| Abstract: |
This study reviews the archaeological and ethnographic collections made by Paul and Fritz Sarasin in Lamoncong, Sulawesi, over 100 years ago. The archaeological collection comes from four rock shelters dated to between the middle Holocene and the ethnographic present. The ethnographic collection includes items from the local To Ala' ('forest people'), who still occupied rock shelters at the time of the Sarasins' visit, as well as from Bugis immigrants. Combined study of these two collections allows the reconstruction of a layered culture history for the To Ala' and their ancestors. Few of their middle Holocene practices apparently survived till ethnographic times, apart from inserting barbs (originally backed stone blades, later metal) in their clubs. Early Austronesian influences are suggested by the introduction of blowpipes (inferred archaeologically) along with the thigh xylophone and death masks (inferred ethnographically). Historical Bugis influences are reflected in the terms of language and in the pottery, betel nuts, iron tools, and other goods that the To Ala' evidently obtained through trading forest produce. These observations suggest that, in Lamongcong, the interaction between pre-Austronesian indigenes and Austronesian immigrants was a complex, dialectical process that cannot be boiled down to a simplistic contrast between foraging and agricultural populations.
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