Although I have focused largely on indigenous Buru society up to this point, Buru is a multi-ethnic island and Buru people share their island with others whom they classify as ‘people from across the sea’ (geba fi lawe). In fact, more than 65 per cent of Buru’s 110,000 inhabitants are ‘immigrants’ in this sense, making Buru predominantly an ‘immigrant’ island. Many living on the north and west coasts of Buru originate from the island groups of Buton and Sula. Some have carefully kept track of their family history on Buru through the generations, but today still maintain their Buton or Sula identity, language and Muslim religion. Furthermore, almost all the immigrants live at or within easy access of the coast. ^[4] In contrast, indigenous Buru people refer to themselves as ‘people of the mountains’ (geb fuka) and most self-identify as Christians in the contemporary Indonesian religious context. ^[5] As a result, the population distribution on Buru reflects multiple layers of dichotomous pairs for which central Maluku is famous: inside/outside; native/immigrant; mountain/sea; Christian/Muslim.

Many of the outsiders on Buru are familiar with clans or have clans as part of their own social organisation. According to the Buru people, these immigrants may have a fam (the Ambonese Malay term for clan), but they have no fena and therefore are not ‘people of Buru Island’. The possession of a fena is thus the critical marker of Buru identity, distinguishing people of ‘Buru mountain/island’ (geb fuk Buru) from ‘people from across the sea’, even though some Buru clans also came from across the sea. Some Buru clans claim autochthonous origins with a founding ancestor arising from a spring or sacred place on the island. The founding ancestors of other clans came from across the sea, and when they arrived were given land by the autochthonous clans, making them custodians of a fena and, as a result, ‘people of Buru island’.

But even though some clans claim autochthonous origins and predated the clans who arrived later and were given fena land, Buru people see this as relatively unimportant and do not use it as a basis for creating asymmetrical relationships between noro. Instead, a strong discourse of equality between noro is created through the practice of sister exchange and symmetrical marriage alliances.