Toba People Research Articles

Dialectical movements with the Toba people in the Argentine Chaco

ABSTRACTSince 1998, I have undertaken fieldwork with the Indigenous peoples of the Argentine Chaco, focusing initially on their dances and embodied practices. After this ethnographic research, I began to think more deeply about the relationships between fieldwork and reflexivity and the possibilities of redefining analytical categories in the global South. The purpose of this article is to revisit my emphasis on a ‘dialectical approach to embodiment’ as a starting point for analysing cultural transformation in Latin America. I argue that this methodological approach has been closely linked to the interweaving of conflicting embodied experiences and peripheral geopolitical locations. In this regard I analyse how the contradictory experiences identified in my fieldwork with the Toba people, and also in my intersubjective and geopolitical positions as a Latin American academic woman, led me to a critical re-examination of dialectics. Further, I describe how this methodological approach, while well received among Latin American scholars has to some degree been resisted by (North) American and British scholars, and I explore the geopolitical implications of these disparate academic positions. Through these critical movements, I hope to contribute to rethinking dialectics in postcolonial contexts, adding some embodied voices from the Latin American South.

NOMMENSEN'S DIALOGICAL APPROACH: THE APPROPRIATION OF THE BIBLICAL CONCEPT OF "LOVE YOUR GOD AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS" IN BATAK TOBA COMMUNITIES

Nommensen's missionary work is an outstanding act of intercultural and dialogical evangelism. His eagerness to learn Batak Toba people's culture and language shaped his cultural sensitivity in evangelism and made his missionary work successful. The biblical concept of "love your God and love your neighbor" in Nommensen will be examined and compared with Batak Toba people's understanding in four dimensions of belief, sense of belonging, behavior, and experience. Afterwards, how Nommensen's dialogical approach appropriates this concept in Batak Toba communities who constantly live at war will be examined.KEYWORDS: dialogical; appropriation; love; evangelization; culture.

Andung-Andung Mate di Ranto

This study aims to understand the song of Mate di Ranto from a musicological perspective. The main data of this research is the song of Mate di Ranto by Poster Sihotang. The analysis was done by observing the melody and the lyrics of the song. Based on the research it is concluded that the song of Mate di Ranto is a song of Toba people with the genre of andung-andung, which is a melancholic nuance and has a meaning as an expression of sadness. This song is inspired by the andung-andung of death ceremony. This song is the result of a blend of traditional singing style of andung-andung and popular music singing styles. This song uses a combo band accompaniment which is composed by combining elements of pop music and traditional Toba music.

Individual Practice and Cultural Context in the Transformation of Batak Toba House

Batak Toba people today are facing the dilemma of maintaining their tradition and keeping up to the modern way of living. This has resulted in cultural transformation of traditional houses, where modern utensils and new spaces are added with no reference to the original one. The traditional settlement of Huta Siallagan in Samosir Island North Sumatra begin to aspire urban standards of living, and traditional building practices are dying out because domestic life systems are changing. Traditional houses are undergoing transformation as they are more and more influenced by the modernizing effect of capital economy.

Implementation and comparison of Berry-Ravindran and Zhu- Takaoka exact string matching algorithms in Indonesian-Batak Toba dictionary

Indonesia has a variety of local languages, which is the Batak Toba language. This time, there are still some Batak Toba people who do not know speak Batak Toba language fluently. Nowadays, desktop based dictionary is one of reference that very efficiently used to learn a language and also to increase vocabulary. In making the dictionary application, string matching can be implemented for word-searching process. String matching have some algorithm, which is Berry – Ravindran algorithm and Zhu-Takaoka algorithm and will be implemented on the dictionary application. Zhu-Takaoka algorithm and Berry – Ravindran algorithm have two phases, which are the preprocessing phase and the searching phase. Preprocessing phase is a process to make the shifting values according to in pattern that input by user. To know the shifting value with Zhu-Takaoka algorithm, it’s need Zhu-Takaoka Bad Character (Ztbc) and Boyer-Moore Good Suffix (Bmgs). Then, Ztbc will be compared to Bmgs to get the maximum value of them that will be set as shifting value. While Berry-Ravindran algorithm, to know the shifting value is needed Berry-Ravindran Bad Character, which the two characters right of the text at the position m + 1 and m+ 2, is needed to determine the shifting value, where m is length of the pattern.

