R. Blust
Notes on proto-Malayo-Polynesian phratry dualism
In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 136 (1980), no: 2/3, Leiden, 215-247
This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl
ROBERT BLUST
NOTES ON PROTO-MALAYO-POLYNESIAN
PHRATRY DUALISM*
I. METHOD
In a recent paper illustrating the application of the Comparative
Method in linguistics to historical problems in social anthropology
(Blust 1980), I proposed a reconstruction of early Austronesian social
organization which — despite fundamental differences in the evidence
considered and the types of arguments adopted — closely agrees with
the non-linguistic reconstruction of early Indonesian society suggested
by J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong (1935/1977), 1 and worked out in considerable detail for eastern Indonesia by his gifted student F. A. E. van
Wouden (1935/1968). Among the features common to these strikingly
convergent results are three that merit particular mention:
1. exclusive cross-cousin marriage,
2. a division of the total society into four great classes,
3. a two-by-two grouping of the foregoing classes into 'male' (or
'upper') and 'female' (or 'lower') divisions.
The remarks that follow are inspired by a similar application
Comparative Method in linguistics, expanded and occasionally
mented by controlled (i.e. genetic) ethnographic comparison.
there appears to be justification, broad typological comparison
invoked.
In all genetic linguistic comparison the precise demands of
of the
suppleWhere
is also
phono-
ROBERT BLUST, who majored in English at the University of California and
took his B.A. in anthropology and Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of Hawaii,
is at present Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures
of Southeast Asia and Oceania at Leiden. His main field of interest is comparative
Austronesian linguistics, and major publications are 'Proto-Austronesian addenda',
Oceanic Linguistics 9 (1970): 104-62, and The Proto-Oceanic palatals, Memoir
43, 1978, The Polynesian Society, Auckland, New Zealand. Dr. Blust's current
address is: Vakgroep talen en culturen van Z.O. Azie en Oceanie, Postbus 9507,
2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands.
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Robert Blust
logical reconstruction must be reconciled with the much less welldefined demands of semantic reconstruction; attested forms cannot be
regarded as cognate unless it is possible to demonstrate that they are
both semantically similar and derivable by recurrent phonological
changes from a common prototype. Due to the smaller number of
functional primes and greater transparency of patterning, it is generally
agreed that phonological relationship is relatively easier to demonstrate
than semantic relationship. Thus, despite their virtually identical
semantic range, reflexes of *baliw(-an) and *bales 'repay, return in
kind, take revenge; equalize a loss or debt' in most Austronesian languages are assignable to only one or the other etymon. While it is true
that reconstructed Austronesian forms such as *bulu 'body hair, feathers'
and *bulu 'wash the hands' are not likely to be related, however, the
situation is far less clear-cut in other cases, as where Dempwolff
(1934-38) cites Proto-Austronesian *ayam 1 'toy, plaything', *ayam 2
'tame'. The problem of determining underlying semantic identity is
perhaps most acute with nuclear cultural concepts, since by its very
centrality an idea may be many-faceted. In hopes of minimizing this
problem the strategy of historical inference adopted here proceeds in
two steps:
1. the juxtaposition of phonologically identical proto-forms, each
justified by a cognate set within which the semantic relationships
are relatively non-controversial,
2. the search for possible semantic connections between the proto-forms
so established.
Through this approach it will be seen that non-obvious etymologies
can sometimes be supported by reference to comparative ethnographic
materials, a procedure I will call 'ethnographic elaboration'. Conversely,
it will be found that reconstructed linguistic glosses may also provide
an important stimulus to cultural comparison. Etymology, which profits
from ethnography on the one hand, thus serves it on the other.
Moieties and 'phratry dualism1
Van Wouden cited extensive ethnographic evidence from eastern Indonesia, and De Josselin de Jong indicated agreements between eastern
Indonesian and Sumatran societies (particularly the Toba Batak) which
appear to point to matrilateral — hence 'exclusive' — cross-cousin
marriage as an ancient Indonesian ideal. This inference is corroborated
by such categorial equations in reconstructed kinship terminology as
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
217
MB = WF (*ma(n)tuqaS), ZS (ms) = DH (*(dD)awa), FZS •=•
ZH (ms) (*laya), and by the absence of affinal meanings among
known reflexes of *aya FZ. It may be added with some emphasis that
the linguistic evidence not only permits, but requires us to assign
features 1-3 to a hypothetical society that was ancestral to all Austronesian-speaking groups outside Formosa (hence including e.g. the
Philippines, Madagascar, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia). In
accordance with a subgrouping proposal for the Austronesian language
family developed elsewhere (Blust 1977) I call this linguistic community
'Proto-Malayo-Polynesian' (PMP).
Both De Josselin de Jong and Van Wouden viewed ancient Indonesian exclusive cross-cousin marriage as embedded in a system of
'circulating connubium' or 'generalized exchange' (Levi-Strauss 1949/
1969), whereby the total society was seen to embrace an aggregate of
clans united in unilateral affinal alliance such that A was wife-giver
to B, B was wife-giver to C and C wife-giver to A. Although the
number of exogamous units necessary to maintain such a system need
not exceed three (the 'basic triad' of Ego clan, wife-giving and wifereceiving clans), it was held that the number of clans present in ancient
Indonesian society was at least four. The basis for this deviation from
a minimal model was the comparative ethnographic evidence from
much of Indonesia indicating a two-by-two grouping of clans into
larger and similarly exogamous phratries. In the words of De Josselin
de Jong (1977: 170):
"We may assume at present that this phratry dualism was in force, if
not in all, at any rate in an extremely large part of Indonesia, even
though it often escaped the attention of ethnographers. The phratries
stand in a very special relationship to each o t h e r . . . The typical
characteristics of this relationship are rivalry and antagonism, along
with reciprocal aid and systematic cooperation. Usually one phratry
is represented as masculine and superior, and the other as feminine
and inferior. There is always a strong consciousness of their mutual
dependence as the two complementary halves of the total community
which is maintained by their exchange of marriage partners and their
mutual cooperation. Phratry. dualism can of course only go hand in
hand with the system of triads if the number of clans is even and
comprises at least four."
""•-.
Once again comparative linguistic evidence confirms a view originally
justified solely by comparative ethnographic materials. Thus, reflexes
of *suku 'descent group, clan; quarter' are widespread in Indonesia,
and the expression *na xe(m)pat na balay (lit: 'the four council-halls')
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Robert Blust
is attested as the title for a chiefly retinue of ritual ministers — evidently each representing an actual or mythological descent group — not
only in western and eastern Indonesia (Minangkabau ampe' balai,
Tetum uma hSt2), but as far east as Tonga in western Polynesia
(falefS). Similarly, next to *datu as the title for a descent groupconnected politico-religious official (among other things probably the
leader of the sacrifice in clan ritual), we must posit the distinction
'male' datu (or datu of the 'upper half) and 'female' datu (or datu
of the 'lower half) on some higher level of social organization. While
not directly indicative of the kind of phratry dualism inferred by
De Josselin de Jong and Van Wouden, such a reconstructed distinction
would seem to provide indirect testimony to the posited division of
early Austronesian society into complementary halves.
The descent groups in such a system of unilateral affinal alliance
fully meet Levi-Strauss's (1969: 73) description of marriage classes:
"The term clan will be reserved for unilineal groupings which, in that
they are exogamous, permit a purely negative definition, and the term
class, or more exactly marriage class for those groupings which permit
a positive determination of the modalities of exchange."
Moreover, since each class is otiose with respect to the exchange
relations of its partner of the same phratry, there is nothing to prevent
the phratries from themselves forming descent groups of a higher
segmentary order. In such a situation we are entitled to speak of the
consanguineally opposed, affinally united dual divisions as 'moieties'.
The marriage classes and their formal interrelations can thus be
represented as in Figure 1:
FIGURE 1
Model of early Austronesian unilaterial affinal alliance with
four marriage classes (A-D) and exogamous moieties (A/C, B/D)
'male'
Figure 1 represents essentially the situation with respect to early
Austronesian descent groups and their interrelations that can be inferred
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
219
from the linguistic evidence collected to date. However, this situation
differs from Van Wouden's reconstruction in an important respect.
