Of Birds and Gifts: Reviving Tradition on an Indonesian Frontier

Abstract

Not long ago, I came across an interesting article in Anthropology Today. In Images of an Ethnic Minority in Indonesia, Mike Hitchcock of the Horniman Museum in London analyzed illustrations of Jayans in booklets he purchased in 1982 during his fieldwork in the province of Nusa Tenggara Barat.1 Published in Jakarta, the nation's capital, the series depicted Indonesia's regional cultures. Examining the volumes on dance, clothing, weaponry, and wedding dress, Hitchcock likened the treatment of subjects the naive manipulation evident in early anthropological photographs. To satisfy their society's conceptions of propriety and truth, the Indonesian photographers, like their turn-of-the-century predecessors, had equipped their models with costumes and props to obtain the images they desired (Hitchcock 1985:2). After an astute evaluation of representations that were simply labeled Irian Jayan, the article ended with a description of a portrait of a wedding couple from Waropen, the only ethnic group from the province specified in the series. The bride and groom are wearing belted tunics, decorated with factory-made braids and fringes and the same beads that adorned the regional costumes from Kalimantan and East Timor (see Figure 1). But most striking of all are the large complete birds worn atop their heads: images which are a constant source of amusement for Indonesian schoolchildren (1985:4). Hitchcock concluded: