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The Wemale people are an ethnic group of
Traditionally the Wemale lived off forest products. Much of their diet was based on the
Seram Island
Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent is ...
, Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. They number over 7,500 and live in 39 villages of the central area of the island. Like the Alune people in the west, the Wemale people originate from a common ancestral group called the Patasiwa.
The Wemale language
Wemale is an Austronesian language spoken on western Seram Island in Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 ...
is of Malayo-Polynesian
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...
origin and it is divided into a northern and a southern variety, having dialects known as Horale, Kasieh, Uwenpantai, Honitetu and Kawe. Northern Wemale is spoken by about 5,000 people and the Southern Wemale is spoken by about 3,700 people. The Hainuwele legend is an origin myth from the Wemale and Alune folklore. It was recorded by German ethnologist Adolf Ellegard Jensen
Adolf Ellegard Jensen (1 January 1899 – 20 May 1965) was one of the most important German ethnologists of the first half of the 20th century.
Jensen's main research interests were myth, ritual and cult. He furthered the theory of Cultural Morp ...
in a 1937–1938 expedition to the Maluku Islands.
Description
Traditionally the Wemale lived off forest products. Much of their diet was based on the sago
Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is ...
palm. They also practiced shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cul ...
.
Males used to engage in warrior activities against neighboring groups. Females used to spend most of their day collecting products from the forest in tall conical baskets that they carried on their backs. The top of these baskets had a characteristic funnel-shape and whatever was caught was tossed inside by the women with a swift and graceful movement.
The Wemale men carried long knives. Both sexes wore little clothing because of the humid environment. Women wore rattan
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...
girdle
A belt, especially if a cord or rope, is called a girdle if it is worn as part of Christian liturgical vestments, or in certain historical, literary or sports contexts.
Girdles are used to close a cassock in Christian denominations, including th ...
s around their waist.
Same as with the Alune, the coming of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...
celebration for girls was an important occasion.
The Wemale built large and elaborate houses with wood, sticks and palm leaves. These houses were very skillfully built in order to keep the interior dry and comfortable.
The culture of the Wemale people has changed very much during the last few decades because of the impact of consumerism upsetting traditional values. Also the political and religious restlessness and the resulting conflict in Indonesia affected many islands of the Maluku area.
See also
*Alfur people
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 are ...
* Hainuwele
Bibliography
*Sachse, F. J. P., ''Het Eiland Seram en zijne Bewoners''. Leiden, 1907 *Adolf Ellegard Jensen, ''Die drei Ströme. Züge aus dem geistigen und religiösen Leben der Wemale, einem Primitiv-Volk in den Molukken.'' Leipzig 1948References
{{Authority control Ethnic groups in Indonesia Seram Island Central Maluku Regency