been fulfilled yet, the wife and her children continue to be members of the maternal clan and the husband has to live within his wife's clan in an uxorilocal living arrangement. The second way of becoming a clan member is by an inaugural adoption ceremony called a kaba, which means an anointment.
The Ema Tetun Fehan branch occupying the lowlands of Malaka or the southern part of Belu district practices a matrilineal descent system. For them, the marriage pattern is one that is uxorilocal or matrilocal, and the husband becomes a member of his wife's clan. The children born of the marriage get to be under the authority of the wife's brother, whereas her husband lives with her in her clan, taking responsibility for her welfare, that of his children and even that of all his in-laws. For the latter reason, no dowry is demanded. One of the children born of the union comes to be called a mata musan (literally, apple of the eye) and is sent over to his / her father's clan to take his place. A girl is often preferred for this purpose.
To ease tension between umas and maintain lasting peace, the strategic policy that used to be resorted to was to forge traditional marriage alliances between umas through inter-clan marriage ties of fetosawa-umamane. Of the two clans concerned, the fetosawa was the wife-taker whereas the umamane was the wife-giver.
In a wider relationship network, such as between ethnic groups, the policy resorted to was that of forming a traditional fraternal social alliance effected through a blood compact by adat, a pledge known as hemu moruk metan (literally, to take a sacred oath-taking drink) signifying a mutual pledge of loyalty such as that in the relationship of an older brother with his younger brother, alin-maun, a fraternal relationship. The blood compact was performed by the two parties’ drinking from the same cup a strong liquor known as tua ulun, mixed with blood droplets, the latter having been drawn from the fingers of both. Through the drink, which was considered sacral, they pledged fraternal loyalty. Whoever broke the pledge by fighting, quarrelling or engaging in mutual imprecation and execration would be bringing down a curse on them, a misfortune such as sudden death or other calamity. Whoever betrayed the oath would be consumed by it for they would have gone into it voluntarily. Today an alin-maun pledge still adhered to down to the present is that between the three ethnic groups of Belu, Sabu, and Rote Tii. The pledge is known through the often-repeated saying of Belu Mau, Sabu Mau, and Tii Mau, which means "Brother from Belu, brother from Sabu, and brother from Rote Tii."
A fukun eventually develops into great size and power. On account of population density or crowding or any other reason, some of its members may transfer to vacant territory somewhere nearby to make fields. In this new place, still within the lo'o but rather far from the kanua, they may form a branch fukun by themselves. Since, in the traditional ceremonies, they would have to talk to the souls of their ancestors, and as their new place would be rather far from the core house (uma hun) in the kanua or village, they might have to build a provisional clan house, or, as is more usual, the place of worship would be temporarily housed in the home of the chief of the lo'o. The fukun branch thus formed would be called uma or uma manaran (literally, "house with a name," the name of the clan). For example, Uma Leowes, Uma Astalin, Uma Leoklaran, Uma Mane Sanulu, etc. In deciding important problems involving tradition or adat, they must join themselves with the mother or core house of the clan (uma hun). A similar progressive development may occur in the separation of a “twig” from the branch, in which case, the twig is called ri manaran (literally, a post with a name). Each uma manaran and ri manaran may develop further and eventually separate itself absolutely from the mother or the core clan house, and, on the other hand, there are fukuns, uma manarans and ri manarans that have shrunk away or have been wiped out.
Several fukuns have a sacred cult house called uma kukun or uma lulik or uma kakaluk, a place where ancestral tokens, such as betel containers that used to belong to the departed ancestors, are kept. Betel containers for women are called ko'e matebian and those for men kakaluk marebian. All ancestral tokens in the form of betel containers or other heirlooms are kept in the cult house, as also the wealth of the fukun, either those inherited from ancestors or those obtained as war spoils or in other ways. These equipments and ornaments are kept in the house and are under the responsibility of the head of the clan.
1.2.2 Organization of the Clan House and its Symbolic Meaning
In previous discussions it has been said that the life of the Ema Tetun is closely connected with or centered on the uma. This is a characteristic view of the life between the clan and the uma. In connection with this view, a brief description will be given here regarding the organization, the symbolic meaning and the kinds of traditional houses of the Ema Tetun. In lia Tetun, the Tetun language, the general term for a house is uma. It refers to the physical form of the construction that is for people to live in so that they may be protected from discomfort caused by heat and cold and from dangers owing to nature and other human beings. The term uma insofar as it means a residential place usually refers to the uma tur fatin, a place to live in usually occupied by a family. The latter is called uma kain.