Although lexical clues permit us (contra Murdock 1949) to rule out
exclusive organization around the bilateral kindred as a likely descent
principle in early Austronesian society, they provide no further information about the descent principle employed. Based on the evidence
of comparative linguistics, then, we can conclude that early Austronesian
society was lineal (i.e. possessed descent groups), but we cannot specify
the type of lineal descent that was culturally sanctioned.
Van Wouden argued at some length that ancient eastern Indonesian
society was not based exclusively either on patrilineal or on matrilineal descent, but incorporated both principles in a system of double
unilineal descent. De Josselin de Jong (1977: 170-2) added that such
an arrangement probably was characteristic also at an earlier time of
various Sumatran peoples. Important support for the latter view was
subsequently adduced by P . E . de Josselin de Jong (1951).
Following his initial attempt to develop a model of early eastern
Indonesian social organization based on exclusive cross-cousin marriage
and patrilineal descent, Van Wouden concluded that under such an
arrangement either unilineal descent principle (patrilineal or matrilineal) automatically implies the other (1968: 90-2):
"If we take a patrilineal clan system with unilateral affinal relationships, and exclusive cross-cousin marriage as the obligatory form of
marriage . . . the conclusion emerges that in addition to the four patrilineal clans there must also exist four exogamous matrilineal groups
which are similarly connected by a chain of unilateral affinal relationships . . . It is a consequence of the unilateral system that both patrilineal and matrilineal principles of grouping co-exist and are entirely
equivalent." 3
Van Wouden further observed (p. 92) that both patrilineal and matrilineal clans in a system of circulating connubium with double unilineal
descent form moieties by pairs of clans. The result is a 16-class marriage
system in which the patrilineal moieties intersect the matrilineal moieties
to divide the entire society into quarters. Such a system of marriage
classes differs from a classic four-class system (cf. Levi-Strauss 1969:
155-67) by virtue of the unilaterality of affinal links and the practical
restriction of marriage to members of the same generation. Following
P. E. de Josselin de Jong (1951: 40) — who simplifies the diagram in
Van Wouden, p. 93 — these relationships can be schematized as in
Figure 2:
Robert Blust
220
FIGURE 2
Model of early Austronesian unilateral affinal alliance with
sixteen marriage classes and intersecting exogamous moieties
(numbers = patrilineal clans, grouped in patri-moieties 1 + 2, 3 + 4;
letters = matrilineal clans, grouped in matri-moieties A + B, G + D;
exchange relations are between diagonally positioned major quarters)
1
2
3
4
A
A
B
B
G
G
D
D
1
2
3
4
As P. E. de Josselin de Jong points out (1951: 39), although the term
"moiety' retains its appropriateness as a description of either the patrilineal (1 + 2 vs. 3 + 4) or the matrilineal (A + B vs. C + D) dual
divisions, in a system of double unilineal descent neither descent principle can independently define a descent group (thus 1 + 2 and 3 + 4
are descent groups only with respect to patrilineal descent, while A + B
and C + D are descent groups only with respect to matrilineal descent).
In the context of a functioning system, then, such divisions are perhaps
better denoted by the more neutral term 'phratry'. The quarters resulting from moiety intersection, on the other hand, are descent groups
each comprising four marriage classes, and it is to these functional
units or their representative functionaries that terms such as PMP
*suku and *na xe(m)pat na balay presumably referred.
II. PMP. *BALIW: HOMOPHONY OR POLYSEMY?
With this brief historical background as justification for our use of
the expression 'phratry dualism' we can turn now to a consideration
of new linguistic evidence bearing on the question of dual divisions in
early Austronesian society.
As already stated, comparative linguistic evidence provides independent support for the conclusion of the early Dutch structuralists
that exclusive cross-cousin marriage is an ancient feature in the Indonesian area, and requires us moreover to assume that such an arrange-
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
221
ment was found in a community ancestral to all Austronesian-speaking
societies outside Formosa. Linguistic comparison further corroborates
the comparative ethnographic inference that early Austronesian society
embraced an important functional quadripartition. Despite the ceremonial bipartition implied in the distinction 'male' datu (or datu of the
'upper half) vs. 'female' datu (or datu of the 'lower half), however,
direct linguistic testimony to early Austronesian phratry dualism has
until now remained elusive. The purpose of the present paper is to
demonstrate that such evidence exists, and to explore some of its implications for the structure of the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian social order
in its ritual and cognitive aspects.
To explain the comparison Tagalog baliw 'insane', maliw 'transformation, metamorphosis', Merina ( = 'Hova') valu 'alteration', Dempwolff (1934-38) proposed Proto-Austronesian *baliw 'transformation,
metamorphosis'. Other languages attest this reconstructed gloss more
or less faithfully:
la) *baliw/maliw 'transformation, metamorphosis'
Hanunoo baliw 'transformation, metamorphosis' (next to balyu
'change, exchange'), Bolaang Mongondow balui (met.) 'exchange,
replace, renew, transform', Long Jeeh (Kenyah) baliw, Sebup
(Kenyan) maliw, Long Atip (Kayan) baluy (met.) 'change state',
Iban bali 'changing', ukoi b. 'chameleon', manang b. 'medicine man
who dresses as a woman', Ngadha bhale 'change, exchange, alter'.
In addition some languages in the Philippines reflect *baliw-an, and
in these the meaning varies over the range 'change; substitute; repeat':
lb) *baliw-an 'change; substitute; repeat'
Ilokano a.g-bdliw 'change, vary, alter, fade, be inconstant, fickle,
unstable', baliw-an 'repeat, reiterate, do, etc. again', Bontok bdliwan, nin-bdliw 'change, as one's habits or appearance, Maranao
balioan 'instead of, substitute' (next to baloi 'make into, convert,
mutate, enchantment by evil spirit"), Tiruray baliwan 'a replacement; to replace'.
In a partially overlapping collection of languages extending from the
northern Philippines to eastern Indonesia we find reflexes of a superficially distinct linguistic form *baliw that sometimes express the idea
of opposition or antagonism, sometimes that of mutual support or
friendship, sometimes both notions commingled, and sometimes little
more than the essential reciprocity that unites them:
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Robert Blust
2) *baliw 'oppose, opposite part; friend, partner
PHILIPPINES
Ilokano baliw 'opposite bank, shore'
SULAWESI
Bolaang Mongondow sinim-balui 'oppose, answer back or contradict the village head', Bare'e ball 'reverse side, opposite part,
different, changed; sam-ia/i 'one side', si-bali 'merged or fused
with', Tae' bali 'companion, mate; partner, whenever two parties
oppose each other, as in a cockfight; opponent; answer, oppose,
resist; to pa-foa/i-an 'assistant, helper; the slave who stands at the
side of the to mebalun (funeral director) at the performance of
the death ritual; also the slave who stands at the side of the
to minaa (priest) at the performance of offerings to the gods',
sang-bali 'one side, either member of body parts that come in
pairs', si-bali 'become a pair, marry', Proto-South Sulawesi *balii
'side (friend, partner)', *bali]. + i 'stand beside; help', *bali2 'enemy
(oppose)', *bali 3 'answer (contradict, answer back)'
MADAGASCAR
Merina vady 'partner, husband, wife; a companion, an associate;
a mate, one of a set of two (thus the saucer is the vady of a cup);
vady lahi 'a friend' 4
LESSER SUNDAS
Manggarai bali 'friend; enemy; divided in halves; foreign, alien',
Roti fali 'help, stand beside', Sika wali-bali hadeng 'the left or
right side of a valley or a river', Leti wali 'side, half; partner,
companion; opponent', like wali-li 'opposite side of the river',
Yamdena bali-n 'side, opposite side; half, one of a pair', ngrije
bali-n 'enemy, opponent; opposed party', Kei wali-n 'side, opposite
side'.
