1 Fox, James J., ‘Maritime communities in the Timor and Arafura region: Some historical and anthropological perspectives’, in East of Wallace's Line: Studies of past and present maritime cultures of the Indo-Pacific region, ed. O'Connor, Sue and Veth, Peter (Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia, 2000), vol. 16, pp. 337–56Google Scholar. In relation to the Butonese, Fox explains that as there are more than a dozen distinct language communities in Buton, the Butonese identity is not based on ethnicity but on historical allegiances and place attachments, ibid., p. 343.

2 More generally, it was recently noted that in the field of anthropology, inter-communal relations in diverse post-migration settings are seriously understudied. Much more research attention has focused on distinct migrant ethnic groups and their transnational ties and practices. Vertovec, Steven, ‘Introduction: New directions in the anthropology of migration and multiculturalism’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30, 6 (2007): 966CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Broch, Harald Beyer, ‘Ethnic differentiation and integration: Aspects of inter-ethnic relations at the village level on Bonerate’, Ethnic Groups, 7 (1987): 19–37Google Scholar.

4 See Ammarell, Gene, Bugis navigation (New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1999)Google Scholar, and Southon, Michael, The navel of the perahu: Meaning and values in the maritime trading economy of a Butonese village (Canberra: Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 1995)Google Scholar.

5 See Gregory Acciaioli, ‘Searching for good fortune: The making of a Bugis shore community at Lake Lindu, Central Sulawesi’ (Ph.D. diss., Australian National University, 1989), and Jacqueline A. Lineton, ‘An Indonesian society and its universe: A study of the Bugis of South Sulawesi (Celebes) and their role within a wider social and economic system’ (Ph.D. diss., University of London, UK, 1975).

6 Ndoen, Marthen L., Gorter, Cees, Peter, Nijkamp and Rietveld, Piet, ‘Entrepreneurial migration and regional opportunities in developing countries’, Annals of Regional Science, 36, 3 (2002): 421–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Ross, Marc Howard, The culture of conflict: Interpretations and interests in comparative perspective (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 187CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Ibid.

9 Gungwu, Wang, ‘Migration patterns in history: Malaysia and the region’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society [Malaysia], 58, 1 (1985): 43–57Google Scholar. ‘Pergi merantau’ is a term that has been used throughout the Malay world for centuries, but especially in Island Southeast Asia, meaning to voluntarily leave one's home (and perhaps one's country) to seek knowledge, skills and experience elsewhere in a foreign place. See ibid., p. 44.

10 Grillo, Ralph D., Pluralism and the politics of difference: State, culture and ethnicity in comparative perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Ibid., p. 17.

12 Wang, Migration patterns in history; Hall, Kenneth R., Maritime trade and state development in early Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985)Google Scholar; Scott, James C., ‘Freedom and freehold: Space, people and state simplification in Southeast Asia’, in Asian freedoms: The idea of freedom in East and Southeast Asia, ed. Kelly, David and Reid, Anthony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 37–64Google Scholar.

13 Corporate identities are those tied to family, kin and ethnic groups; unitary identities are common, uniform identities imposed by the state; and hybrid refers to identities that are inter-mixed and fused, often as a result of transnational or translocal movement.

14 Sutherland, Heather, ‘Power, trade and Islam in the Eastern Archipelagos, 1700–1850’, in Religion and development. Towards an integrated approach, ed. van Ufford, Philip Quarles and Schoffeleers, Matthew (Amsterdam: Free University Press, 1988), p. 148Google Scholar.

15 Therik, Tom, Wehali: The female land. Traditions of a Timorese ritual centre (Canberra: Pandanus Books, in association with the Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, 2004)Google Scholar.

16 Taylor, Jean Gelman, Indonesia: Peoples and histories (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), pp. 134–5, 142Google Scholar.

17 Scott, ‘Freedom and freehold’, p. 50. Paradoxically, however, movement and migration commonly occurred, as people resisted control, for example, conscription to war, and extractive practices designed to secure a tax base by fleeing.

