Traditional Socio-Political Organization

Abstract

Contemporary Tana Toraja is a kabupaten or regency, a part of the administrative structure of Indonesia. It, like all kabupaten, has its own bureaucratic apparatus. The boundaries of Tana Toraja are identical to those of the administrative unit bearing that name which existed during Dutch colonial rule; internally, structural changes have been wrought since that era so that at present more of a hierarchic division has been brought about.

“So that the clan members, numerous as bamboo culms, may always increase in wealth, in quantity like the leaves, in order that the branching of the precious things of the ones whose group always increases like a bamboo stool, may continue to swell still more.”

(Merok: 173)