What is remarkable about these comparisons is the frequent juxtaposition of antithetical meanings ('friend, partner; stand beside, help'
vs. 'enemy, opponent; oppose, contradict, answer back', etc.). As already
seen, J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong in particular pointed out the widespread importance of exogamous phratries as the basis for more ramified
forms of social organization in Indonesia, noting that "The typical
characteristics of this relationship (between phratries) are rivalry and
antagonism, along with reciprocal aid and systematic cooperation".
Van Wouden (1968, Ch. II) collected numerous ethnographic details
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
223
which suggest the existence or former existence of dual divisions in
much of eastern Indonesia (where one is often associated with the
younger brother and the sky, and the other with the elder brother and
the earth), 5 and similar evidence has been presented for various peoples
in western Indonesia, as with the two Minangkabau lareh, periodically
pitted against one another in the traditional mock combat called parang
adat ('war of custom'). 8 There is thus good reason to believe that
among other things *baliw meant 'moiety' or 'phratry', and encompassed the ambivalent attitude inherent in the opposed complementarity
of the halves, an attitude characterized most succinctly by Held (1935:
298) as one of "hostile friendship".
Still another superficially distinct cognate set pointing to *baliw
(or *baliw-an) concerns the donning of mourning apparel:
3) *baliw(-an) 'don mourning apparel; mourn for a deceased spouse'
PHILIPPINES
Batad Ifugao balu 7 'that which a man or woman wears to indicate
that his/her spouse has died; to put on clothing to indicate that
one's spouse has died', Pangasinan baliw-an black clothing worn
by a person in mourning; to wear such clothing'
BORNEO
Timugon Murut m-aluy, n-aluy (met.), 'change into white mourning clothes on the death of one's spouse'
LESSER SUNDAS
Fordat na.-ba.li-n (cited sub balin) 'veil oneself, as a woman does
when her husband is dead; hence the sign of mourning', na.-bali-n
nitu 'mourn for the dead, be in mourning'.
Finally, in several widely separated languages a reflex of *baliw (or
*baliw-an) carries a reciprocal meaning which is sometimes positive*
(repay, return in kind — of gifts, etc.), and sometimes negative
(retaliate, take revenge), but which is perhaps most essentially rendered
as 'to equalize (a loss or debt)':
4) *baliw(-an) 'repay, return in kind; retaliate, take revenge'; hence,
'to equalize (a loss or debt)'
PHILIPPINES
Ilokano baliw-an 'set right, correct, mend'
SULAWESI
Tae' ball 'repay, retaliate'
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Robert Blust
SUMATRA
Achehnese baluy (met.) 'take revenge; restore or replace after a
loss'
LESSER SUNDAS
Li'o vali 'restore, equalize a loss, win back what was lost in a
game', Manggarai wali8 'return in kind (gifts, etc.)'.
Comparisons 1-4 confront us with a basic lexicographic problem (and
thus in diachronic terms a problem in semantic reconstruction): do the
prototypes of these superficially distinct cognate sets collectively constitute an instance .of homophony or of polysemy? Under the former
interpretation we would regard the meanings as unrelated (as e.g.
Mills 1975 does for Proto-South Sulawesi *bali 1-3), and write *baliw1
'transformation, metamorphosis', *baliw2 'moiety, phratry', *baliw3 'don
mourning apparel', *baliw4 'equalize (a loss or debt)'; under the latter
interpretation we would see a connecting thread uniting at least some
of the comparisons which we have thus far distinguished. The argument
for homophony requires no further comment. What, then, are the
arguments for polysemy?
The attested meanings subsumed under la-b generally suggest an
alternation between two or more states which may be regarded as
divergent instantiations of a single substance or reality. Thus, a metamorphosis can be conceived either as the transformation of appearance
(with unrestricted possibilities of change), or as the transposition of
essence between fixed states or appearances (with restricted possibilities
of change). Instances of the first concept are Bontok bdliw-an, ninbdliw 'change, as one's habits or appearance' and Iban ukoi bali
'chameleon'. The second concept is perhaps best illustrated in the data
cited by Iban manang bali 'medicine man who dresses as a woman'
(where the contrast of dress presumably is between two fixed categories,
male and female). An exemplary instance of the second concept of
metamorphosis not attested among the reflexes included here but
evidently important in some parts of insular southeast Asia, is the
relationship between ice and water (in the form hail:rain). 8 In all
such instances there is a complementarity of attributes in time: a
chameleon cannot be both brown and green at once, a medicine man
who dresses as a woman cannot at the same time dress as a man, a
given quantity of hydrogen dioxide cannot simultaneously be ice and
water, etc.
By contrast the relationship between moieties or phratries within a
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
225
larger society is characterized by simultaneity — the halves necessarily
coexist. There is, however, a complementarity of attributes between
moieties which can be viewed as conceptually close to the complementarity of attributes in comparison 1. Just as ice and water jointly
manifest a single underlying substance, so 'male' and 'female' moieties
jointly manifest a total society. It is perhaps worth noting how closely
the semantic range of the first two comparisons taken together approximates that of the notion 'alter ego' in various European languages in
the double sense 'Jekyll and Hyde' and 'inseparable companion'.10
Just as alter ego must be regarded as polysemous in English, then,
*baliw must be regarded as polysemous in comparison 1 and 2.
At this point it will be useful to recall the claim, made at least as
early as 1903 by Durkheim and Mauss, that systems of dual organization
governing marriage typically are correlated with dualistic systems of
cosmological classification. Needham (1962: 95-7) argues that such
symbolic classifications are associated with systems of matrilateral
alliance with or without moiety divisions, and describes as presumably
universal concomitant features contrasts such as the following: u
Left
Wife-takers
Inferior
Female
Female goods
Below
Earth
Bad death
Profane
Right
Wife-givers
Superior
Male
Male goods
Above
Sky
Good death
Sacred
The data to hand seem to justify at least one other inference in connection with comparison 2. Both in Ilokano of northern Luzon and in
Sika and Led of the Lesser Sunda islands a reflex of *baliw singly or
in combination with other morphemes means 'opposite side of the river'.
This agreement between distantly related languages would appear to
be explained most simply on the assumption that the meaning 'opposite
side of the river' was a component of the meaning 'dual division'.
A possible historical link between these concepts in Austronesianspeaking societies is provided by Van Wouden (1968: 27), who observed
of the social organization of eastern Sumba that "Laura is divided into
two, viz. Letena, the older branch, associated with the mountains, and
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Robert Blust
Maradana, the younger branch, associated wit the plain". These halves
of the main village are separated by a ravine, with the Letena on the
'left hand' and the Maradana on the 'right hand' sides. He continues
(p. 28):
"Since it is plain that Letena and Maradana inhabit one village, even
though it is split into two, we can take it that the association of Letena
with mountain and Maradana with the plain is purely traditional.
Further instances of dual organization are found in Lauli, which is
divided into Lauli Bondo (above) and Lauli Wawa (below) . . . On
the right bank of a certain river lies the village of Sodan, where a
younger brother of the ruler is guardian of the sacred objects. The
village of Wunu Wulata, on the left bank, is the residence of the ruler
himself."
It thus seems likely that the dual divisions of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian
society were at least traditionally, if not physically, associated with
settlements on either side of a river. Just how this assumed physical
congruence with organizational principles might be reconciled with
double unilineal descent, however, is unclear. Similarly, the relationship
of such a pattern of physical or mythical distribution to the titles 'datu
of the upper half and 'datu of the lower half raises questions of interpretation, though we might expect in accordance with the universal
properties of dualistic classification systems that male/upper = 'right'
(bank) and female/lower = 'left' (bank).
A relationship between the preceding comparisons and comparison 3
is by no means obvious on inspection, but can be seen as probable
upon scanning the general ethnographic literature on mourning. Thus,
in his classic cross-cultural study of the ceremonial expressions of
changes of social status, Van Gennep (1909/1960: 147) observed that
since mourning requirements depend on degrees of kinship "It seems
right that widowers and widows should belong to this special world
for the longest time". In agreement with this probably universal
expectation most reflexes of *baliw3 make specific reference to the
mourning requirements of the surviving spouse. Frequently, however,
the relatives of the surviving spouse also have onerous mourning duties.