18 Scott, James C., ‘The state and people who move around’, IIAS Newsletter, 19 (1999), p. 3Google Scholar.

19 Wang, Migration patterns in history, p. 51.

20 Rather than religious groups initiating conflict between themselves, foreign mercantile and colonial powers have attempted to manipulate local elites on the basis of religious affiliation in efforts to secure control over more territory, populations or both. Bartels, Dieter, ‘Your God is no longer mine: Moslem-Christian fraticide in the central Moluccas (Indonesia) after a half millennium of tolerant co-existence and ethnic unity’, in A state of emergency: Violence, society and the state in Eastern Indonesia, ed. Pannell, Sandra (Darwin: Northern Territory University Press, 2003), p. 131Google Scholar.

21 Grillo, Pluralism and the politics of difference, p. 3.

22 Ibid., p. 100.

23 Ibid., p. 18, emphasis in original.

24 Ibid., pp. 216–17.

25 Vatikiotis, Michael R.J., Indonesian politics under Suharto: The rise and fall of the New Order (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 93Google Scholar. Despite Pancasila's principles that were supposed to allow for an ethnically inclusive society, successive Indonesian governments have in many ways treated Indonesian Chinese as outsiders. See Cotton, J., Ishida, T. and Kerkvliet, B., ‘Government’, in Comparing cultures, ed. Milner, Anthony and Quilty, Mary (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1996), p. 265Google Scholar.

26 Vatikiotis, Indonesian politics under Suharto, p. 95.

27 Spyer, Patricia, ‘Diversity with a difference: Adat and the New Order in Aru (Eastern Indonesia)’, Cultural Anthropology, 11, 1 (1996): 25–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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29 van Klinken, Gerry, ‘Ethnicity in Indonesia’, in Ethnicity in Asia, ed. Mackerras, Colin (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003), pp. 69Google Scholar.

30 Hugo, Graeme J.et al., The demographic dimension in Indonesian development (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 182Google Scholar.

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33 Li, Tania Murray, ‘Ethnic cleansing, recursive knowledge, and the dilemmas of sedentarism’, International Social Science Journal, 54, 3 (2002): 366CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Munir, , ‘Indonesia, violence and the integration problem’, in Violence in Indonesia, ed. Wessel, Ingrid and Wimhofer, Georgia (Hamburg: Abera, 2001), p. 19Google Scholar.

35 Cited in Li, ‘Ethnic cleansing, recursive knowledge, and the dilemmas of sedentarism’, p. 366.

36 Ibid.

37 Crouch, Harold, ‘Political transition and communal violence’, in Searching for peace in Asia Pacific: An overview of conflict prevention and peacebuilding activities, ed. Heijmans, Annelieset al., (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004), p. 376Google Scholar.

38 Fox, James J., ‘Beyond Jakarta: Contemplating Indonesia's possible futures’, in Beyond Jakarta: Regional autonomy and local societies in Indonesia, ed. Sakai, Minako (Belair, SA: Crawford House, 2002), p. 298Google Scholar. One example of unsponsored migration and settlement over several generations is of Muslims originally from Buton who migrated to Ambon, many working in commerce; see Bartels ‘Your God is no longer mine’, pp. 128–53. In 1999, large numbers of these ‘non-indigenous’ Muslims were forced to flee Ambon after violent clashes with Ambonese Christians, many of them returning to Buton.

39 Ibid., p. 298.

40 In some cases, socio-economic opportunities for indigenous communities may be compromised if entrepreneurial migrants become sufficiently numerous, are predominantly urban based and better educated, and have influence in local politics, for example, in the provinces of Papua and West Papua. See McGibbon, Rodd, Plural society in peril: Migration, economic change and the Papua conflict, Policy Studies, 13 (Washington, DC: East-West Center Washington, 2004)Google Scholar.

