B - SWIDDEN CULTIVATORS-SAGO COLLECTORS

Galela (ISHIGE ,1980).

Dual habitat

Permanent villages are built along the coast and households are based on the nuclear family ; there are also temporary huts near the gardens. 2 km separate each community. There is no seasonal mobility at village level (Tobelo). The Galela have 23 villages with 262 to 1412 inhabitants ; 12 villages are on the coast and 11 inland around the lakes.

At the back of each village on the coast, there is a small mangrove plain. Travelling is done over land along paths or by sea. There is a vegetable garden around each field hut. The fields are a 30 to 45 mn walk away from the village.

Spatial organization and ownership

The forest belongs to the village and cultivated land to the patrilineage. The boundaries are clearly defined and maintained through mutual repect or, occasionally, sanctioned by village decision (Tobelo).

In the Muslim or Christian (Galela) coastal populations, the village territory includes the houses, swamps, forests and nearby coast. Rights to cultivate land and gather products on village territory are distributed equally among all eligible villagers.

The mosque, the school and the school teacher's house belong to the community as a whole. The church now belongs to the Christian community. The descendants of the Sultan of Ternate own half the sago forests of Limau village, and the villagers have the rights to use the produce of these forests, besides owning the other half. An individual cannot own forest land but can own sago palms and fruit trees (Galela).

Socio-political structure

The household is made up of a nuclear family, sometimes extended to include a patrilineal family of 13 to 15 people (Tobelo, Galela). Interlineage relationships within the village community are the basis for the structure of the community as a whole (Tobelo).

Power is in the hands of a village headman, who is elected though also designated by the government, and of the lineage elders (Tobelo).

The lineage elders, who make up the village council, and the headman take decisions by consensus. If they cannot reach an agreement, the district capital's justice officer intervenes. Two other people, the minister and the person in charge of culture and sports, are elected and payed by the village headman. Villagers also elect the leader of the mosque (imam) and the customary headman (adat). The village headman distributes land to immigrants (Galela).

Religion and the forest

Though they are now Protestants, they are still very much influenced by the traditional cosmology. The religious leaders are the minister and the traditional shamanic healers. Rituals are linked to their use of the forest. Clearing is associated with rituals that require access to certain areas of the forest, where specific stones and rivers lie (Tobelo). The Galela, Christians and Muslims, continue to beleive in their traditional spirits.

Swidden agriculture

On the mountain slopes, in primary and secondary forest, cleared land is often left unused, or only partly used for about a year ; the bigger trees are left to grow.

Rice is planted first, and if the swidden land is rich enough, bananas or manioc and sweet potatoes are grown on it for the next 2 or 3 years, after which the land is left fallow for about 10 years. A new plot is cleared every 2 or 3 years (it is hard work and there is little mutual aid) (Galela). Approximately 50 different species are grown, among which the staple crops, tubers and rice. Some grow rice for the first 2 years and then other plants for about 10 years. Land is never abandoned (Tobelo).

The amount of cultivated land necessary for the subsistence of one household (Galela) : 678 m², i.e. half of what is considered necessary in India, South-East Asia, and Japan.

Swidden plots	Average size of swidden	average size of vegetable patch	number of species planted
new swidden	226 m2
previous year's swidden	226 m2
banana field	226 m2
	678 m2	10 m2	40

Rice yields are low, whereas the yields of cultigens that regenerate vegetatively are high : banana, tubers, sugar cane, palm trees... see Melanesia (Galela).

Hunting, fishing and gathering are still important activities.

Hunting : small game, snakes, birds, a little large game, such as deer and wild pigs. Individuals always hunt alone (traps, bow, spear) (Tobelo, Tobaru). Coastal populations hunt deer and pigs that devastate the fields, but only in the free time left after fishing, clearing and sago collecting (spear, trap, blowpipe, but no bow). They hunt the larger bird species with guns and collect the eggs of megapods (Galela).

Fish and shellfish are important sources of protein. Sea fishing is popular with the Tobelo (boat, lines, nets). The Galela fish in shallow water (1 km from the coast) except for migrant fish ; they only fish for themselves (line, net, harpoon at sea, and weirs and basket traps in rivers) and catch 35 different species of salt water fish.

They collect sago mainly and 2 varieties of wild banana (Tobelo) ; sago, fern shoots, bamboos, fungi, the leaves of Amaranthus and Ipomea aquatica leaves (Galela).

Tobelo craftsmen make approximately 25 tools and women make basketwork ; local smiths re-use small pieces of metal, and some men sculpt wood. Materials used are local : pandanus wood, bamboo.

Diet is based on their own production and subsistence activities. They are self-sufficient .

Wild products : collecting, fishing and hunting provide fish, deer, and wild pig ; cultivated products : rice (several varieties), millet, maize, manioc, bananas, tomatoes, chili peppers, pineapple, langsat, cucumbers, coconut, papaya, etc. Very few commercial products except tinned fish in times of famine (Tobelo).

The Galela have 3 meals a day.

Frequency of ingredients in 122 meals (from October 25 to December 8) : 82 meals contained fish (generally fresh, salted or smoked dry), 40 sago, 39 bananas, 30 rice, 25 tea, 16 sweet potatoes, 13 manioc, eggplant, 5 breads, 1 pancake, dried fish, papaya leaves, chicken, wheat flour (ISHIGE, 1980 : 268). Sago, banana, then rice, sweet potato and manioc are the staple food, and fish is the main source of protein ; vegetables and wild plants are eaten with them.

Papaya (fruit and the leaves eaten as spinach), chewed sugar cane, tomatoes, onions, leeks, chili peppers, ginger, curcuma, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), peanut, mungo beans (Vigna mungo), squash, gourd, Momordica charantia, etc ; watermelons, mangoes, citrus fruits are eaten raw in between meals. Cooking techniques and the dishes prepared are elaborate and varied.

Smoked or dried fish is sold at the weekly market in Soasio where sugar, flour, and tea are bought.

Traditional medicine

Healers are famous for their vast knowledge of forest products that are used for medical treatments and religious rituals. There is no pharmacological inventory of the products they use (Tobelo, Galela).

They are partly integrated in the national and regional economy.

Only cash crops are sold and this started +/-50 years ago : dessicated coconut, cloves, cacao (Tobelo), copra, and also sago (30% of total production) and a little smoked fish (Galela).

Contacts between different groups : Tobelo, Galela (north), Tobaru (east) and Tobelo Boeng (south), approximately 35 km apart, with each other and with Chinese and Buginese merchants, foresters and Javanese officers. Markets and shops. The Galela have immigrant populations from Sulawesi in 2 of their villages (Makete, Pelita).

Political and legal context

There are state primary schools which 90% of the children attend. Teaching is in Indonesian. But there is no specific administration or jurisdiction for them. Their land is under state authority, there are no reserves, but there are large-scale projects to settle Javanese families on Halmahera (Tobelo).

A difficult economic situation

Logging since 1975, and, since 1980, the agricultural expansion of immigrants, enforced settlement, and the government officials and merchants buying land have put a lot of pressure on the environment : excessive land exploitation and less game available in the areas where logging is carried out (Tobelo). What is more, the land used for cash crops (coconut, cacao, cloves) is extending. The secondary forest is further degraded and turned into grassland.

Major risks : government transmigration projects, increasing pressure to engage in cash cropping, and, especially, logging.

Attitude towards change : the Tobelo wish to preserve their traditional culture and ethnic identity.

Health : average, improving. Main diseases causing mortality : malaria and tuberculosis. Little alcoholism. There are several health centres