Fortune (1932: 12), for example, notes of a bereaved Dobuan man
that "At both harvests the village kin are obliged to bring big gifts
of yams and give them to the kinsfolk of his dead wife, getting back
smaller gifts, no great recompense, a few days after each gift". Where
a society is divided into moieties, as with the Iroquois, such ritual
obligations not uncommonly become the responsibility of the moiety
of the surviving spouse (Hoebel 1966: 374).
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
227
Although initial impressions suggest that comparison 3 might be connected with the earlier comparisons through the equivalence 'donning
of mourning apparel' = 'change of appearance' .= 'transformation,
metamorphosis', the basis for this connection thus appears to be more
subtle. If Proto-Malayo-Polynesian society was organized on the highest
level into mutually opposed, mutually dependent exogamous dual
divisions (whether these were simple, or intersecting as a result of the
operation of double unilineal descent), each marriage represented on
the individual level the formal bond of exchange joining the phratries
into a social totality, and its dissolution on the death of one or both
spouses represented a weakening of this bond. In, such a society the
ritualization of mourning a deceased spouse would constitute only one
expression — albeit an extremely important one —- of the antiphonal
character of moiety relations. As Levi-Strauss (1969: 80), quoting
Gay ton (1945), observes of the quasi-duaiistic Yokut(s!) and Western
Mono of central Califdrnia:
"On all occasions of... jubilance or sorrow there was always a reciprocal group who supplied services or gifts which were balanced with
gifts of equivalent value in the form of bead money, baskets, feather
ornaments, furs or foodstuffs."
Gayton's mention of the importance of ultimate balance in reciprocal
prestations among the Yokuts and Western Mono brings us, of course,
to comparison 4. Like the concept of moiety divisions itself, the idea
of balance implies a reciprocal relationship between the halves of a
whole that is in some sense bilaterally symmetrical. The resemblance
between comparisons 2 and 4, however, extends beyond the simple idea
of reciprocity, as both exhibit a positive and a negative aspect: the
"friendly" aspect of comparison 2 is the (predominantly) nominal
counterpart of the "return in kind (gifts, etc.)" aspect of comparison 4,
while the "hostile" aspect of the former shows a similar correspondence
to the "retaliate, take revenge" aspect of the latter. The semantic range
of comparison 4 is thus indistinguishable from that of Dempwolff's
*bales: 12
i
*bales 'repay, return in kind;.retaliate, take revenge'; hence 'to equalize
(a loss or debt)'
Toba Batak balos 'repay someone for something; take revenge; return
(kindness); answer (a letter)', Malay balas 'requital; repayment; reply,
e.g. to a letter; b. budi 'return a kindness; hulur b. to replace a slain
man', Ngaju Dayak baldh 'take revenge; repay (a debt)', Merina vali
'answer', Cebuano Bisayan bdlus 'do back to someone what he did to
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Robert Blust
the agent (return a smile, answer a letter, repay a kindness)'; for something to happen one way and then the opposite way; for a brother and
sister to marry people who are also brother and sister', Casiguran Dumagat bales 'term for the custom where a Negrito 13 works for a lowland
person for a few days, and then the lowland person works for the
Negrito for the same number of days', Ilokano bales 'take revenge,
vengeance; to reward, repay; to grow afresh (after having been transplanted and drooping)', a.g-ba.-bdles 'to vary, alter, change, alternate',
Paiwan v-n-alet 'oppose someone, talk or strike back, do in return',
pa.-valet 'trade places with; return a visit; oppose', ki-valet 'take
revenge'.
Given the virtual identity in semantic range between *bales and
comparison 4 it might be argued that die agreement of antithetical
senses in comparisons 2 and 4 is no necessary indication of lexical
affinity, as a similar ambivalence is found in other Proto-MalayoPolynesian morphemes, and for that matter, in other languages (e.g.
German vergelten). Since *bales is not known to be reconstructible
with any other meaning, however, it must be regarded as the best
available candidate for the meaning 'repay, return in kind; take
revenge'.14 By a process of elimination the association of this meaning
with *baliw appears therefore to have been either derivative or partial.
If anything, then, die occurrence of *bales strengthens die probability
that comparison 4 is not a homonym of *baliw as reflected in comparisons 1-3, but is rather still another realization of a single underlying idea.
III. GIFTS AND HEADS: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ELABORATION
In the preceding section the interrelations of comparisons 1-4 were
established in several distinct ways: that of comparisons 1 and 2 by
analysis of the complex ideas 'metamorphosis' and 'inseparable companion', together with die detection of a parallel ambiguity in the
notion 'alter ego'; that of 2 and 4 by a generally nominal:verbal
correspondence in terms which exhibit a similar affective ambivalence;
that of 1 and 4 by implication. The relationship of comparison 3 to
die others, however, was demonstrable only by reference to comparative
ethnographic materials, a technique that might appropriately be called
'ethnographic elaboration'.
Although die connection of comparison 4 with the others seems
fairly certain already, this connection can be further strengthened and
illuminated in perhaps unexpected ways by ethnographic elaboration.
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
229
If we begin with the "friendly" aspect of reciprocity — that of
exchange, of the giving and receiving of gifts — we immediately encounter again the system of 'circulating connubium' first described
for Indonesia by J. P. B. de Josselin de Jong and Van Wouden, since
in systems of matrilateral alliance the circulation of women is only a
part — though clearly the major part — of a larger system of counterfissive exchange which includes the circulation of j'male' and 'female'
goods in opposite directions (De Josselin de Jong 1935/1977: 170).
In such a system every descent group possesses a tripartite nature: that
of Ego group (consanguines), that of wife-giver, (superior affines)
and that of wife-taker (inferior affines). Sometimes overlooked, however, is the fact that the superiority of the wife-giving group is conceived in spiritual or magicb-religious rather than strictly political
terms, and that the affective tone of the son-in-law/father-in-law
relationship partakes more of the powerful ambivalence and intensity
typical of attitudes toward the supernatural than! it does of the less
emotionally-charged attitude toward objects in thei ordinary workaday
world.
Mabuchi (1952: 201) recognized this quality in; a brief comparison
of the social organization of the central tribes of Formosa with the
exemplary systems of eastern Indonesia:
,
" . . . the bride-giving group stands in a superior position, often both
secularly and spiritually, toward the bride-receiving group; members of
the bride-giving group as the maternal relatives of the bride-receiving
group, act as patron, adviser and supervisor and have the power to
bless or curse the latter, and this relationship is most typically exemplified between mother's brother and sister's child."
Mabuchi's remarks accord closely with die expectations created by
Needham's universal schema of dualistic classification systems (section
I I ) , where wife-takers are symbolically assigned to the profane and
wife-givers to die sacred world. A particular case of the sacred/profane
dichotomy in. a society ordered by asymmetric exchange is reported by
Barnes (1974: 251-2), who describes the authority!of the epu (a category including MB/WF) vis-a-vis the anaq maqing (a category including ZS/DH) among the people of Kedang, central Lesser Sundas
as "essentially spiritual", in contrast with the authority of the elder
members of one's own clan, which is binding in temporal affairs.
How is this sacred character of the wife-giving group conceived?
As noted elsewhere (Blust 1980), in its beneficent aspect die power of
the superior affines assumes a miraculous, curative or fecundating in-
230
Robert Blust
fluence, while in its maleficent aspect it is a dreaded source of disaster.
This Janus-faced control over life and death is particularly clear in
Vergouwen's (1933/1964: 54-5) description of 'the magico-religious
character1 of the relationship between wife-giving (hula-hula) and
wife-receiving (boru) groups among the Toba Batak:
"The hula-hula is a source of supernatural power, of individual vitality
for its boru. The boru sees the members of its hula-hula as being
endowed with sahala, that special power which can be regarded as a
rich, more than usually potent force of the tondi = soul. A beneficial
and salutory influence for the boru can emanate from this sahala; at
the same time, however, its power creates fear and respect for i t . . .
If a boru does not fare as well in life as it would wish to, if no children
are born, if a disaster like continual sickness strikes it, if there is a death
in the family, if there is a fire . . . then it turns to its hula-hula with
its urgent entreaties... in order that some of the hula-hula's, sahala
may be reflected upon it and thereby reinforce its defence against the
powers of evil that assail it."
