ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on ideas of Angkola Batak culture as propounded on the one hand by certain Angkola writers and on the other hand by authors working for the Indonesian national government. It focuses on texts from the 1970–1989 periods, although valuable work could also be done for the 1920s and 1930s, when Angkola society interacted with the Dutch colonial state, and with the early nationalistic movement. Migration began in the 1890s, as newly literate southern Bataks from Angkola and Mandailing moved to the East Coast Deli plantation belt for salaried jobs as clerks and low-level government officials for the Dutch. Toby A. Volkman notes that Toraja ethnic identity and their sense of their heritage has been shaped by two main forces: out-migration of youth to cities and international tourism, which brings European and American vacationers to the Toraja highlands in search of spectacular funeral rituals.