An uma may also be a building that functions as the clan house. This is ususally made of logs, large betun bamboo, and long hae manlain or tall grass (Imperata cylindrica Beauv L.) for the roof. The main house post is called the kakuluk manaran (main house post with a name) and it has to be made from a specially chosen tree in an adat forest and should be about 10 meters in height. As the main post has a symbolic meaning for the life of the clan, the felling of the tree concerned has to be done by all members of the uma or clan together. The activity has to be preceded by a ceremony of offering as well as of asking permission from the jinn or spirits as custodians of the forest concerned so that the endeavor may get their blessing. The two poles that have been cut down are decorated and carried away by the sons of the clan, including the sons-in-law. The two main posts derived are intended, one for the grandfather and the other for the grandmother of the clan.
When, soon afterwards, the activity of constructing the clan house or uma manaran is to be started, it should be preceded by a ceremony of determining the house “navel”, that is, the center of the house. This is done with the services of a makdok. At the spot pointed out by the makdok, a hole is dug to put in the head of a karau or water buffalo, the latter being the victim offered up in the ceremony. The karau head symbolizes strength and is intended to make the clan house stand firm. The construction of the house or of any house is done by means of a hakawak, which means a traditional working together or cooperation of all clan members. When all the work of construction is completed, a ceremony of "cooling down" the house (a house warming) is held, one called, ha uma wen (literally, to eat the results of the work done on the uma manaran). At present, all dwellers of the village and the area around who can still claim a fetosawa-umamane relationship with the uma concerned are invited. During such important occasions in uma life, many animals like buffalos and pigs have to be slaughtered because the ceremony bears the meaning of worship to the ancestors to beg for protection and safety for the kin group. It is also meant to be an opportunity to wrap up all forms of conflict and feuding between descent group members and reunify the whole kin group or clan in ties of affinity.
In general, a clan house in Fehalaran, which is in the present Tasifeto (Northern Belu) area, is egg-shaped or like an upside-down canoe, is perched on stilts like a platform house, and is roofed with hae-manlain, a kind of long grass extending down to the ground. Its arrangement is as follows. It has two doors, one called oda matan lor (literally, "the door where the sun rises") intended for visitors and for men, and the other called oda matan rae (literally, "the door where the sun sets") intended for household members and for women. The oda matan lor should face the east or the rising sun which is considered to be a position bringing luck, material wealth, life, goodness and a bright prospect in life like the sun starting to shine on the earth to brighten and warm it. The oda matan rae usually faces the west or the direction of the setting sun as the door symbolizes twilight time in the life of this world. It is the time when people are faced with many difficulties, sufferings, loneliness and finally death.
The house has two main posts known as kakuluk manaran (main house post with a name), one symbolizing male ancestors and called the ri bei mane, and the other female ancestors and called, ri bei feto. On the male ancestor post, property left by deceased ancestors like betel and areca nut containers, and other mementos considered sacred, are hung up. The same great post also symbolizes a medium of communication with the ancestors through the sending up of prayers petitioning for the well being of all uma members and other intentions. It is also on this post that offerings of betel and areca nuts are placed for those who have died.
Other important parts of the house are:
a. salak or wide bench placed at the rising-sun door, the oda matan lor. The salak is intended for guests and as a place for holding meetings, doubling as a bed for unmarried men to sleep on at night.
b. uma laran or inner part of the house containing a very wide couch usually intended as a bed for unmarried women and children. This inner part is also used as a place for ceremonies of worship to the ancestors, traditional weddings, and child adoption.
c. kahak or the attic above the salak which is intended as a storeroom for foodstuffs like corn and legumes and as a place for keeping heirlooms.
d. sete, a high shelf placed between the women's bed and the fireplace just beyond the bed. The shelf is used as an altar for offering oblations to ancestors or to clan members who have died.
e. hai matan or fireplace at the back just across the women's bed. This is used as a cooking place or kitchen. As the roof reaches down to the ground and there is no other ventilation than that provided by the two doors, the house is basically dark and smoke cannot easily get out of the house. The smoke, however, has the function of smoking the corn kept in the attic so that this foodstuff may not get attacked by insects or get spoiled.
f. uma ain (literally, "the foot of the house") which refers to a bed at the hindmost part of the house which is already separated by bamboo walling or a board from the inner part of the house. The head of the clan usually occupies the room. When the clan head does not use it, a young woman who has lost her virginity uses the room so that at nighttime, she can have meetings with her paramour (See the description of adat marriage among the Ema Tetun having a patrilineal social structure). If the room changes function and becomes a nocturnal trysting place, it is called a loka (a small room). A visual depiction of the house plan may be seen at the end of this chapter.
