Stages of Life

Every culture has a different sense of the periods or divisions constitute a life-span.

How do we go about living our lives? At what stages do we 'grow up', get married, have kids? At various periods in their lives, people enjoy certain privileges, are burdened by other responsibilities, and must behave differently. We could think of these stages “stages of life” or “life stages” or as part of the “lifecycle”. Some of these are based around certain biological 'realities', such as birth, puberty, bearing children, and death. Other stages are not so clear.

Humoring baby on the ferry.

Residents of Home Island conceive of their lives and, indeed, live different lives to people on the Australian mainland.

Nek Sumila cradles a baby, to the delight of  some fans.

Birth

Nek Sofia recalled that, in the past, a baby's placenta had been taken in a jukung and thrown overboard from a jukung. The further out the the jukung went, the more outgoing or adventurous the child would grow up to be. (I have the impression that being outgoing or adventurous is not an especially valued trait, as it may lead to the child eventually moving away from the Cocos Islands--an undesirable result). Apparently this and other birth ritual have been interrupted by the requirement for expecting mothers to deliver in Perth. Home Islanders I spoke with regretted this. Monika said she had spoken with someone who felt that having not been born on the Cocos Islands, the new generations would never be truly Cocos in the way of preceding generations. 

Newborn

Early on in life, youngsters go through several stages quickly. The first could be called, in the absence of any specific local term that I’m aware of, “newborn”. This lasts from birth to 40 days old. The main priority in this period seems to be that mother and newborn should rest at home.

Childhood

At 40 days old a new lifestage, I'll call "childhood", is initiated through a hair cutting ritual. I have written on this in my blog "First Haircut".

Anthropologists call hair cutting rituals “tonsure”. I first came across the term in relation to the Thai prince. For Thai people, the ritual cutting of a tuft of a male's hair (around the age of 12-14)  is cut his a deeply meaningful event, and initiates the boy into adulthood. On Home Island, tonsure occurs earlier in life.

Men chanting for a child's 40th day celebration.In the immediate foreground is a man's white hat. In the middle were three dishes of yellow rice and whole chicken with a white towel on top. Next to these were blue bowls with rice porridge. The porridge, red and white in color, has a special name in Java--here it is simply "porridge" (bubur).

Over the next decade or so, the child will begin school, commence afternoon classes in Koranic Arabic (ngaji), start high school, and possibly continue high school on the mainland. If the child is a boy, he will be circumcised as well.

At school, reading a English book.

I’m also unsure about how to characterize these years in terms of life stages. One person told me that initially the term anak (young child) is used, then budak (child around primary school), and then anak muda (around high school age). However, anthropologists can not just go by what local people tell us. We need to understand what people say and also observe and participate in what they do. So I'll have to postpone commenting on this.

Parenthood

Marriage is the biggest ritual on Home Island. However, it only changes on status from single to married. This is (along with being sick or healthy, present or away, a pilgrim or not pilgrim) a different ritual status, but I don’t think we could identify it as a stage of life. Instead, marriage allows one to produce a legitimate child. Having a legitimate child allows one to progress to the next life stage: parenthood. The life stage I’m calling parenthood occurs only if one begins nurturing a child. There is no change with subsequent children: the main thing is that you have at least one child.  Infertile couples often adopt from a sibling or a cousin who has more than child. 

Death

The final life stage is death. Death rituals are quite involved, with ritual meals being repeated in the first week after death and then at 40 days one year and 1000 days. This appropriately changes one’s ritual status from being alive to being dead. The gravestone marks this ritual status.

Nek Suma's grave stands alone, outside the cemetery. He is affectionately referred to as "baldy".

Visiting in 1836, Darwin made note of a death ritual, in very deprecating terms:

After dinner we staid to see a half superstitious scene, acted by the Malay women. They dress a large wooden spoon in garments — carry it to the grave of a dead man — & then at the full of the moon they pretend it becomes inspired & will dance & jump about. After the proper preparations the spoon held by two women became convulsed & danced in good time to the song of the surrounding children & women. It was a most foolish spectacle, but Mr Liesk maintained that many of the Malays believed in its spiritual movements. The dance did not commence till the moon had risen & it was well worth remaining to behold her bright globe so quietly shining through the long arms of the Cocoa nuts, as they waved in the evening breeze

Nevertheless, it seems the "spoon" may refer to the shape of the grave marker. Death rituals are very different currently, as I have described in "Ritual Meals on Home Island".

