(Re)building Interethnic Relations Through Sharecropping in Post-Conflict Maluku

Abstract

This article portrays the exchange of objects (trees), which creates trust and belonging between Butonese migrant farmer tenants, who are often Muslims, and Indigenous groups (landowners) in Maluku. The multifunctionality of trees and the flexibility of the land tenure system in Maluku have shaped the Butonese migrants’ sense of belonging and established their social and economic relations with the host society that provides the land. The ability of Butonese farmers to manage the landscape, especially by taking care of the trees, has made it possible for them to live consistently in Maluku for more than a century. Communal conflicts in the 2000s sought to expel them from the Maluku archipelago. Instead of returning to their origins in Sulawesi Island, their sense of belonging with the trees helped them to re-emerge and reconstitute mutual relations with their predominantly Christian Malukan landlords (tuan dusun).