Book Review: Drink Food A la Rote

First, I will first convey the reasons behind selecting this book for review. Then a review regarding the contents of the book will be explained next. Some pictures on Nambrela Beach caught my eye. I found this picture on my laptop in a folder from my time travel to Rote Island, East Nusa Tenggara. You can see the clear sea in the southern part of Rote Island, even with clean beaches and not too crowded. I remember a very calm atmosphere after seeing the pictures. But there is a big question that then arises, then what can I get from my nine hours on Rote Island? Is it just the experience of breathing fresh air on a beach that President Jokowi has previously visited? This question then led me to look for some reading references about Rote. As a result, a book entitled Panen Lontar caught my attention to read.

This book is the work of James Fox, a professor from the Australian National University. Of course the title Harvest Lontar is the result of a translation of the original work entitled Harvest of Palm: Ecological Change in Eastern Indonesia(1977). This research was carried out using qualitative methods while taking into account the historical context of Rote and Sawu. Searching for references for research is not easy, because it is still difficult to find results of studies on Rote and Sawu. Apart from the way he found supporting documents in his research, the technique he used in this research was also interesting because he did it grounded research.

This approach allows him to deepen the information he gets, and tries to generalize the context of social and economic life that he captures. His research began because of his interest in palm trees. Even though the soil in Rote and Sawu is relatively dry, palm trees thrive in these areas. In addition, the presence of lontar trees influences social and cultural life on the two islands. The ecological and historical context is very evident in the work that James Fox has done on this book. The historical approach used by James Fox cannot be separated from the influence of Evan Pritchard and Louis Dumont's firm statement that history is the movement of a society to express itself in its true form (Dumont, 1937:21).

To explain ecological changes in people's lives on Rote and Sawu Islands, through his work, James Fox divides the three parts into sub-discussions. The first is about the ecology and economy of the Outer Arc Islands. The term outer arc was chosen considering that economic activities on small islands such as Rote and Sawu are inseparable from the larger group of islands around them. If you look closely, the formation of this group of islands in the southern part of East Nusa Tenggara Province looks like an arc, starting from Sumba Island in the west to Timor Island in the east. In his piece of writing, James Fox points out the historical context of the economic relations of the Rote and Sawu Islands. He tries to arrange this anthropo-historical tracing neatly enough to be able to explain how the socio-economic conditions were during the Dutch East Indies trade alliance. The third section deals with comparisons in the palm economy which are explained through the use of Borassus.

In the first part, James Fox initially explained the ecological conditions in several areas of the Outer Arc Islands. The main factors affecting the environment in these areas are dry climatic conditions and barren soil conditions. However, the drier and barren areas in these areas, especially on the island of Timor, are affected by the arrival of cattle to the area. Initially the arrival of this cow was a gift for the kings in Timor, along with lantana camara, a type of weed that can grow quickly. However, in the end the cows grew rapidly and the grass ran out and the conditions got drier. In addition, lantana, which functions as a hedge plant, which is considered fire-resistant, actually has an impact on animal husbandry in the Timor region. Buffaloes and cattle are starting to lose food land so they have to take export measures.

The adaptive process of the local community was described in various ways by James Fox in a fairly sequential way, so that in the end, the usual term hunger was a one-two month agenda that the people of Timor usually experienced. Conditions in Timor are very different from conditions in Sumba. This area is filled with grassy plains where most of the people cultivate fields, even though the climate on the mainland of Sumba is relatively dry. But what supports the economy in Sumba is the horse trade. In fact, this trade had already been carried out by the local community before the Dutch colonial period. However, Sumba's difficulties are related to the export of livestock products. On the other hand, in Sumba there is no ordinary hunger cycle like what happened on the island of Timor.

Between the two large islands, there are other small islands which also have other dynamics related to their natural, social and economic conditions. The islands of Rote and Sawu, these two areas have more barren conditions than the islands of Sumba and Timor. Moreover, the condition of the soil which is calcareous and consists of clay makes it difficult to allow agricultural land there. Here James Fox also displays historical records of the Netherlands regarding rainfall in Rote and Sawu which are considered very low. In fact, rainfall data can only be obtained in Baa, a small town in Rote which is the center of government, even now Baa is the capital of Rote Regency. In Sawu it is even worse when compared to Rote.

