‘Moko’ drums and gongs, ritual musical instruments and local currency from Alor Island, Southeast Indonesia: A comprehensive and verified lexical data set

Abstract

This paper provides comprehensive and systematized lists of names of ‘moko’ drums from Alor Island, in Southeast Indonesia. ‘Moko’ drums are unique cultural objects from the Alor-Pantar Archipelago and, besides their ancient function of ritual instruments used mainly for religious purposes and in public events by the indigenous peoples of the islands, they represented and still are considered a very valuable local ‘currency’ for trade and for specific social interactions rooted in aboriginal culture, like bride price negotiations. Despite the fact that they are extremely popular and widespread among Papuan peoples in Alor and Pantar, the origins of these drums are still relatively obscure. The native speakers, indeed, cannot explain the name ‘moko’ in itself, at the etymological and semantic level, and, despite the fact that they agree upon non-local origins of the instruments, they do not know where the instruments themselves were produced and from where they came to the islands. Our paper provides the readers with comprehensive lists that systematically collect the names of the drums, with the related glosses and basic additional information, from three representative Papuan languages of Alor Island, namely Abui, Sawila, and Kula. Configured as potentially indispensable tools to develop further research, these lists enhance our knowledge and understanding of the culture of the ‘moko’ drums in the Alor-Pantar Archipelago, at the linguistic (etymology of the names), anthropological (social value of the drums), and archeological (typology and provenance of the instruments) levels. This cataloguing operation is also part of the effort of documentation of the languages and cultures, still scarcely documented and definitely endangered, of the native peoples of the Alor-Pantar Archipelago.