Alifuru people

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Alfur
Alifuru / Alfuros / Alfures / Alifuru / Horaforas
COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Alfuren uit de bergen van Ceram TMnr 10005708.jpg
Alfur people, most likely Alune people, in the mountains of Seram.
Regions with significant populations
Melanesia (Eastern Indonesia), Micronesia
Religion
Animism, Islam, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Moluccans, Melanesians

Alfur, Alfurs, Alfuros, Alfures, Aliforoes, Alifuru or Horaforas (in Dutch, Alfoeren) people is a broad term recorded at the time of the Portuguese seaborne empire to refer all the non-Muslim, non-Christian peoples living in inaccessible areas of the interior in the eastern portion of Maritime Southeast Asia, [1] mainly from the Arafura Sea area.

Contents

Etymology

Forced Alfur workers by Japanese soldiers during World War 2 in Rabaul carrying the funnel-shaped baskets favored by Alfur people to collect enemy products. COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Transport van kopal te Halmahera TMnr 10012934.jpg
Forced Alfur workers by Japanese soldiers during World War 2 in Rabaul carrying the funnel-shaped baskets favored by Alfur people to collect enemy products.

Several origins for the term Alfur have been proposed, including from Spanish, Portuguese, and even Arabic. [2] The most likely hypothesis however is that it originated from Tidorese halefuru, a compound composed of the stems hale "land" and furu "wild, savage". [3] From Tidore it was adopted and used by Malay traders and the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch adventurers and colonists who came to the Spice Islands.

The term referred to certain lands and their inhabitants that were considered "wild", "untamed" or "pagan", particularly in regions that fell under the influence of Tidore and neighboring Ternate. The term was thus especially used of peoples in the Maluku Islands (Halmahera, [4] Seram, and Buru among others) and nearby areas of northern and central Sulawesi. Until the 1900s even Papuans were also often called "Alfur". [5] In 1879 Van Musschenbroek, former Resident of Menado, described the use of the term in the following way:

"The general native criterion whether one still is [or is no longer] an Alfur lies in the laying aside of heathenism through the adoption of a monotheistic religion, be it Christianity or Islam. There are thus Alfurs among the most diverse races, both among the Melanesian inhabitants of New Guinea and the true Polynesians of Ceram, as well as among the (Micro?)-nesian Sangirese and the Malayo-Polynesian inhabitants of Celebes." [6]

As with the so-called Indians of South America, the various peoples collectively referred to as Alfurs were not culturally homogeneous. The term Alfur is thus generally claimed to be of no ethnological value, and shortly after the turn of the 20th century it practically disappeared from Dutch administrative and academic writings. The word "Alfuren" continued to be used by German anthropologist Georg Friederici in his works. He used it in a more specific manner to refer to the aborigines or early inhabitants of Maluku, and by extension to those from the island of Sulawesi. [7]

Present-day use

In present-day publications like guide books "Alfur" is included as a generic name for the indigenous people living in forest areas of the larger islands of the Maluku, like Halmahera and Seram.

Culture

Generally these people keep their traditional self-sufficient ways in matters of social organization, food and dress. The women often wear a characteristic funnel-shaped basket like a backpack. [8]

Alfur people usually have little contact with the more urbanized society of coastal towns, which includes the transmigrasi settlers. Their chief of war was chief Ambon I [9] The Alfur retained a custom of headhunting until the 1940s. Currently, they were under the leadership of chief Ambuk Abah Ampalang (Alfur name). [10]

Alfurs participated on wars such as fights with other tribes to deter enemies from attacking them. They act like soldiers and armed with machetes, knives, spears, javelin, bows and arrows and muskets for higher ranking officials. their main armour is leather armor. In some cases, Alfurs seek help from the Wemale people because they are one alliance.