Wijngaarden (1890), as quoted by James Fox in his writings, even explained that sawu does not have green leaves or plants. Sawu is a large lump of rock in the middle of the ocean. Then the same explanation was also shown by James Fox that rainfall in Sawu is also very low. What caught James' attention was that when compared to large islands such as Timor and Sumba, the population density in Rote and Sawu was quite dense if calculated per kilometer. The density could reach 60 to 70 people, which at that time were too high for the typology of agricultural land. Even on Ndao, a small island northwest of Rote, the density reached 232 people per square kilometer in 1971.

Several models of alternative economic choices taken with different environmental conditions make a different life model as well. On the islands of Sumba and Timor the economy depends on cultivation, as previously mentioned. However, to support the economy, the policy taken is to raise export animals. Horses on Sumba Island began in the early 19th century, and cattle on Timor Island in the early twentieth century. However, this condition actually burdens the agricultural sector. Unlike Rote and Sawu. Both of these islands have drier land but there are abundant palm trees. The step taken is to maximize palm trees which has the effect of creating a mixed economy such as rice cultivation, plantations, animal husbandry and various concocting activities.

Animal husbandry is indeed very important, but in particular they are not cared for by the Rote and Sawu people, but are just allowed to roam about, because the agricultural land of the Rote or Sawu people is usually protected by fenced plants so they cannot damage agricultural land and plantations. Animals that are commonly found in these small islands are buffalo and pigs, buffaloes because they really support agricultural land and plantations, while pigs because these animals can be fed with waste from palm trees. Projects to bring cattle to the area have proved a failure.

There are two important aspects shown from the findings described by James Fox. First, there is dependence on palm trees. Then the skills of local residents to adapt to environmental conditions. The diversity of economic activity eventually gives rise to specialization in various fields. From lontar, residents have different expertise, some are specialists in tapping, processing the results of tapping, and utilizing other parts of the lontar tree for economic value.

From this, we can see how James Fox tried to explain that what happened on the big islands was also influenced by the arrival of Europeans who had their own economic model. In contrast to the small islands in the middle of the arc. Rote, for example, because of their independence in processing palm trees and the community organizing system in economic activity, in the end the Rote people have a way of calculating work that is exemplary in several regions. If in Timor we often encounter hungry people, in Rote this condition almost never happens. Food is not broken, the term is often used as a way of thinking for the people of Rote as James explained that it does not mean that the harvest will always be successful, but that the community always counts failure in every economic activity. The people of Rote do not think about how many times a year they will harvest, but rather think about how many times there will be failure. Risk management like this really needs to be implemented in every aspect of social life. This then underlies how the mechanism of economic work behind the lontar trees in Rote is different from the lontar harvesters in Madura, or in southern India as explained by James Fox at the end.

Taking the example in Rote, during my nine-hour visit in Rote it was very visible that animals such as buffalo and pigs were left alone, but along the road where there was visible agricultural activity, we could also see fenced plants to protect them from roaming animals. . One other thing that is also interesting is that it was quite difficult to find breakfast at that time, it wasn't there, but there were still many that weren't open, or maybe they weren't used to eating? In James Fox's notes, I found that the people of Rote drink the food. The sap from the palm tree is the staple food of the Rote people. Unlike other regions which are dependent on rice, sago, corn or cassava.

But do the people of Rote not eat rice? If we look at the current eras and also based on my experience in Rote, it clearly shows that the local people still eat rice. Even so, from Rote, the community actually learned that at that time, the people's dependence on lontar was very high, which made their lives very environmentally friendly. All parts of the palm tree can be used, even for food mats, palm leaves can be used as mats. Not only as a place to eat, but can be used as a roof for a house, or now we can see palm leaves being used as handicrafts. Rote is a portrait that people's lives do not always depend on outsiders, in this case Dutch interference. In addition, environmental sustainability in Rote is a model that needs to be implemented in several agricultural and plantation areas in Indonesia.

Of the brief reviews I found of James Fox's work, the most interesting to me were of course the first results from his field findings. Apart from that how James Fox applied a very rigorous literature study. In the end, the historical context of his book is very thick from every explanation he tries to share with readers. This Lontar Harvest book is James Fox's first work in eastern Indonesia. Until finally his interest in East Indonesia, especially Rote Island, made James publish another work about Rote, namely Language, Literature, and History: Collection of Essays on the People of Roti Island (1986).

Bibliography

Fox, James. panen Lontar: Ecological Changes in the Life of the People of Rote and Sawu Islands. Jakarta: Sinar Harapan Library (1996).