Intertidal History in Island Southeast Asia by Jennifer L. Gaynor

Author:Jennifer L. Gaynor [Gaynor, Jennifer L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Asia, Southeast Asia, Maritime History & Piracy, Social Science, Sociology, Marriage & Family, General
ISBN: 9780877272311
Google: Td0ZDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 2016-06-15T22:26:15+00:00

PROVENANCE AND TRAJECTORIES OF LONTARAQ ABOUT THE SAMA PAST

This chapter’s primary concern is how this Sama narrative changed in its adaptation to lontaraq, and why. Yet before delving into how it transformed in the Bugis-language context, it may be helpful to know a bit about the production and circulation of these two manuscripts. The two lontaraq have quite different recopying histories. One is lodged in the archives of the KITLV.32 The other was kept by its owners in the village of Lemobajo, at Lasolo Bay, north of Kendari on Sulawesi’s east coast. I refer to the latter as Lontaraq Bajo Lemobajo, or “LB Lemobajo,” in order to specify both the focus of its content and where it came from, although Lemobajo is not where it was inscribed.

The history of the distribution and circulation of these manuscripts both clarifies their import in the present and provides clues to the social relations they were part of in the past. As with other Bugis-language manuscripts, these are obviously known in more than one version, and there were rumors of three other untraceable “sibling” manuscripts of LB Lemobajo. Also, like other Bugis manuscripts, the contents of lontaraq about the Sama past are known in oral version as well. However, unlike other Bugis manuscripts, the Sama-focused contents of these lontaraq do not appear in the rest of the Bugis corpus, and, moreover, according to Muhamad Salim, their oral versions are basically unknown among Bugis people. After gaining familiarity with LB Lemobajo, Salim, whose work was central to a major project to microfilm and catalog both privately and publicly held manuscripts in South Sulawesi, emphasized that he had never before heard of, nor read, what the manuscript conveyed about Sama people.33 Salim had very broad knowledge of the Bugis corpus, and his observations deserve serious consideration.

Lontaraq Bajo Lemobajo, photographed in 1990 by the author

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