41 Kathy Robinson, ‘Inter-ethnic violence: The Bugis and the problem of explanation’, in Beyond Jakarta, ed. Sakai, pp. 145–72; Tirtosudarmo, Riwanto, ‘Migration, development and political autonomy in Eastern Indonesia’, in Population movement in Southeast Asia: Changing identities and strategies for survival, ed. Ken-ichi, Abe and Masako, Ishi, JCAS Symposium Series No. 10 (Osaka: Japan Center for Area Studies, National Museum of Ethnology, 2000), pp. 177–93Google Scholar.

42 Acciaioli, Gregory, ‘Bugis entrepreneurialism and resource use: Structure and practice’, Anthropologi Indonesia, 57 (1998): 81–91Google Scholar; Acciaioli, Gregory, ‘Grounds of conflict, idioms of harmony: Custom, religion, and nationalism in violence avoidance at the Lindu plain, Central Sulawesi’, Indonesia, 72 (2001): 81–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Aditjondro, G.J., Datang dengan kapal, tidur di pasar, buang air di kali, pulang naik pesawat (‘Arrive by boat, sleep in the market, piss in the river and go home by aeroplane’) (Jayapura: Yayasan Pengembangan Masyarakat Desa, 1986)Google Scholar; Ammarell, Gene, ‘Bugis migration and modes of adaptation to local situations’, Ethnology, 41, 1 (2002): 51–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bartels, ‘Your God is no longer mine’; Robinson, ‘Inter-ethnic violence’; Tirtosudarmo, ‘Migration, development and political autonomy in Eastern Indonesia’.

43 Acciaioli, ‘Bugis entrepreneurialism and resource use’; Robinson, ‘Inter-ethnic violence’.

44 Ammarell, ‘Bugis migration and modes of adaptation to local situations’, p. 52.

45 Acciaioli, ‘Grounds of conflict, idioms of harmony’, pp. 101–2.

46 Barnes, Robert H., ‘Avarice and iniquity at the Solor fort’, Bijdragen Tot De Taal- Land- En Volkenkunde, 143, 2–3 (1987): 208–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Ibid., p. 219.

48 Fox, James J., ‘The “movement of the spirit” in the Timor area: Christian traditions and ethnic identities’, in Indonesia: The making of a culture, ed. Fox, James J. (Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1980) pp. 238Google Scholar, 241.

49 Barnes, ‘Avarice and iniquity at the Solor fort’, pp. 217, 219.

50 Fox, ‘The “movement of the spirit” in the Timor area’, p. 238.

51 Fox, James J., Harvest of the palm: Ecological change in Eastern Indonesia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977), p. 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

52 Ibid., pp. 93, 70, 100–1.

53 Ibid., pp. 109–11.

54 Ibid., p. 104.

55 BPS, Kabupaten Rote Ndao dalam angka 2002 [Rote Ndao Regency in statistics 2002] (Kupang: Badan Pusat Statistik, Kabupaten Kupang, 2002), p. 97Google Scholar.

56 The rulers of the small kingdoms of Luwu, Tallo and Goa in South Sulawesi, for example, had converted to Islam by the early 17th century.

57 Fox, Harvest of the palm.

58 Ibid., p. 80.

59 Ibid., p. 82.

60 Suryadinata, Leoet al., Indonesia's population: Ethnicity and religion in a changing political landscape (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003), p. 109CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In this article, I loosely refer to people of mixed ethnic Rotinese and non-Rotinese heritage (Bugis, Butonese, Makassarese) as ‘Rotinese Muslims’ or ‘Oelaba Muslims’. It should be noted, however, that within this grouping there are also indigenous Rotinese who are not of mixed ethnic heritage. These include men and women (mostly women) who converted from Christianity to Islam as a result of intermarriage, as well as some men who initiated their conversion to Islam outside of marriage.

61 Fox, Harvest of the palm, p. 9.

62 In Oelaba there are very small numbers of Sama Bajau descendants. Sama Bajau are traditionally nomadic fisher people, many of whom have settled on coastal land in the last half century but in general remain oriented to the sea for their livelihood.