The Alifuru Council claims to represent them to the Indonesian Government. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bacan Islands</span> Archipelago in Indonesia

The Bacan Islands, formerly also known as the Bachans, Bachians, and Batchians, are a group of islands in the Moluccas in Indonesia. They are mountainous and forested, lying south of Ternate and southwest of Halmahera. The islands are administered by the South Halmahera Regency of North Maluku Province. They formerly constituted the Sultanate of Bacan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Maluku</span> Province of Indonesia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maluku (province)</span> Province of Indonesia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ternate</span> City in North Maluku, Indonesia

Ternate, also known as the City of Ternate, is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the de facto provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the west coast of Halmahera, and is composed of eight islands: Ternate, the biggest and main island of the city, and Moti, Hiri, Tifure, Mayau, Makka, Mano, and Gurida. In total, the city has a land area of 162.20 square kilometres and had a total population of 185,705 according to the 2010 census, and 205,001 according to the 2020 census, with a density of 1,264 people per square kilometre; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 204,920. It is the biggest and most densely populated city in the province, as well as the economic, cultural, and education center of North Maluku, and acts as a hub to neighbouring regions. It was the capital of the Sultanate of Ternate in the 15th and 16th centuries, and fought against the Sultanate of Tidore over control of the spice trade in the Moluccas before becoming a main interest to competing European powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tidore</span> City in Maluku Islands, Indonesia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wemale people</span> Ethnic group of Seram Island, Indonesia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultanate of Tidore</span> Sultanate in Southeast Asia

The Sultanate of Tidore was a sultanate in Southeast Asia, centered on Tidore in the Maluku Islands. It was also known as Duko, its ruler carrying the title Kië ma-kolano. Tidore was a rival of the Sultanate of Ternate for control of the spice trade and had an important historical role as binding the archipelagic civilizations of Indonesia to the Papuan world. According to extant historical records, in particular the genealogies of the kings of Ternate and Tidore, the inaugural Tidorese king was Sahjati or Muhammad Naqil whose enthronement is dated 1081 in local tradition. However, the accuracy of the tradition that Tidore emerged as a polity as early as the 11th century is considered debatable. Islam was only made the official state religion in the late 15th century through the ninth King of Tidore, Sultan Jamaluddin. He was influenced by the preachings of Syekh Mansur, originally from Arabia. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Sultans tended to ally with either Spain or Portugal to maintain their political role but were finally drawn into the Dutch sphere of power in 1663. Despite a period of anti-colonial rebellion in 1780–1810, the Dutch grip on the sultanate increased until decolonization in the 1940s. Meanwhile, Tidore's suzerainty over Raja Ampat and western Papua was acknowledged by the colonial state. In modern times, the sultanate has been revived as a cultural institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultanate of Bacan</span> State in Southeast Asia (c.1322-1965)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moluccans</span> Ethnic group from the Moluccas Islands

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Halmahera languages</span> Language family

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sultanate of Jailolo</span>

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References

  1. Chris Ballard: 'Oceanic Negroes': British anthropology of Papuans, 1820–1869. In: Bronwen Douglas, Chris Ballard (Hrsg.): Foreign Bodies: Oceania and the Science of Race 1750–1940. ANU E Press, Canberra 2008, page 184
  2. A. B. Meyer, Über die Namen Papua, Dajak und Alfuren In Commission bei Carl Gerold's Sohn, Wien, 1882
  3. M. J. van Baarda Woordenlijst. Galelareesch-Hollandsche. Met ethnologische aanteekeningen, op de woorden, die daartoe aanleiding gaven Martinus Nijhoff, `s-Gravenhage, 1895.
  4. "The true indigenes of Gilolo, 'Alfuros' as they are here called" were noted by the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1858: The Malay Archipelago (1869), chap. 22.
  5. Anton Ploeg. 'De Papoea; What's in a name?' Asia Pacific J. Anthrop. 3 (2002), 75–101.
  6. S. C. J. W. van Musschenbroek (compiler). "Toelichtingen, behoorende bij de kaart van de bocht van Tomini of Gorontalo en aangrenzende landen, de reeden, afvoerplaatsen, binnenlandsche wegen en andere middelen van gemeenschap." Tijdschrift van het Aardrijkskundig Genootschap vol. 4 (1880), page 94, note 1.
  7. Georg Friederici, Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse einer amtlichen Forschungsreise nach dem Bismarck-Archipel im Jahre 1908. Beiträge zur Völker und Sprachenkunde von Deutsch-Neuguinea. Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten. Mittler und Sohn. Berlin, 1912.
  8. "Maurine Shimlock & Burt Jones, The Sultan's Crown" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-11-27. Retrieved 2010-03-05.
  9. Kal Muller, Spice Islands; The Moluccas, Indonesia Travel Guides. Periplus editions. Singapore 1991 ISBN   0-945971-07-9
  10. Lonely Planet Indonesia, 8th edition p.762
  11. Alifuru Council, 27 May 2017