The Sa’dan-Toraja and Their Environment

Abstract

It is market day. Women and men hurry along at a brisk jogtrot to the market, following on each other’s heels, a single file. It is their heavy loads, the Toraja say, which force the pace. Women are clothed more or less alike with a sarong around the waist or higher up under the arms, worn together with a modern blouse or a more traditionally cut jacket, sometimes with very tight short sleeves. The large sunhat, so characteristic of Sa’dan-Toraja women (with the exception of women from the district of Mengkendek who wear a piece of folded black cloth on their heads) shades their heads. A basket rides each woman’s back, so heavily laden that the bearer must bend under the weight. To displace part of the burden onto the head, a strap is fastened to the basket and looped about the forehead. One woman, without anything to carry, proceeds upright; without doubt she is from a good family. Men on their way to the market are less uniform in their attire. Some wear short trousers, some long — these have replaced the traditional loin cloth — and on their heads they have modern hats, some with a brim, some not. One or two individuals still have bound their hair with a band of bamboo.

Brevity characterizes this introductory chapter because several topics, such as the clothing and adornment of the Toraja and how the Toraja differ ethnically from neighbours, have been treated at length in other publications (Nooy-Palm 1969 and 1975). These subjects will reappear, moreover, in a series of monographs about Indonesian peoples. The aim of this series dictates that the monograph about the Toraja will deal with contemporary administration, education, material culture, and forms of handicraft.