ABSTRACT
Picture 1: An Orang Laut sampan: home and work place This book is about the symbolism of money and the profound power it exerts in transforming the Orang Suku Laut’s identity in the Riau Archipelago of Indonesia. Indonesians often refer to the Orang Suku
Laut as ‘orang laut’ (sea people) and ‘suku sampan’ (boat tribe). In current literature, they are variously known as ‘sea nomads,’ ‘sea folk’ (Sopher, 1977:47), ‘sea hunters and gatherers’ (ibid:218), ‘sea gypsies’ (Thomson, 1851:140), and ‘people of the sea’ (Sandbukt, 1982). In this book, I use the shorter term ‘Orang Laut’ It has been reported that in Malay, the term ‘Orang Laut’ refers not only to sea nomads but also to ‘ordinary’ coastal-dwelling Malays who are engaged in maritime occupations (see for example Lenhart, 1997; Sather, 1998:21). Lenhart (quoted from Sather, 1998:35) also reports that in Riau, the tribal indigenes prefer to be called Orang Suku Laut, rather than Orang Laut. I do not dispute Lenhart’s findings or Sather’s (1998) argument. My decision to use the term ‘Orang Laut’ rests upon my fieldwork experiences in which I found my tribal friends and other Indonesians preferring the briefer term ‘Orang Laut’ in their daily conversations. As tribal indigenes of the Riau Archipelago in Indonesia, the Orang Laut are also generally recognized as the indigenous Malays of Riau. Yet in the interaction between the Malays and the Orang Laut, there exists much fear and suspicion with constant accusations of being poisoned and harmed by each other through practices of magic and witchcraft. This stems from the Malays’ perception of the Orang Laut as a ‘dangerous, dirty and unprogressive people.’ To the Malays, the Orang Laut are a people who prefer a life of nomadism which is deemed unconducive to adhering to the Islamic faith. On the other hand, the Orang Laut regard the Muslim Malays with equal suspicion as they believe that the Qur’an contains elements of black magic teachings.
