ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with forms of collective self-identification among the To po Uma of Central Sulawesi. The house is tentatively disclosed as the concretized locus of social identity. The general question is: what is it that reveals a sense of co-belonging for the people in central Sulawesi that forms the basis of a common social identity? This provokes a general assessment of the concept of self-identification. The specific question in search of an answer is as follows: How is it that the concept used for ‘village’ is the same as the name for the fundament of logs on which houses rest? That path leads into the concept of place and an assessment of locality in the social organization of self with others. 1