Bius, Parbaringin und Paniaran. Über Demokratie und Religion bei den Tobabatak Nordsumatras
Johann Angerler conducted PhD research in Indoneia on: Bius, Parbaringin und Paniaran. Über Demokratie und Religion bei den Tobabatak Nordsumatras.
This investigation is an attempt to gain a better understanding of the religious and socio-political organization of pre-colonial Tobabatak society. In literature the traditionally stateless Tobabatak society is usually depicted as being organized principally along kinship lines and there is still a widespread perception that in pre-colonial times there were no more highly developed political units than villages. Fieldwork, archival research, and research into old Tobabatak texts have produced a different picture. Tobabatak society did indeed never transform into statehood (in the sense of having a centralized government with the military power to enforce its decisions) but it had a functional alternative at its disposal.
The many genuinely democratically organized ‘house-organizations’ (bius) of which the society consisted, each composed of thousands or even tens of thousands of members, were able to organize co-operation for the construction of irrigation-facilities and other communal projects (sometimes on a huge scale) and for the permanent infrastructure of hydraulic agriculture. Within these house-organizations the parbaringin as spiritual as well as political representatives of the smaller units of society on the higher levels, and the paniaran as the representatives of the women played a leading role without ever using any military might.
He was granted a PhD Degree cum laude at Leiden University on 18 June 2009 by his Promotores Prof. Dr. L.J. Slikkerveer and Prof. Dr. R. Schefold. The PhD Committee included Prof. Dr. L.J. Slikkerveer (Promotor), Prof. Dr. R. Schefold. (Promotor), Dr. G. Persoon (Co-promotor), and the Members Prof. dr. J. G. Oosten, Prof. dr. E. P. Wieringa (Universität Köln), Univ. Doz. Dr. H. Lukas (Universität Wien und Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften), Dr. A. Sibeth (Museum der Weltkulturen Frankfurt)
Johann Angerler, Bius, Parbaringin und Paniaran. Über Demokratie und Religion bei den Tobabatak Nordsumatras. PhD Dissertation Universiteit Leiden, LEAD Studies No. 4. xxi + 546 pp. ill. 2009.