The uma manaran as the center of clan life has a symbolic meaning showing interrelations between buildings and people and their ideas or outlook on life. The uma manaran or “village clan house comes to stand for social groups and represent the world around them" (Carsten, Janet (ed.) et al., 1995: 1) Therefore, in symbolic meaning, the uma manaran serves as a symbol of unity in kinship affinity, as the center of clan life in the field of culture, of social education, of home economics, and of moral and religious life. The uma manaran is genealogical in nature because its members have a common founding ancestor. An uma manaran (literally, "house with a name") or uma hun (clan core house) like uma Leowes, uma Dato-Alin, uma Astalin, uma Beitula, uma Mane-Sanulu, uma Leoklaran, etc, is a symbol and center of clan life in various fields.
The different names of uma can be given in detail as follows:
a. uma tur fatin or the home of the family unit, the uma kain.
b. uma manaran or uma hun meaning the village clan house or core house that belongs to the kin group or clan called the fukun whose members have a common basic ancestry.
c. uma lulik, uma kukun or uma kakaluk (literally, sacred cult house or dark house) which is the consecrated place where ancestral mementos are kept such as betel-areca nut boxes, jewelry such as morten beads, gold disks, head ornaments, and other devices like spears and machetes that had been used in war. All these heirlooms are considered sacred and as possessing magic powers. The sacred house is occupied only by the clan head or a family unit given the task of taking care of it. Important ceremonies of the clan members are usually performed in this sacred or dark house.
c. uma hun ( literally, “core house”) or the original clan house.
d. uma metan (literally, "black house") or the king's palace. Black symbolizes sacredness or the nobility who are in power.
e. uma lo'o, which is a temporary dwelling for a clan member to live in while he is working on a garden that is far from the k'nua or clan village.
f. uma toos, which is a hut or shelter in a garden used in watching over the crops in the field so that the produce might not be stolen by thieves or raided by animals.
1.3 The Dasi
After tracing the development of the fukun classified above and the inter-clan relationship arising from the ties of fetosawa-umamane as well as alin-maun (see below), the need for a coordinator can be felt. This is realized in the Nai or local prince who must have dasi or royal blood. Nai is just a term of address, an honorific, whereas dasi is the name for the blue-blooded class.
An authority on Indonesian customary law, B. Ter Haar, advanced the opinion that the person of the prince himself, together with his official equipments and ceremonial ornaments as sources of magical power, constitutes an absolute requisite of his leadership (B.Ter Haar, Adat Law in Indonesia, Bharatara, 1990).
But in Belu and in most places in Timor, the problem of a leader's personality falls in second place. If within a fukun there is a head or principal man among equals, similarly in inter-clan relationships there is a fukun determined as the primus inter pares, the leading one called the fukun dasi which constitutes the nobility, the class of nobles, whose head is the one acknowledged as Dasi or Nai.
In deciding on the ruling fukun, the requisites taken account of are not only the equipments and ornaments possessed; more important is the fukun's authority and standing and its relationships with other clans. This is generally determined by its position as umamane or bride-giving clan. The greater the number of fetosawas (wife-taking clans) coordinated by it, the safer is its own position. To strengthen the above-mentioned requisites, myths are woven to lend grandeur to the fukun dasi's leadership such as that the head is descended from heaven, etc. This leading or noble clan's position is accepted as hereditary until for some reason it declines and falls.
When the above-mentioned requisites of clan nobility have been fulfilled, only then will the qualifications for becoming Loro or Dasi be investigated, among which the principal one is that the candidate must have dasi blood unalloyed by any mean hereditary elements. With that, the requisites may be considered complete. The fact that ability as a requirement is relegated to the last place is owing to the consideration that a Loro or Nai is a coordinator who does not have plenty of active responsibility because everything is taken care of by his staff.
When eventually, a noble clan can no longer present a candidate acceptable to the people and capable of office, it is then said that the royal line is at an end. Therefore, the people hold a consultation to consider candidates from other noble clans. When the institutionalized consultation meeting, called a mon metan (literally, "consultation and deliberation") has attained its end, the noble clan concerned has been informed of the matter, and everything else has gone smoothly, then the people collect as much money as has been asked for by the source clan to let the new Loro or Nai be adopted or bought off from them. Getting a king in this manner is termed faen or hafoli which means “to take or to adopt” except that these two terms are limited in use to faen or hafoli dasi and faen or hafoli feto (literally, "adopting a king," and " taking a woman or wife"). For the purchase of things in general, the term sosa is used. The position of the woman "bought" this way is honorable; her title is uma nain, mistress of the home). Similarly, the Nai who is "bought" becomes master of his adoptive kingdom. This "purchased" king is taken into the principal noble clan and usually married to one of its members.