Similarly, among the Belu of central Timor according to Vroklage
(1952, 1: 252) there is a belief that the wife-giving group (uma mane)
has the power to start fires, and to cause illness or even death for
men, livestock and the crops.
That the salutory influence of a harmonious relationship with the
wife-giving group permeates not only the collective humanity of the
wife-receiving group but also its agricultural holdings seems clear from
Hicks' (1976: 103-4) description of the imagery of nuptial speeches
in an ideal MBD marriage (hafoli) among the Tetum of Timor:
"The wife-giver's speech overflows with images of union and fertility
which transcend sexual intercourse and affinal alliance. .. The u'e
(liquid, water), as in previous speeches, joins with the idea of "multiplication"; and an association (again found in earlier speeches) is made
between the fertility of the married couple and that of the rice-lands .. .
The earth is symbolically equivalent to the wife's womb, and the rice
seed the husband's sperm. Hence the rice crops equal children."
What we have seen in the foregoing passages can be summarized as
follows: matrilateral marriage not only serves to strengthen established
ties of political alliance on the level of the clan; on the level of the
moiety/phratry it can also be viewed as a symbolic expression of the
union of the male and female halves of the cosmos. As such the
preferred marriage (followed by a harmonious relationship between
affinally-connected groups) provides magico-religious guarantees of
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
231
general well-being and fertility, with particular emphasis on childbearing and the success of the rice crop.
As seen above, in addition to the "friendly" aspect of comparison 4
centering around the exchange of gifts, there is a "hostile" aspect
centering around the notion of retaliation or revenge. In view of the
double nature of the creative/destructive force widely believed to reside
in the wife-giving group, it might be thought that the "hostile" aspect
of comparison 4 refers to the negative expression of this power. But
as already noted, the potency of the wife-giving group is predominantly
of a magico-religious character; in case of affront its punitive efficacy
would therefore presumably be largely automatic. Retaliation, by contrast, is an act not merely of conscious, but even of calculated (even
if defensive) hostility. In short, on the supra-individual level it is an
act of war.
Among the more than 2,200 entries in his Proto-Austronesian lexicon,
Dempwolff (1938) does not include a convincing reconstruction for
'war'j nor has a comparison pointing exclusively to this meaning been
discovered in the intervening four decades.15 Dempwolff did, however,
reconstruct *kayaw 'headhunting', and further support for the antiquity
of this item and the associated practice has since accumulated (Blust
1976).
Surely the expression par excellence of warfare in at least the nonOceanic portion of the Austronesian world is the taking of heads.
In many of the more traditional societies of this area the concepts
'war' and 'headhunting' are represented by a single morpheme (e.g.
Paiwan q-in-atsap 'headhunting', ma-q-in-atsap 'go to war', Uma
Juman (Kayan) t$ayo 'go to war, go headhunting', Iban kayau 'war
expedition, headhunting'), and it is clear from the general ethnographic
record that warfare dissociated from the taking of heads is a relatively
recent phenomenon (cf. note 15). As has long been recognized, however, what is most remarkable about headhunting in the Austronesian
world (and elsewhere) is the matrix of magico-religious concepts in
which the practice is inextricably enmeshed.
Downs (1955: 41) gives as reasons for headhunting among the
Toraja of central Sulawesi the following:
"A head was necessary for ending the mourning for an important
person, and for the consecration of a temple. Young men took heads
to prove their bravery to girls and it was sometimes done to prove
one's innocence with regard to some accusation or other. Apart from
such specific grounds, however, there was the general one that the
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Robert Blust
well-being of the village as a whole and the success of its crops depended
on the taking of heads."
A partly overlapping set of reasons for headhunting in Nias is given
by Loeb (1935: 145), who suggests that the "basic motive behind this
custom .. . was religious in nature".
In several parts of Indonesia the dead were commemorated at a
great annual feast, and here too heads were required. The attested
distribution suggests considerable antiquity for this association: Nias
(Loeb 1935: 145), Ngaju Dayak (Scharer 1963: 131-41), west Geram
(Jensen 1948: 159f).
Dozier (1967: 74) reports that among the Kalinga of northern Luzon
the reasons given for participation in a headhunting venture are
1) to retaliate an attack by enemy headhunters, 2) to "even the score"
when a man has lost a close relative either by natural death or as the
result of an accident, 3) to gain prestige and renown. In agreement
with Barton (1949: 236-7), however, he indicates at least an attenuated
connection with fertility concepts (p. 74):
"The reasons for and functions of headhunting among the mountain
people of northern Luzon have been generally attributed to religious
factors, most specifically to fertility concepts . . . With the Kalinga, at
least, fertility concepts involving the miraculous increase of crops and
human life as an associated aspect of headhunting appear to be absent,
except that there is a widespread belief that the taking of the life of
an enemy may cure childlessness in one's wife or female relative.
Barrenness may be dispelled by bringing death to a nonregional member
by any method, however, not necessarily by the expedient of headhunting."
Although headhunting apparently was not associated with the fertility
of the crops either in Nias or among the Kalinga, the attested distribution of this association, like that between headhunting and the feast
of the dead, leaves us little choice but to assume that it has a long
history among Austronesian-speaking peoples. One informant's account
of the origin of headhunting in the Solor archipelago as reported by
Arndt (1938: 8), for example, holds that the practice is necessary to
provide skulls for the granary of the principal god, Lera-Wulan (SunMoon), without which there would be "no rain, no vegetation, no crops,
sickness and death". Similarly, according to Kruyt (1922: 567), in
Laura and Lewa on the island of Sumba headhunting was associated
with agricultural vitality, and Downs (1955: 56), citing Jensen, notes
that in western Ceram headhunting was connected with magico-religious
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
233
ideas involving "the production of food by human sacrifice".
As the negative expression of the headhunting mystique Le Bar
(1975: 147) points out that among the Atayal of northern Formosa
after a successful war expedition
"Warriors drank a token portion of millet beer and blood poured from
the head, after which it was added to those already on the village skull
shelf in front of the chiefs house. The spirits of all these heads became
part of the collective rutux (spirits, including those of the ancestors)
that guarded and protected the village from disaster."
Finally, the probability that headhunting not only was associated with
the fertility of the crops, but also was ceremonially connected with the
agricultural cycle, is strengthened by Downs' (p. .41) statement that
headhunting among the Toraja "was usually done while the rice was
ripening or during and after the harvest", together with Uma Juman
kayo 'post-harvest ceremony for the ritual purification of weapons',
tyayo ( = rj + kayo) 'go to war, go headhunting'.- Further support for
this view appears in Schulte Nordholt's (1966/1971: 329) remark that
among the Atoni of western Timor one of the causes for a headhunting
raid was the failure to bring harvest gifts to the ruler (construed as a
sign of rebellion), and perhaps more significantly,' in the parallel use
of a hooked implement (kait) to gather first plants of the harvest and
to ritually incorporate captured heads into the circle of fertility (nono)
of the Atoni sacred world (p. 352).
Both through the contraction of a correct (i.e. matrilateral) marriage
with harmonious relations of affinal exchange and through the taking
of heads, then, the early Austronesian human/agricultural community
received magico-religious guarantees of health and fertility, and was
able to avert disaster. What can be the basis of this detailed similarity
of influences characterizing the spiritual power of wife-givers and of
heads taken in battle?
Downs (p. 51) maintains that the magico-religious efficacy of headhunting derives from its role as a rite of passage involving the ritual
reenactment of "the cosmic cycle of life and death and struggle between
the two halves of the universe, the Upper- and Underworlds". In
accordance with this reasoning he concludes (p. 69) that "there is
no sharp distinction to be made between ritual combats and headhunting".
As support for his position Downs cites an impressive array of
examples from Indonesian societies in which headhunting evidently
formed part of a ritual combat between dual divisions of the same
234
Robert Blust
society, thus providing further indications of a connection between
comparisons 2 and 4. While Downs may be justified in his conclusion
that headhunting was connected with ritual combat, however, it is
difficult to believe that it was in any way restricted to such symbolic
or ceremonial functions. Everywhere that headhunting is described in
the ethnographic literature there is ample evidence that it was practiced
at least sometimes — and probably primarily — against real enemies.