63 The name Wakatobi is derived from the first syllable (two letters) from each island as follows: Wa from Wanci, Ka from Kaledupa, To from Tomea and Bi from Binongko.

64 Acciaioli, ‘Principles and strategies of Bugis migration’, pp. 244–5, analyses patterns of Bugis migration to central Sulawesi and identifies several types, strategies and phases. The two main migration types he identifies among the Bugis are chain migration, whereby groups of kin follow the initial pioneers to the new destination; and patron-client migration, whereby high-status pioneers organise their followers to join them in the new homeland as a ready source of labour.

65 The local Islamic tradition is for sons to inherit the family name of their fathers as their first name.

66 Fox, Harvest of the palm, p. 70.

67 Horridge, G. Adrian, The lambo or prahu bot: A western ship in an eastern setting, Maritime Monographs and Reports No. 39 (Greenwich: Trustees of the National Maritime Museum, 1979), p. 9Google Scholar.

68 Ibid., p. iv.

69 Ibid., pp. 10–11.

70 Ibid., p. 34.

71 It is not clear exactly when trading relationships between Muslim seafarers and the Rotinese were first established — it could have been sooner than the first settlers to Oelaba in the late 19th century.

72 van Lynden, D.W.C., ‘Bijdrage tot de kennis van Solor, Allor, Rotti, Savoe en omliggende eilanden’, Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indie, 2 (1851): 394Google Scholar.

73 There are no mountainous regions in Roti. The limestone coral island is mostly flat with some hilly areas.

74 The Rotinese language belongs to a class of assorted languages known as the Timor-Ambon group; see Fox, Harvest of the palm, p. 5. There are numerous dialects of Rotinese roughly corresponding to each of the traditional domains on the island. Fox states that it is impossible to ascertain how many dialects of Rotinese exist because they exist as a dialect chain across the island. In Oelua, villagers speak the Dengka dialect; see ibid., p. 81.

75 Like many ethnic groups in NTT, the Rotinese also commonly speak bahasa Kupang, a local language derived from Malay known also as Kupang Malay. Villagers in Oelua commonly mix together bahasa Kupang and bahasa Indonesia.

76 Fox, James J., ‘Reefs and shoals in Australia-Indonesia relations: Traditional Indonesian fishermen’, in Australia in Asia: Episodes, ed. Milner, Anthony and Quilty, Mary (Melbourne: Oxford University Press 1998), p. 126Google Scholar.

77 International Crisis Group (ICG), Tensions on Flores: Local symptoms of national problems (Jakarta / Brussels: ICG Indonesia Briefing, 10 Oct. 2002), p. 8. Refer to http://www.crisisgroup.org/library/documents/report_archive/A400793_10102002.pdf (last accessed on 23 Mar. 2009).

78 Ibid., p. 1.

79 Tule, Philipus, Longing for the house of God, dwelling in the house of the ancestors: Local belief, Christianity, and Islam among the Keo of Central Flores (Fribourg: Academic Press, 2004), pp. 233, 270Google Scholar.

80 ICG, Tensions on Flores, p. 2.

81 Robinson, ‘Inter-ethnic violence’, p. 148.

82 Manek Christophe Tungga granted the land and trees just eight years prior to Roti adopting the national government system of sub-district administrative areas and administrators in 1969. At that time there was only one sub-district and one administrator for the whole of Roti and this officially replaced the traditional political domains and their local rulers.

83 In Oelua today, there are few signs of material culture from the places of origin of the Muslim migrants. A single example of Butonese cultural heritage that has merged with Rotinese culture is of a local song accompanied by the gong, known as Li Butu, to which men perform martial arts at weddings. The Dengka word li means ‘sound’ (in relation to a song) while the word Butu is Rotinese for Buton. Li Butu is the only local song that is accompanied by the gong and martial arts rather than with the usual gong and dance and was brought to Oelua by Butonese migrants.

84 van Klinken, ‘Ethnicity in Indonesia’, p. 77.

