Kubu culture under threat from outside
Kubu culture under threat from outside
Text and photos by Pandaya
SOROLANGUN, Jambi (JP): There are few people the Kubu
tribespeople of Jambi trust like Robert Aritonang, a Batak
anthropologist who has spent two years doing a study in the
jungle on the "primitive" community.
If Aritonang asks them to strip to their loin cloths to pose
for visiting photographers, they will dutifully do so, although
being photographed is in fact taboo for them.
"They (the Kubu) can be as open as other ethnic groups to
outsiders once you know how to win their hearts," said the
smiling anthropologist.
Aritonang has been researching the jungle people's culture for
Warsi, a non-governmental organization which offers advocacy to
the tribespeople. The Kubu are fighting a losing "war" against
the government-backed capitalists who fell the forest -- the
people's natural home and source of livelihood.
Warsi activists have been aggressively helping the Kubu retain
their ancestral right to the rain forests. They have raised the
jungle people's plight in national and international forums.
"Orang Rimbo", or jungle people, as the Kubu are proud to call
themselves, formerly isolated themselves from the outside world.
But since the government began to exploit forests on a large
scale, awarding concessionaires to capitalists in 1975, the
people have been quickly losing their habitat.
The unceasing destruction of the Jambi forests has pushed them
to turn to the outside world for help.
The population has been fairly stable at between 2,500 and
3,000 over the past two decades.
The population is scattered in Bukit Duabelas, Bukit Tigapuluh
and along the central Trans-Sumatra highway in Sorolangun
regency.
Aritonang says the child mortality rate is very high because
of the lack of cleanliness, endemic diseases and poor health
services from the government. Common diseases are respiratory
problems and malaria. They rely on traditional herbs, abundant in
the forest, for medication.
The people jealously defend their "primitive" way of life.
According to Aritonang, the Kubu are animist and nomadic.
Every tribal member is bound to abide by the customary laws.
Scattered in several localities, each tribal group is led by a
chief called Tumenggung, who is assisted by his deputy, Dipati,
Anak Dalam, Mangku, Menti and Tenganang.
"There is no strict division of jobs among the leaders in the
tribal government hierarchy," Aritonang says.
Each group, usually comprising some 20 people, lives in a
shacks built closely to each other. The hut consists of a bench
made of twigs, with the roof a plastic sheet.
They live largely on forest products: fruits, tubers and
honey. Most are already familiar with outside goods; selling or
bartering products such as rattan, herbs, resin and pork with
rice, cigarettes, kerosene, matches, etc. Cutting trees without
the tribal chief's consent is subject to severe punishment or a
hefty fine.
The jungle people are chain-smokers. Many children as young as
10 puff like a chimney. Smoking is considered a sign of maturity.
As soon as one starts smoking, an individual is perceived as
reaching adulthood and is subject to customary laws.
"They spend most of their money on cigarettes they buy at Rp
1,000 a pack," Aritonang says.
In the jungle, the Kubu wear loincloths, and it is taboo for
the women (and female children) to be seen by outsiders. But
those living in the jungle peripheries are dressed like people of
other ethnic groups.
A group of outer Kubu in Bangujo near a Javanese transmigrant
resettlement site have two motorcycles and women meet any outside
guests.
"I need the bikes to go shopping and hunting," says Sikap, one
of the group leaders.
Erinaldi, a Warsi activist who has close contact with the Kubu
and speaks their dialect fluently, says the jungle people have
suffered discrimination by other ethnic groups in Jambi.
"Rimbo people are considered dirty, uncivilized and
frightening. Public transport van drivers will refuse to take
them because other people will refuse to enter if they see any
Rimbo people inside," he says.
On their part, the Kubus see outsiders, especially the Malays,
as "troublemakers, people who bring in disasters and diseases"
and therefore must be avoided.
The Kubu are essentially peace-loving people. They will
usually withdraw and avoid confrontation as a way to solve any
dispute.
Although women are barred from seeing outsiders, they play the
dominant role in the family. They manage the household, run the
economy and are entitled to the ancestral inheritance.
Anytime a family member dies, the group will move far away and
construct a new home. They will put the corpse on an open wooden
bench and his/her belongings in a secret place in the jungle and
commend it to Mother Nature.
They have a long list of taboos: attending school, cutting
certain trees, letting women be seen by outsiders, bathing with
soap, washing clothes with detergent, dumping waste into the
river and having pictures taken.
Aritonang said attending school is strictly forbidden because
reading and writing is a foreign concept. "They observed that
after they were shown a piece of paper by the forest
concessionaire holder, they saw their trees indiscriminately
felled. It is a traumatizing thing," he says.
They refuse to be photographed because they believe their
pictures would be used to bewitch them, resulting in illness or
even death.
Breaking the taboos and the unwritten customary law are
subject to fines and punishment, which are decided in a plenary
meeting of tribal leaders. The decision-making is a highly
complicated process that sometimes takes several days to reach a
compromise.
For example, cutting sialang, the tall tree where wild bees
have their colonies, is punishable by death, or a fine of 5,000
pieces of cloth.
Anybody relieving themselves is required to announce what they
are doing every so often out loud. Otherwise he/she will be fined
if he/she is accidentally spotted by a passerby.
Religious rituals are strictly closed to outsiders. Even a
wedding ceremony is attended only by core family members.
The tribespeople living within the jungle are more
"prosperous" than those who have been displaced to the periphery.
Despite the dwindling forests, the inner Kubu are better off
because they can rely on forest products to survive, while the
outer Kubu have to work as low-paid workers in private or
government plantation projects. Tribespeople begging along the
Sorolangun highway are a common sight, especially during the dry
season when food is scarce. Many of them have skin diseases.
The Kubu do not have their own art forms, such as dance or
music. They do not even have basic drawings because stationery is
taboo. As in other animist tribal groups, mantras are widely
practiced.
Their strong rejection of outside cultures is obvious in their
cold response to the government's well-intentioned plans to
"civilize" the Kubu by building them a complex of 75 houses in
the isolated Sungai Pelakar subdistrict, Sorolangun.
Only 26 of the wooden 6 meter by 5 meter houses are
occasionally occupied. The elementary school is almost empty and
the teacher from the town rarely pays a visit.
"What is the use of having a house when our tradition requires
us to move when a family member dies?" says M. Husin, the
neighborhood chief.
But obviously, it is increasingly impossible for the jungle
people to shield themselves from outside cultures. They are
losing their habitat and their culture is endangered. They need
trusted people from outside their community to defend them.
Many members of the jungle tribe have had extensive contact
with outsiders: entrepreneurs that buy their products, government
representatives and NGO volunteers offering legal advocacy.
They have abandoned the long-held taboos. They will gladly
pose for photographers or TV crews, bathe with soap and introduce
their female relatives to guests from town.
"There is no ethnic group in this world who is able to
maintain the purity of their culture," says Aritonang. "The Rimbo
people will sooner or later open themselves to the outside world.
It's about time."