Indonesia. Antiphonal histories: Resonant pasts in the Toba Batak musical present By Julia Byl Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2014. Pp. xiii + 316. Maps, Figures, Musical Transcriptions, Notes, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

Antiphonal histories: Resonant pasts in the Toba Batak musical present By JULIA BYL Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2014. Pp. xiii + 316. Maps, Figures, Musical Transcriptions, Notes, Glossary, Bibliography, Index. Antiphonal histories investigates present-day interpretations of history, human relations, and customs among the Toba Batak people of Indonesia. While ancestral connections to traditional practices centre around older highland villages and areas with proximity to Lake Toba, the author incorporates as well urban cultural negotiations of Toba people residing in Medan (North Sumatra's capital) and Jakarta (Indonesia's capital). Such negotiations are vividly presented within diverse performance settings ranging from weddings, funerals, and houses of Christian worship to palm wine stands and hotels. It also identifies present Batak constructs of history and religion including Islamic, Indie, Protestant, ethnic, colonial, and national pasts. The topics are developed through a reflexive scholarship, including personal contemplations on stories and experiences while in the field as well as the author's evaluations of performances of the music itself, its context of practice, and its signifies for the Toba. The analyses include both very general and quite specific discussions concerning the fields of ethnomusicology, historiography, anthropology, and sociology. As expressed by the author, the publication presents an 'ethnographic engagement with the field of historical ethnomusicology' (pp. 4-5), that includes the author's experiences in the community and perceptions of Batak interpretations of history by examining present music performance. The presentation of information, references, and analysis of Batak music performances as representative of intertwined histories and social relations benefits from the author's numerous years of engagement with a specific community. The ethnographic accounts are highly personal, shifting from a fairly 'distanced' and 'objective' scholarly stance to one more intensely 'engaged' and 'subjective'. 'Antiphonal exhibitions' are as much reflective of a Toba history through musical performance as it is the author's autobiography through lived experience. Due to space limitations this review focuses on the three major sections of the book, namely the Bindu (introduction), Tarombo (genealogy), and Partuturan (positioning). The organisation of each section begins with a useful guiding 'Orientation' followed by its chapters. The first section acts as an introduction and conceptual overview. Its beginning 'Orientation' presents an initial positioning of the publication as an ethnography in the field of historical ethnomusicology. Chapter 1 begins with a historical description of cartographies and early mappings of Sumatra and the isles of Waq-waq, cosmological orders that maintain Indie influences among the Toba, and a presentation of the different musical expressions examined. The second chapter introduces the author's Batak family, the Sitohangs. The bapak (father), a musician, instrument maker and resource for Batak history and customary practice, is continuously referenced throughout the study. The analysis of the song 'Jamila' connects the author's ethnographic sonic experience with the bapak's original version 'Oh, This World' and interpretations by the prominent Toba pub band Vithagoras. Chapter 2 continues with an extensive introduction of tarombo and partuturan with many personal anecdotes. This initial section introduces the reader to the theoretical approach of the following two sections dealing with musical ways of treating the past (tarombo /genealogy) and observations of the past to understand the present (partuturan /positioning), respectively. The musical and human experiences of the author delineate analytical boundaries and the examination of Toba contestations in musical performance. The latter leitmotif is both useful in understanding the ethnographic experience and its resultant conclusions and, while limiting, introduces approaches of specific individuals filtered through the cultural values and lens of the author. …

The Logical Meanings of the Traditional Wedding Speeches of the Batak Toba People

This research deals with the logical meanings of the clause complexes in the Batak Toba People wedding speeches. The problem investigated deals with the types of the logical meanings existed in the traditional wedding speeches of the Batak Toba people and the way each of those types is created. The theoretical frameworks in this research are the logical meanings and the logico-semantic relation theories. The research design refers to an object as multiple realities as a qualitative research. The research subject is the Batak Toba people creating the wedding speeches in the wedding ceremony. The object is the logical meaning in the structure of a clause complex. The data are 142 clause complexes from the 15 recorded wedding speeches. The technique of the data collection and analysis follow the concept of the researcher concurrent activities, they are data collection, reduction, display, and drawing conclusion. The findings are that the logical meanings the Batak Toba people wedding speeches are expansion, such as elaboration, extension, and enhancement; and projection, such as locution projection, idea projection and idea.

STUDI IKONOLOGI PANOFSKY PADA ARSITEKTUR DAN INTERIOR GEREJA KATOLIK INKULTURATIF PANGURURAN

The Inkulturasi Pangururan Catholic church (GKIP) is a place of worship for Catholics in Pangururan City, Samosir, North Sumatera. The architectural and interior forms are results of inculturation of Catholic traditions with Toba cultures and hence the meaning behind the building elements becomes a very interesting issue of study. This research uses the iconological study method proposed by Panofsky which aims to uncover the meaning contained in an object through a set of desciptional stages that concists of pre-iconography, analysis of iconography and iconological intepretation, in which all of the three stages are inter-connected. Pre-iconography aims to acquire the prime or natural meaning (factual and expressional meaning), analysis of iconography is to obtain the secondary/conventional meaning while iconology is to uncover the intrinsic meaning (symbolical meaning). The prime meaning that was discovered in the stage of pre-iconography reveals that the architectural and interior form of GKIP has simililarities to tradtional houses of Toba, displaying the vernacular Toba style. Meanwhile, the secondary meaning resulted from the iconography stage shows that the spatial and ornamental arragnement inside has undergone transformations, adaptations and even tiggered new meanings that do not exist in Toba traditional houses. And last but not the least, the intrinsic meaning yielded from the iconology stage shows that the meeting of Catholic culture and Toba tradition produced mutual enrichment through the process of inculturation. On one hand for the preservation of Toba culture, and on the other hand for the expression of faith and trust of Pangururan Catholics in Toba culture. Disclosure of this faith will bring changes to the Catholic church, from the Catholic church in the land of Toba to the process of Batak Toba-nisation of a Catholic church. In this case, inculturation is the method or tool while evangelism to the Toba people is the symbolic value.