85 As the last two manek of Dengka supported and recognised Oelaba Muslim residents through land grants, this seems to have set a precedent for supportive practices that the village head has felt compelled to continue.

86 Allen, John, Lost geographies of power (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publications, 2003), p. 102CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

87 Important to note, is that associational power can also be used to form collaborative alliances to exercise ‘power over’ other actors.

88 For example, the village head of Oelua (as at 2004) was also the mane leo of leo Henutein. This is the largest of all leo in Oelua and its members are descendants of the lineage of Dengka manek.

89 Hendytio, Medelina K., ‘Regional autonomy: Its social and cultural impact’, in Regional autonomy and socio-economic development in Indonesia: A multi-dimensional analysis, ASEDP No. 65 (Chiba, Japan: Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organisation, 2003), pp. 206–7Google Scholar.

90 Four of these five non-Rotinese clans refer to place of origin, whereas Min refers to a family name. In conversations with an elder of the Min family, he explained that he interprets his clan as his extended family in Oelaba because they do not maintain regular links with their clan group in Buton.

91 Tule, Longing for the house of God, p. 275, notes that the Muslims of Kéo, Central Flores experience a tension between living and practising a pure Islamic way of life (sometimes the platform of Islamic parties or movements) and adapting Islam to local beliefs, culture and values.

92 Gotong royong is a concept of Javanese origin associated with state-initiated and -controlled mutual aid practices; it is not particularly meaningful to the Rotinese.

93 Fox, James J., ‘Traditional justice and the “court system” of the island of Roti’, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 8, 1 (2007): 65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

94 Ibid.

95 Fox, James J., ‘Chicken bones and buffalo sinews: Verbal frames and the organisation of Rotinese mortuary performances’, in Time past, time present, time future: Perspectives on Indonesian culture, ed. Claessen, Henri J.M. and Moyer, David S. (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Foris publications, 1988), pp. 178–94Google Scholar.

96 Ross, Culture of conflict, p. 193.

97 Fox, ‘Chicken bones and buffalow sinews’, p. 187.

98 Fox, ‘Traditional justice and the “court system” of the island of Roti’, p. 66.

99 This term is borrowed from Charles Taylor who uses it in relation to the politics of minority rights. See Taylor, Charles, ‘The politics of recognition’, in Multiculturalism: A critical reader, ed. Goldberg, David Theo (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994)Google Scholar.

100 Young, Iris Marion, Justice and the politics of difference (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 163Google Scholar.

101 Ibid., p. 164.

102 Kymlicka, Will and Norman, Wayne, ‘Citizenship in culturally diverse societies: Issues, contexts, concepts’, in Citizenship in diverse societies, ed. Kymlicka, Will and Norman, Wayne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

103 But there are limits — if the pigs venture too close to their houses, parents encourage their children to hurl stones at them. A fence around the village mosque prevents pigs from roaming too close to it.

104 Halāl literally means proper or lawful, especially in relation to food. In practice, it means using special methods for the slaughtering of animals for human consumption, and using ‘clean’ cooking pots, plates and cutlery that are not used for cooking or serving pork. A Christian host will arrange for such food to be prepared, and often served, in an adjacent or neighbouring house.

105 Tule, Longing for the house of God.

106 Ibid., p. 224 n179.

107 This is also the case amongst indigenous Rotinese who fine each other for mis-using language and a range of other petty verbal offences in relation to upholding honourable negotiations.

108 Fox, Harvest of the palm, p. 81.

109 The percentage composition of ethnic and religious groups is one variable that could be important in comparative village studies.

110 Allen, Lost geographies of power.

111 Young, Justice and the politics of difference.

112 Ibid., p. 179.

113 McGarry, John and O'Leary, Brendan, ‘Introduction: The macro-political regulation of ethnic conflict’, in The politics of ethnic conflict regulation: Case studies of protracted ethnic conflicts, ed. McGarry, John and O'Leary, Brendan (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 17Google Scholar.

114 Young, Justice and the politics of difference, p. 260.

115 Grillo, Pluralism and the politics of difference, p. 217