The way in which people on Buru conceptualize their ideas about the source or origin of life is reflected in certain kin terms which are listed in the following table.

Selected Buru terms for kin in other noro.

^a Throughout this paper I gloss mem-lahin as MB for the sake of convenience, but on Buru the genealogical relationship is not the only criterion. While a mem-lahin is genealogically MB, he must belong to another noro. In other words, ego’s mother must be married. If ego’s mother is not married, his or her genealogical MB is called ama (father) as they belong to the same House. Mem-lahin, as I was told, is a term which has to have “two noro”. I similarly gloss the other terms here with genealogical relationships, but they all include the obligatory social fact of being relationships between individuals in different noro.

Many of these terms are based on the epistomological metaphors of the living tree mentioned at the beginning of this paper. In these cases, the terms are compounds, composed of a kin term plus a metaphor as a modifier. The kin terms upon which the compounds are based include:

The two modifiers are lahin (“root/trunk”) and ennewet (“life”). The compound terms can thus be given more specific glosses as follows:

A girl and boy who are reciprocally emdaa (MBD/FZS) are in an avoidance relationship as they are both potential and ideal marriage partners. Children are told “Play with your elder and younger siblings; don’t play with your emdaa.” People have told me that a boy could call his MBD feta lahin (“root/source sister”) and a girl could equally call her FZS naha ennewet (“life brother”) but this is not necessary, as they are emdaa and that term is preferred. While these additional terms are seldom used, as equivalents they point out the consistency in the structure of the kin terminology for the descendants of a brother and sister. Relatives traced through a mother’s brother are described as lahin kin while those traced through a man’s sister are ennewet kin.

Concepts of source and life are thus used to express the relationship between the offspring of a brother and sister, and even more significantly, between a man and his sister children, a “source uncle” (mem-lahin) and his “life children” (ana ennewet). While these metaphors were mentioned earlier, it is helpful to consider them in more detail here. If someone on Buru were asked to point out a lahin, it would be a “wood-lahin” (kau lahin) which would include the main trunk of a tree, the base of the tree and its major roots. A typical kau lahin would be a tree with a tall single trunk such as a “coconut tree” (niwe lahin), “sago tree” (bia lahin), or “canarium tree” (ipa lahin). Based on the imagery of the life-producing roots and trunk of tall trees, lahin is an ideal metaphor to express a cultural concept of causality which sees subsequent events as stemming from an origin, cause, foundation, beginning or source.

The counterpart to lahin is luken which refers to the tiny new leaves that grow off the tips of branches, as in mangkau luken, the young new leaves picked to eat from the top of the cassava plant. As a continuation of the botanical imagery, luken is metaphorically used to refer to the tip, the end, the results, or the ramifications of someone’s deeds, and not surprisingly, to someone’s “descendants”. Anyone who reckons his genealogical connections to an important person in the past will proudly tell you “I am a tip from him” (Ya puna luken fi di rine). Buru ideas about personal origins are thus turned upside down to European ideas about “descent”, a point which Fox (1988) has noted as occurring in many eastern Indonesian societies. While Europeans talk about “descendants” in reference to someone’s CCC, on Buru people talk about CCC as luken — “ascendants” or “tips”. The social unit of the hum lolin, as another example, can be described as the “tips” of the “founding father” (tama).

The Buru idea being expressed in the kinship terminology is that life has a source. Life comes from females giving birth to children. Because a woman changes her affiliation and “enters” (rogo) her husband’s noro and House when she marries, her brother represents the source or origin of her children’s life. He is thus their “source uncle” and they his “life children”. Botanically life in the young leaf tips comes from the root. Metaphorically this is true of humans as well and is reflected in the statement of one old man who proudly told me he had “young leaf tips of life children” (ana newe luken) all over the mountains of south Buru.

The relationship between source and life is also reflected in the cultural responsibilities assigned to a “source uncle” in regard to his “life children”. A man is responsible for the life of his sister’s children. He is ritually responsible to ensure the fertility of his sister, that her children do not die at birth, and that appropriate marriages are arranged for them. A child is taught to respect his mem-lahin and the curse of sickness and bad fate hangs over anyone who does not obey their mem-lahin. A mem-lahin is not responsible for the sustenance of his ana ennewet, however. That is the responsibility of his sister’s husband, hum lolin, noro, and ancestors.

So while a man’s “life children” do not belong to his House or noro, he is responsible both for the transmission of life to them and through them. Because of this he plays an important role not only when they are infants, but also in selecting marriage partners for his “life children”. The best way to ensure numerous and healthy children as the result of a marriage is for a man to return to the group which represents his own source of life and seek as a wife either his actual emdaa (MBD) or someone from another House in his mother’s natal noro. If the mem-lahin has a marriageable daughter he has the prerogative to say to his sister and her husband “cause your child to become [my] son-in-law” (pemsawan nim anat) and so a boy’s mem-lahin (MB) becomes his ama kete (WF). If his sister’s son does not marry his daughter, the mem-lahin must be the one to “give the machete to cut open the path for marrying someone else” (duwe todo la sasa tohon la ketik geba meget). The mem-lahin then acts as one of the spokesmen in the marriage negotiations of his ZS as well as his ZD. Marriage is thus another case where Buru ideas about returning to one’s source are enacted.

Sources of life are kept track of for two generations on Buru. Two terms, mara and halan, are used specifically to define relationships of individuals to other noro through which they trace their source of life. Mara refers to the noro of an ego’s mem-lahin and halan is the noro of an ego’s mem-lahin’s mem-lahin (MBMB). These connections are illustrated below:

At birth, individuals are affiliated with their natal noro but trace their origin of life through female connections to their mara and halan. The ties to these two other noro do not diminish an individual’s membership in his own noro, but are the recognition of his source of life. On the basis of these ties he can request hunting rights or permission to build gardens in the land of his mara or halan. And most importantly, it is to his mara or halan that he should return when seeking to marry and propagate new life.