We are thus led to look beyond ritual combat in the narrow sense for
a connection between the magico-religious benefits of affinal exchange
and headhunting. Our attention is drawn again to the common thread
connecting the meanings 'to repay' and 'to retaliate'.
Magic equilibrium
While the semantic structure of individual lexical items such as *baliw4
or *bales apparently need not imply anything about the significant
values of a culture, the assumption that it does can be of heuristic
value. Thus, if the essential meaning of comparison 4 is 'to equalize',
and if this concept was connected with affinal exchange and headhunting, we are led to ask whether the idea of balance might not have
played a role in both types of activity. And if so, could this idea
underlie the magico-religious efficacy common to the voluntary transfer
of life (in affinal exchange) and to its forcible capture and ritual
incorporation (in headhunting) ? 10
The heuristic value of the linguistic evidence in relation to this
essentially ethnographic question lies less in its novelty than in its power
to compel us to reconsider suggestions made by an earlier generation
of investigators, and now largely discarded.
According to Koentjaraningrat (1975: 98) the idea of a kind of
ideal socio-cosmic balance, or 'magic equilibrium' goes back at least
as far as Van Ossenbruggen (1916), who saw in various Indonesian
cultural practices a belief "that organisms, elements and objects. . .
are charged with a magical power substance, excessive amounts of
which will create a dangerous situation and will disturb the equilibrium
of magical power which maintains the cosmic order". Although Koentjaraningrat himself is skeptical of Van Ossenbruggen's proposal, or at
least of some applications of it (particularly that of Malinckrodt 1928),
a variety of quite independent statements in the ethnographic literature
do support the contention that equilibrium is regarded in many attested
Austronesian-speaking societies as conducive to health and fertility,
and that disequilibrium is perceived as a prelude to misfortune.
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
235
The major theoretical difficulty in testing such a proposition — and
one which Mallinckrodt evidently never satisfactorily overcame —
involves the discovery of an observational basis for the definition of
'equilibrium'. Two such bases suggest themselves' immediately: the
reciprocal relations expressed in affinal exchange and in headhunting.
Because it is not central to the concerns of this paper we will content
ourselves with establishing a prima facie case for the theoretical utility
of the construct 'magic equilibrium' through direct reference to statements in the ethnographic record, and through limited comparison
with alternative theories.
Matrilateral marriage, as we have seen, typically forms part of a
larger system of affinal exchange in attested Austronesian societies.
Although such exchanges are non-reciprocal or 'asymmetric' in the
sense that each category of goods flows in only one;direction, it stands
to reason that the reciprocal exchanges of categorically opposed goods
are expected eventually to balance — that is, that the imbalance
initiated by the circulation of female goods (including women) is
corrected by the counter-circulation of male goods (frequently mislabeled 'bride price'). This achievement of equilibrium in no way alters
the differential status of the wife-giving and the wife-receiving groups,
but it serves to neutralize the culturally perceived danger of a situation
in which imbalance remains. To provide a frame of reference for this
attitude it is necessary to consider the relationship of a man to his
ZS/DH or to his MB/WF in exemplary matrilateral societies.
As observed elsewhere (Blust 1980), the relationship of a man to
his father-in-law in Austronesian-speaking societies that do not enjoin
matrilateral marriage is reportedly much the same as his relationship
to his own parents, a relationship characterized by what might be
called 'ordinary respect'. His relationship to his MB/WF in typical
matrilateral societies, on the other hand, is distinctly different. Thus
Schulte Nordholt remarks repeatedly (1971: 107, 114) that although the
young Atoni bridegroom has respect for his father (amaf), he lives
in fear of his father-in-law (atoni amaf). In time, when the bridewealth has been paid the relationship to the father-in-law becomes less
strained, and although the son-in-law is expected to be prepared at
all times to assist with such tasks as the felling of trees or the building
of a house (since the status inequality is permanent), in return for his
services he will receive the counter-gift of a meal. !
This marked anxiety of the bridegroom during what might be termed
the state of imbalance of the affinal relationship is not entirely in-
236
Robert Blust
telligible from the status inequality of the individuals or groups involved.
A man's father-in-law, after all, is the brother of his mother — hence
a person whom he has known from earliest childhood —, and perhaps
most importantly, his greatest potential living benefactor. It seems likely
that the explanation for this outwardly exaggerated behavior involves the
assumed power of the wife-givers to bless or curse their inferior affines.
But why should a man during the early years of his marriage live
in fear of the negative expression of his father-in-law's superior spiritual
power? One explanation is that the greater the imbalance in the
exchange relationship the greater the perceived danger to the wifereceivers from the superior spiritual power of the wife-givers. Schulte
Nordholt emphasizes (1971: 352) that among the Atoni affinal exchange, like headhunting is ultimately conceived as a transfer of lifeforce (smanaf) between descent groups, and he mentions (p. 140)
among the structural principles which govern the Atoni kinship system
the following:
"(3) the principle of reciprocity by means of which it is endeavoured
to maintain the stability of the balance of life. The ume (limited
lineage) always requires the same amount of smanaf it has given
away to be given in return, no matter by what means."
Barnes (1974: 247) reports that in Kedang "wife-givers are not
generally feared or regarded as excessively exploitative", but he adds
(pp. 289-90) as a feature of Kedang marriage transactions and of
asymmetric alliance systems in general "their predilection for finding
closed cycles in which exchange results in equilibrium".
Though less directly indicated, a similar attitude is evidently
prevalent among the Toba Batak. Particularly revealing is Vergouwen's
description (1964: 62) of the speech that accompanies a piso (countergift) given by the wife-receivers to their wife-givers on receipt of a
parcel of land (ulos na so ra buruk) intended to reinforce the spiritual
powers of an ailing boru:
"You have now enriched your daughter's soul, tondi, with a cloth of
her soul.17 Here now is our piso gift so that our souls may always
remain strong . . ."
As the accompanying Batak text uses the exclusive genitive pronoun
(nami) it is clear that the expression 'our souls' refers exclusively to
the wife-receivers. But why, if the ulos confers spiritual benefit in itself,
should the piso be necessary to ensure its efficacy in perpetuity? The
hoarding of spiritual grace — as a sign of ingratitude — evidently is
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
237
a perilous stratagem, capable of upsetting the delicate balance of
magico-religious forces which underlie and maintain the order of things.
More generally, as Barnes has remarked (1974: 294): "According to
Mauss's interpretation of the gift, a prestation always carries with it
a part of the owner's spirit, and not to return this with a reciprocal
gift is dangerous".
The significance of socio-cosmic equilibrium as a precondition to
collective health and fertility is similarly indicated in the practice of
headhunting. In two important early contributions to the comparative
study of religious ideas Tylor (1871/1958, I I : 42-4) argued that headhunting, like the execution of slaves, was intended to procure servants
in the afterlife, and Frazer (1890/1960: 502) maintained that the
practice was a form of human sacrifice for the crops. While Tylor's
argument undoubtedly touches on a significant aspect of headhunting
not elaborated here, it cannot be a full explanation, as it fails to
account for the widespread connection of the practice with a belief
in the 'miraculous increase' of the crops. Similarly, although Frazer's
hypothesis recognizes the fecundating efficacy of headhunting in connection with the fertility of the rice, it fails to illuminate the parallel
between this and the efficacy of headhunting in connection with the
fertility of the human community.
As seen earlier, two major occasions on which heads are required
in various Austronesian-speaking societies are the death feast and the
harvest ceremony. Both of these ceremonies are annual events, and
hence represent the conclusion of a cycle in the socio-cosmic life of
the community. They are thus — as Downs has pointed out —
occasions for the renewal of collective vitality. But what is the sociocosmic mechanism by which rebirth in the following cycle is to be
insured?
