Language, Identity and Marginality in Indonesia: The Changing Nature of Ritual Speech on the Island of Sumba. By Joel C. Kuipers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 183pp., bibliography, index. Reviewed by John Bowden (Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University).

Languages do not just "up and die." They do not grow old, wear out, get sick, decay, or rot. It is true that we speak of language mixing, borrowing, and code-switching, terms which seem to imply images of purity and pollution, wholeness and partiality, completeness and fragmentation. However, languages are not organisms with lives of their own, apart from the actors who use them. (p. 149)

With these words Joel Kuipers begins the conclusion to his study of language shift amongst the Weyewa of West Sumba. According to Kuipers, 'among the Weyewa, the story of the politics of linguistic shift is not happening on the level of dialect - ... - but on the level of register ... While Weyewa are not changing what they consider to be their native language, their ways of using it, and using ritual speech are changing rapidly' (p. 68). Kuipers argues that language shift cannot be understood without reference to genres of speech and how different genres are ideologized within a culture. This book focuses on changes in the prestigious genres of ritual speech - those genres most clearly ideologized in Weyewa culture.

Successive chapters of the book are devoted to each of five general processes that Kuipers argues have driven linguistic shift in the Weyewa highlands: hierarchic inclusion, essentialization, spectatorship, indexicalization, and erasure.

Hierarchic inclusion refers to a process whereby speech forms once seen as complete in themselves come to be seen as just part of some wider whole. Large-scale immigration from 'ancestral villages' - where a full range of ritual speech used to take place - to 'garden villages' - where important genres were no longer sanctioned - became common. Ritual language came to be seen as just a component of the Weyewa language instead of being something complete in itself. Now, in a further process of hierarchic inclusion, Weyewa itself is being seen as just one of a large number of regional languages in Indonesia.

In traditional Sumbanese society, ritualized displays of 'anger' were one of the characteristics of powerful individuals; subordinates adopted a humble and self-pitying stance in relation to 'angry men.' Displays of 'anger' were a feature of ritual speech which indexed the social category of 'angry man,' but the displays of anger came to be seen by the Dutch (and eventually the Sumbanese too) as an essential attribute of traditional Sumbanese leadership rather than just an index of that authority, and it was discouraged. In place of 'anger,' the Dutch demanded 'humility.' The Weyewa obliged, but also became 'cunning'. In the words of one Weyewa man, 'In the past I was angry all the time, and hot inside; now I feel cool, but cunning.' This 'essentialization' of anger led to greater use of less 'angry' speech, and formerly marginal genres such as the lawiti or 'lament' came to predominate.

The Sumbanese who used to be the main actors in displays of ritual speech had become spectators. Not having control over their political fate, their role was on the sidelines. 'Essentialized' forms of ritual speech like the lawiti 'lament' which now predominated were those which were traditionally given as a response to the more active performances of 'angry' men. Spectatorship also became the only role left for the Weyewa in politics, first under the Dutch, then the Japanese, and finally under Soekarno and the New Order Indonesian governments.

Indexicalization refers to changing naming practices. Weyewa names once had semantic functions, entailing essential characteristics of a person's nature. Prestigious 'horse names' (ngara ndara) such as Dappa Doda, Karambo 'Swift Conqueror, the Water Buffalo' were once bestowed late in life after spectacular feasting and gave prestige to their owners through their meanings. Now, the adoption of Christian names or 'tax names' (ngara pajak) means that names are largely indexes, pointing to people and individuating them for the convenience of bureaucracy. The only meaning they have left is to classify people as male or female, Christian or Muslim.

In the last chapter of the book, Kuipers examines changing learning practices. He shows how mass schooling has brought 'erasure': the preconditions for acquiring ritual speech other than the sanitized lawiti and similar forms no longer exist. These sanitized forms, now taught in schools, performed in competitions and for tourists are coming to stand for ritual speech as a whole; other forms have been effectively erased. While the central concern of this book is changes in the use of ritual speech, its implications are much wider, touching on many aspects of political marginality and identity in a colonial and now post-colonial setting. It is well written and virtually free of typos. Kuipers' new book is warmly recommended to anyone interested in any of these areas.

(This review was uploaded to www.antarakita.net on September 26, 2003)