Modernization and Cultural Transformation: The Expansion of Traditional Batak Toba House in Huta Siallagan

Batak Toba people today are facing the dilemma of maintaining their tradition and keeping up to the modern way of living. This has resulted in cultural transformation of traditional houses, where modern utensils, new spaces and domestic life are added with no reference to the original one. The traditional settlements of Huta Siallagan in Samosir Island North Sumatra begin to aspire for urban standards of living, and traditional building practices are dying out because the basic domestic life systems are changing. Traditional houses are undergoing transformation as they are more and more influenced by the modernizing effect of capital economy.

Landscapes of Devils: Tensions of Place and Memory in the Argentinean Chaco

Landscapes of Devils is a beautiful evocation of the history of Argentina’s western Toba people (also known as the Toba-Pilagá) from the late nineteenth century to the present. The author shows how the harsh climate of the Chaco Boreal, at the center of the South American continent, intertwined with memories of places and events among the Tobas, who prior to their defeat by the Argentine army in the early twentieth century were one of the most feared indigenous groups of the region. Through the natives’ understanding of the past, it is possible to understand their complex history as sugar plantation workers in Salta and as subjects evangelized by the British Anglican Church. In the process, historians can benefit from seeing the historical development of the region through the eyes of its indigenous peoples.Gastón Gordillo asserts that memory, for the Toba, is related as much to places as it is to the passage of time. He divides Toba memory into three different places: the bush that is not controlled by whites and where the “ancients” roamed, the sugar plantation of San Martín del Tabacal in Salta (northern Argentina) where the Tobas worked at the beginning of the twentieth century, and the Anglican mission established in 1930. Only in the late 1960s did time change again, when plantation mechanization eliminated the need for unskilled indigenous laborers such as the Toba. Since then, they have remained in their poverty-stricken settlements in Formosa province.Although his prose is bit clunky at times, and laden with complex nouns, Gordillo shows well the contradictions of each space and time in Tobas historical memory. The Indians today see the bush both as a place of freedom and of poverty, where benevolent devils roam. The “ancient ones,” their ancestors, lived there in freedom, though the Toba recognize that they did not have many material things that they have now. The sugar plantation, in turn, was a place of sexual excess, of backbreaking and dangerous work, and of a surfeit of consumer goods. It was there, close to the unfamiliar mountains and the jungle, that the evil devils resided. The missions, established by the Anglicans in the Tobas’ home territory of Formosa, were also imbued with ambivalent meanings. The Tobas had to submit to a different kind of moral and physical discipline and live in permanent housing. However, the missionaries protected the Indians from state violence and converted them to a religion that the majority apparently adopted happily.For historians, the book offers both a useful overview of the history of this largely ignored territory and a valuable indigenous perspective on historical processes. The author based his research largely on oral histories and did not consult primary historical documents. Nor does he cite all of the available research on the Toba (for example, James Saeger’s excellent and highly relevant The Chaco Mission Frontier [Univ. of Arizona Press, 2000]), but that is not the major strength of this work. Rather, it will be very useful for ethnohistorians who want to imagine how indigenous peoples create historical memories and their own histories. Scholars will find value in these alternate renderings of a process — the integration of indigenous peoples into the plantation complex — that has been well studied by a host of social scientists and historians. Gordillo’s case study can also be read in dialogue with Michael Taussig’s ideas about the devil and commodity fetishism. Gordillo shows great sensitivity in showing how non-Western people imagine their own history. Historians who do research on indigenous peoples, whether in the Chaco or elsewhere, need to take his work into account.

Range area and seasonal campsites of Toba bands in western Chaco, Argentina

Toba bands (co-residential groups of related families) have trekked the land at the intersection of the Pilcomayo River with the Tropic of Capricorn (Formosa Province, Argentina) since at least the 1840s. Previously, the Toba had been self-organised, mobile hunter-gatherers focused primarily on the exploitation of animals and terrestrial plants in the water-depressed microenvironments of western Chaco. My discussion of the bands' range areas and criteria for choosing campsites is based on the elders' recollection of their trekking in the 1920s. At that time, they were already living under conditions of ‘regional packing’ produced by cattle-posts. According to my analysis of oral information from 12 bands, the mean range area was 463 km2 and the mean distances that the bands travelled between campsites varied from 8 to 13 km. The estimated number of persons per band during the most dispersed phase of the annual cycle was between 14 and 35 or more. An estimated 553 Toba people trekked these range areas at t...