The conclusion of any cycle in human life is a time for assessing
gains and losses, and the overall state of one's condition. The death
feast clearly is a recognition of loss to the community, and while the
harvest may appear to represent a gain this is probably never true in
relation to labor (or *sumai}et) invested, given the inevitable loss of
crops to the predations of birds and wild animals. Both of these pivotal
events might therefore plausibly be seen as occasions on which the
community must confront the reality of loss to its collective vitality
during the cycle about to be completed. Through incorporating the
spiritual force of vanquished enemies, the capture of heads serves as
compensation for these losses. Given this cognitive framework we might
238
Robert Blust
infer that only an unfavorable imbalance of spiritual force would be
detrimental to the well-being of a community. Yet the evidence to
hand suggests that any imbalance is detrimental, and that headhunting
— like affinal exchange — strives toward dynamic equilibrium as the
culturally perceived precondition to health and fertility.
As already mentioned, Dozier (1967) cites as one reason for headhunting among the Kalinga of northern Luzon the need to "even the
score" when a man has lost a close relative either by natural death
or as the result of an accident. What is noteworthy here is that the
idea of re-establishing balance can have no connection with retaliation,
an observation which simplistic physicalist interpretations cannot easily
explain. Among the Kalinga, as elsewhere, the significant fact in such
cases appears to be rather that life-force has been lost from the community, and must be compensated.
Much the same idea evidently lies behind Downs' remark (1955: 41)
that among the Toraja "feuds between villages or tribes... were
suspended from time to time when the score between the two antagonists was considered to be approximately even". In a similar vein,
Schulte Nordholt (1971: 329) relates a traditional Atoni story about
headhunting in which the name of the intermediary sent to secure
the peace is literally ','he who restores the equilibrium".
Apart from such relatively direct expressions, the cultural value of
socio-cosmic equilibrium also appears to be widely maintained under
a dualistic symbolic guise. In various parts of Indonesia and the
Philippines the concepts "hot" and "cool" are paired respectively with
supernatural states of danger and safety/well-being, and rites of
"cooling" play a significant part in the transition through periods of
spiritual crisis.18 Schulte Nordholt (p. 344), for example, writes that
among the Atoni
"Heat and flames are symbolic of danger, disease and death. But the
objective of headhunting is the welfare of the community, its "coolness" . . . This is analogous to the procedure which we observed in
agriculture: first the field has to be burnt down so that later it may
produce food; first it is rendered hot (maputu), i.e. dangerous, so that
later it may bring forth coolness (mainikin), i.e. well-being, welfare."
The object of headhunting among the Atoni, then, reportedly is the
restoration of "coolness", as it is this state which conduces to the wellbeing of life. Similar ideas regarding the value of "coolness" evidently
occur in Wetar, where De Josselin de Jong (1947: 139) recorded Erai
tjirin 'cold, cool; healthy, safe', in Malaya/Sumatra where Wilkinson
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
239
(1959) gives Malay panas 'heat; (fig.) unholy (of magical practices)
or heated (of temper)', ilmu panas 'black magic'; sejok 'coolness; (fig.)
lessening of passion or excitement', Minangkabau sajok hati 'care-free;
quiet in mind', and in southern Mindanao, where Schlegel (1971)
cites Tiruray Peduf '(1) warm, hot; (2) spiritually dangerous, used of
places that meginalew (spirits, superhuman beings) are believed to
frequent or use as a pathway', legeney '(1) cool; (2) spiritually safe,
used of places where one is not bothered by meginalew'. Curiously
enough, the association of a "hot"/"cool" distinction with states of
spiritual balance occurs in Kelabit of northern Sarawak. (LeBar 1972:
162), but is reversed.
:
Finally, the probable equivalence of "coolness" with "equilibrium"
in the collective, ritual sense is strengthened by similar notions that
apply on the level of the individual personality. This is apparent, for
example, in portions of the Malay and Minangkabau glosses quoted
above, and in Vergouwen's remark (1964: 81) that among the Toba
Batak "Coolness, dingin, promotes the stability of the tondi (soul);
heat (anger, excitement) is prejudicial".
In summary, then, there are abundant references in the ethnographic
literature to the magico-religious efficacy of equilibrium or its symbolic
equivalent "coolness". The heuristic value of comparison 4 has been
amply demonstrated, but inevitably we are driven to return to our
earlier question: why should equilibrium be valued more highly than
an imbalance in one's favor? An answer is suggested by Barnes'
description (1974: 293) of the evolution of prescriptive alliance systems:
"The more ties that are established, the more a system begins to
appear which tends to prevent permanent imbalances and restricts the
possibilities of hoarding. Competition appears then only in the absence
of the system. Even in these instances, the appearance of purchase is
avoided, and a two-sided exchange is established of which the woman
herself is a part. Where the ties become, or rather can be made to be,
systematic, the system takes the form of two reciprocal cycles, of which
one includes the unilateral circulation of women . . i"
Through purely pragmatic considerations of efficiency and political
solidarity, then, systems of affinal alliance based on matrilateral
marriage tend toward a state of dynamic equilibrium, since sooner or
later the hoarding of spiritual benefit qua material advantage would
precipitate a breakdown in the exchange order. What is perhaps most
noteworthy about this observation is that the concordance between
social organization and cognitive organization already observed in
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Robert Must
mechanical terms (division into marriage classes and phratries vs.
totemism or its classificatory equivalent) appears again in what might
be called 'telic' terms (the creation of socio-political order vs. the
creation of magico-religious order). Moreover, balance can be seen to
have become a value in itself, since a belief in the fecundating efficacy
of magic equilibrium persists in societies that are now organized exclusively around the bilateral kindred. We are forcefully reminded of the
seminal insight of Durkheim that the forms of social organization provide
the models of cognitive organization, or at the very least exhibit a congruence with them that cannot easily be explained by appeal to chance.
Needham (1970: xiv, xxiv) has correctly accused Durkheim of argument by petitio principii in advancing the thesis that forms of social
organization are logically prior to the cosmological classifications of
which they are descriptively a part. Yet he himself fails to answer the
question why systems of dualistic classification would arise independently
in various parts of the world if they were only abstract conceptual
schemes imposed simultaneously on Nature and Society. In effect, the
debate between sociological determinists of Durkheimian persuasion
and non-determinists — or, as they might be called 'ideationists' —
like Needham reduces to the question: which (if either) came first,
the idea or the (social) reality?
While the onus of proposing a non-social alternative to sociological
determinism can perhaps be avoided in the preceding case through
appeal to the obvious model of bilateral symmetry in biological organisms, the concordance of social organization and cognitive organization
in telic terms poses what is in some ways a more difficult problem.
To date it is not known whether such a concordance is universal or
is unique to Austronesian-speaking peoples. If it proves to be universal,
the ideationist alternative to sociological determinism must demonstrate
some plausible universal basis for the idea of equilibrium as a pervasive
principle maintaining socio-cosmic order. Even if evidence of a belief
in 'magic equilibrium' is not found in other language families, however,
the ideationist argument in the Austronesian case must be regarded
as weak, as it maintains gratuitously that the principle of equilibrium
is an a priori idea, yet such an idea evidently would follow as an
anticipated by-product of unilateral affinal exchange.
Afterthoughts
One final extrapolation from the *baliw comparisons will perhaps not
be amiss. Comparative linguistic evidence strongly supports the inference
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
241
that early Austronesian society was from a material standpoint relatively
advanced, possessing agriculture (including rice and millet), a sophisticated maritime technology, and very likely some knowledge of iron by
a date that could hardly have been later than 4,000 B.C. (Blust 1976).
Though the details differ for obvious ecological reasons, this cultural
inventory compares favorably with that of contemporaneous Anatolia
and the Fertile Crescent — areas that spearheaded the food-producing
and urban revolutions leading to the modern world (Braidwood and
Willey 1962). As Solheim (1970) and others have shown, the material
preconditions for revolutionary technological change were probably
present in Southeast Asia even earlier than in the Middle East, yet
the area as a whole has tended toward a relatively static technological
history during the past 3,000-5,000 years. We are hardly the first to
ask 'why should this have been the case?'; for the western mind imbued
with the notion of progress as an almost ineluctable concomitant of
human history such a situation creates a fundamental philosophical
quandary. Yet the area in question corresponds closely to Levi-Strauss's
'axis of generalized exchange', a region characterized from early times
by forms of affinal alliance based on matrilateral, marriage. If such
systems of alliance tend automatically toward the; institutionalization
of equilibrium as a social value (as suggested by the Austronesian
evidence), mutually reinforcing cultural norms presumably would work
against the competitive accumulation of goods or services necessary
to revolutionary technological change.