Grijzen says that a nobleman is addressed with the term Nai, which is true, but his saying that to express more respect the terms used are rai nain, and ata nain is a confused account. Actually, nai lulik (nai = king and lulik = sacred) is used to refer to a Catholic religious leader or priest. Rai nain (rai = land, and nain = master or lord), as already stated above, refers to a spirit in a tree or rock. An ata nain (ata = slave, and nain = master) is anybody who owns slaves. When people talk in front of a nai, they express humility by calling themselves itan ata, "your slaves or servants."
Grijzen’s assertion that the children born of a marriage between a nobleman and a woman of lower status get the title of dato is not accurate. Dato is a title of office. It has been mentioned above that there is no class of datos in itself. It is conceded that the dato, as a leader, gets respect from his people and also the required facilities, but he does not possess a social status absolutely higher than that of his people. He is not addressed in noble poetic language, the language for those of dasi level. As in Javanese the three language levels of ngoko, kromo, and kromo inggih are known, so also in Tetun language (lia Tetun), there are three language levels, that for adat affairs called lia sasokar, that for the dasi known as lia hakneter, and that for the renu or common people called lia dale. A decline from the nobility as mentioned by Grijzen has indeed given rise to the term dasi alin (literally, younger or junior or lesser nobility) but the person concerned must belong to one or the other clan and he is not automatically chosen as dato. He may continue to live in the clan of the nobility but he has to forego the right to be chosen as Nai.
N. Th. Overaher, controleur of Belu, in his memoirs of the year 1927, differentiates the classes dasi alin, dasi ran, dato and renu. To the term dasi ran he gives the meaning of "pure nobles" who do not yet have any blood mixture with a lower class; the dasi alin constitute a devalued outgrowth from the dasi as explained above. About the renu and the dato there has been a clarification given above, and now, allow me to express my opinion about the dasi ran and the ordinary dasi based on some information as given by an adat elder, ama Alfons Mau.
Each fukun has mutual connections with other fukuns, whether those of fetosawa-umamane or those of alin maun. First-degree relationships between those clans form endless circles but there is always one leading clan, the fukun dasi. Elsewhere simultaneously, there are also other such interrelationships among the same clans. This results in many noble clans, each and all of them being leading ones, distinct genealogical bunches made up of the same genealogical units. In my opinion they may be classified in the category of middle-class nobility.
With the existence of so many middle-class dasi, all having their respective inter-clan relationships of fetosawa-umamane, there have to be higher-level coordinators whom, in this case, I place among the dasi ran. Therefore, in my opinion, the term dasi ran would refer to high nobility and not just to pure blue-bloodedness. Everybody from the dasi ran down to the renu of the umas has relationships of fetosawa-umamane that shift and run in two circles. It is thus understandable how difficult it would be to eliminate feudalistic tastes in Timor, this not being only rooted in the Nai or local prince in person but in the people, for they all have intertwining genealogical links.
In the indigenous political hierarchy before Dutch times, there used to be known throughout Timor island and the neighboring islands, the Fehalaran or Manuaman Lakan kingdom with the seat in Natarmeli Bauho in the traditional village of Lasiolat and the kingdom of Wesei-Wehali, regent of the kingdom of Maromak Oan (prince of god and also the emperor), with his seat in Laran, Southern Belu. Between the two powerful kingdoms there was a fetosawa-umamane relationship because Prince Wesei of the Fehalaran kingdom had got married to a princess from Wehali, a kingdom centered in Laran, Southern Belu. This fetosawa-umamane alliance is often symbolized by the relationship between an uma hae (a house with a roof of hae-manlain grass) and an uma tali (a house with a roof of gebang palm leaves). Hae-manlain or tall grass (Imperata cylindrica Beauv L.) is abundantly found in the Fehalaran kingdom whereas gebang palms are more plentiful in the Wehali kingdom.
According to H. J. Grijzen as quoted by Koentjaraninggrat (1986), the type of socio- political structure of the kingdom of Fehalaran, or Natarmeli Bauho’s being a replica of the indigenous political system, may still be seen up to this time. On that basis, the following discussion only focuses on a description of the kingdom of Fehalaran or Manuaman Lakan with its center in Natarmeli Bauho as a still integral type of traditional political system which until the present time still functions and works for the traditional communities concerned within customary law and order. The information about Fehalaran kingdom under Loro Fehalaran of the primeval period, the subject of this research, is mainly obtained from the writer’s informants, ama Alfons Mau and ama dato Moruk who are considered as the makoans of the Dualasi-Lasiolat princedom and from some detailed remarks from the writings of Paul Y. Asa of the Yayasan Budaya Tetun (Tetun Cultural Foundation) entitled, Uma Suku Focus.