As a causal explanation for the failure of Southeast Asian societies
to undergo spontaneous technological revolutions of the sort seen
in the Middle East despite similar technological potential at a correspondingly early period, such a suggestion is admittedly inadequate.
China, afterall, is included in Levi-Strauss's famed 'axis', yet was able
to transcend what presumably was an early ethic of equilibrium, and
various Austronesian-speaking societies have evolved relatively more
open societies based on the bilateral kindred without thereby undergoing significant technological advancement (Blust 1980). But as a
contributory explanation of the relative technological conservatism of
Austronesian-speaking peoples who — despite their dramatic conquest
of nearly half the watery surface of the earth — in many areas
remained effectively in the stone age and even reverted to nomadism,
these remarks are perhaps not without value.
242
Robert Blust
NOTES
I am grateful to J. C. Anceaux, Bernd Nothofer and D. J. Prentice for information and critical comments offered during the writing of this paper. They,
of course, are absolved from any responsibility for shortcomings in the finished
product.
To economize on space sources of language material that can be referred to
the list of sources in Blust (1979) are not repeated here. Additional sources are:
Proto-South Sulawesi : Mills 1975
Achehnese : Djajadiningrat 1934
Roti : Jonker 1908
Bare'e : Adriani 1928
Batad Ifugao : Newell 1968
Sebup : Blust n.d.
Fordat : Drabbe 1932
Sika : Meyer 1937
Li'o : Arndt 1933
Tae' : Van der Veen 1940
Long Atip : Blust n.d.
Tetum : Hicks 1976, Van Wouden
Long Jeeh : Blust n.d.
1935/1968
Merina : Richardson 1885
Tiruray : Schlegel 1971
Minangkabau : De Josselin de Jong
Toba Batak : Warneck 1977
Tongan : Goldman 1970
1951
Paiwan : Ferrell 1978
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
To preserve historical continuity works in translation or nineteeenth century
classics more generally available in recent editions are cited both by the
original publication date and by the date of translation or reissue. All page
references are to the more recent work, which alone is cited in the References.
With lexical replacement. In its general sense PMP *balay apparently meant
'public building'. As shown elsewhere (Blust 1980), *Rumaq (the source of
Tetum uma), on the other hand, probably had the literal meaning 'domicile,
family dwelling' and possibly the metaphorical meaning 'descent group,
lineage'.
Fox (1967: 190-4) takes issue with analyses that infer the presence of double
unilineal descent automatically from the presence of cross-cousin marriage and
a marriage class system, arguing (p. 194) that double unilineal descent through
dual moieties is "latent in the reciprocal exogamy system" (between moieties),
but need not be exploited. These objections affect Van Wouden's reconstruction, then, only to the extent that the latter can be regarded as a deduction
from the model rather than a consequence of empirical investigation.
Dempwolff (1938) cites this — almost certainly in error — sub *bali 'escort'.
Alternatively this opposition/complementarity may be expressed as 'Male' and
'Sky' vs. 'Female' and 'Earth'. Van Wouden's argument is not necessarily to be
interpreted as meaning that such divisions are (or were recently) still functional in all cases, as some of his data were in the nature of survivals.
P. E. de Josselin de Jong 1951: 107. For other examples of dual divisions in
Indonesia see the review of the literature in Koentjaraningrat 1975: 145-65.
For the universal character of affective ambivalence among moiety divisions
(cf. Levi-Strauss 1949/1969: 69-70), where it is pointed out that this attitude
is often institutionalized in ritual combat or games (as with the Iroquois game
of lacrosse).
Due to its rarity in reconstructed words the regular development of the diphthong *-iw in Batad Ifugao is unclear. The diphthong *-uy, with which
*-iw merges in most languages that have not preserved the original situation
intact, appears as -uy: *xtapuy > qapuy 'fire'.
Gp. Manggarai bait 'friend, enemy'. Manggarai exhibits occasional doublets in
b/w (ba/wa 'carry', batjang/watjang 'wash', benel 'plentiful, of rice grains',
wenSl 'heavy, of rain', etc.).
Notes on Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Phratry Dualism
8
243
The evidence for this claim will be discussed in a forthcoming paper on early
Austronesian taboos.
10
The double sense of alter ego is perhaps clearer from the definition in
Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language (1. another self;
another aspect of oneself, 2. a very close friend or constant companion) than
. from that in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (L. (Cicero) 'other or
second I. A second self; an intimate').
11
For perhaps the fullest elaboration of such a scheme proposed to date cf.
Jenner (1976), who raises the intriguing prospect that dual classification
systems may lie at the origin of grammatical gender.
12
The Cebuano Bisayan, Casiguran Dumagat, Ilokano and Paiwan forms have
been added to Dempwolff's cognate set; Merina ( = Dempwolff's 'Hova') vali
evidently cannot reflect *baliw, as *1 before original *i became d. .
13
I.e. a Dumagat person.
14
Additional comparisons showing some phonological and semantic resemblance
to 1-4 such as Bare's sambali iwengi ( < root ball) 'day before yesterday', Roti
manafalik-a ( < root fali) 'last year, the preceding year' almost certainly
derive from *balik 'reverse side; return, go back (to a starting point)', as does
Iban balik 'used by older people to avoid pagila "tomorrow" in speaking of
plans'. Dempwolff's *baluy 'return, go back', on the other hand, is probably
unjustified, all reflexes being assignable either to *balik or *baliw, with some
confusion of forms among daughter languages (cf. Malay kembali, but Negri
Sembilan kembalik 'return, go back', Javanese (Ngoko) ball oo wall 'return,
go home', but kosok-bali 'opposite').
15
Reflexes of Dempwolff's *pe(r)at) 'war' are limited to Toba Batak, Javanese,
Malay and Ngaju Dayak — a distribution that could plausibly result from
borrowing. Forms such as Casiguran Dumagat ge'ra, Western Bukidnon
Manobo gira 'war', which are widespread in the Philippines, clearly derive
from Spanish guerra, and thus attest to the relative recency of the concept of
war dissociated from a traditional context of magico-religious ideas.
10
Space does not permit an extensive discussion of early Austronesian religious
ideas here, but it will perhaps be useful to note the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian
forms *sumarjet 'vital principle, soul of a living being', *iiawa 'soul, in its
association with the breath, breath-soul', *qanitu 'spirit of the dead, ghost',
and the genitive phrase *sumaf)et ni pajey 'spirit of the rice'. Perusal of the
sketches in LeBar 1972, 1975 further suggests an early belief in temporarily
dispensable souls of the right and left shoulder joints, and in an essential or
main soul located in the head, from which it exited on death through the
sutures of the skull, or through the fontanel of young children. The magicoreligious basis of headhunting —- particularly its perceived connection with
the fertility of the rice — was thus almost certainly rooted in a belief that a
captured head = a captured life-force capable of incorporation into the
human/agricultural community of the victors.
17
Reference is to the ulos ni tondi, the spiritually-charged cloth presented to a
woman by her father during her first pregnancy as a blessing and safeguard
against danger. Gifts of land intended as a benediction are believed to revitalize the spiritual benefit initially conferred by the cloth, hence the metaphor.
18
See, for example, LeBar (1972: 19) on Acheh, where "cooling" is regarded as
exorcistic, Fox (1972: 108) on Roti, where it is described as a "purification",
Van Wouden (1935/1968: 51, 111) on human sacrifice at the reception of
harvest gifts among the Belu of south-central Timor to "cool the earth", and
Barnes (1974: 73, 193), who maintains that the notion is marginal in Kedang,
but is important in the Lamaholot-speaking area of the Solor archipelago.
244
Robert Blust
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