Mourners gathered at house of bereaved

One part of the death rituals (i.e. funeral) is the transporting of the corpse from the home of the bereaved the cemetery are, which is called "Swan Island" (Pulu Gangsa). In fact, Swan Island is no longer an island as it has merged with Home Island.

At Swan Island

Life stage and name change

The terms one uses when talking about someone (term of reference) or talking with someone (term of address) reflect these stages. 

Mak Mia, Mia, and Pak Mia

Parenthood is marked by a name change. For example, a married couple have a daughter named Mia. Mia’s father is now called "Pak Mia" and her mother is called "Mak Mia". If a child named “Abdul” is adopted by an infertile couple, and if the arrangement works, the adoptive father will become known as Pak Abdul and his wife will be Mak Abdul. I have written about this naming practice, teknonymy, as anthropologists call it, in another blog. A person who never has a legitimate child either through birth or adoption is apparently not entitled to be called Pak or Mak. 

The teknonyms on Home Island are absolute, not relative. Where I did fieldwork in East Java (2000-2002) you typically only use the term “Pak” (father) to someone who is of your father’s generation. By contrast, on Home Island it does not matter if the man you are talking to is older or younger than you, you still call him “Pak” (father), provided he has children. Similarly, in Indonesian, the term “adik” (younger brother/sister) is sometimes used to refer to someone a little younger. In Cocos Malay, the cognate “adek” is absolute. I heard, for example, today a mother address her pre-schooler son as “adek”. 

The absolute nature of these titles seems so important that it carries through into English usage on Home Island. When Anglo-Australians greet each other on West Island they might say “G’day mate”; the term “mate” indicates an equality between two men. By contrast on Home Island, the fatherhood is respected and honored. So even when talking in English, I am sometimes greeted with “G’day Pak” or "How's it goin' Pak" .

Becoming a grandparents marks the next stage of life. There is also a specific teknonym of grandparents being “Nek”. More formally, the grandfather might be addressed Nek [D]atok (the bracketed bit is mostly dropped, with people just saying "Atok") and the grandmother, Nek [Peremp]uan. 

Being a great-grandparent possibly marks a further life stage after being a grandparent, and that is. I’ve heard very old grandparents or a people who have cecet (great-grandchildren). I think a formal term of address is "Nek [B]uyut" or sometimes they are also called 'Nek Atok' or 'Nek Wan'.  

Progression through life stages

The idea of life stages seems quite simple and natural: childhood, adulthood, old age, etc. However, this is deceptive. So progression through life stages can be initiated suddenly through a biological event (birth) and through ritual (40 days’ tonsure). It can also be a combination of both (death).

In different cultures, for example, adulthood occurs when you turn 18 or 21 or earlier or later. Some cultures don’t even recognize “adulthood” but might have various other stages.

The onset of what is conceived of as a life stage can occur slowly, such as what is called "middle aged" in the West, currently. In some cultures, without a ritual you cannot progress. For example, you might have stopped breathing among the Berawan, but you cannot make the progression from living to spirit world of the dead without ritualized treatments. Or, in central Australian societies, you might be fifty years old, but if you haven't been circumcised you are still a boy, cannot socialize with men as equals, and cannot receive the knowledge that men posses. Traditionally, in the West, you could not be married unless you went through the marriage ritual known as "wedding". 

Thus, progression through life stages is not necessarily a natural, biological occurrence. 

Age set and age grade

Related to "life stage" are the concepts of "age set" and "age grade/age class". An "age set" is like the "Class of 1969"--once you are part of it you stay in that group forever--really, forever, in some cultures. 

Class of 1969--an Age Set

An "age grade" or "age class" is like being a "first-year", "Freshman", or "rookie"; you and others  or your age go through it the same time and the leave that grade for another e.g. "second-year", "sophomore", "senior player".

Age groups (Nadel calls them "age classes"). Korongo and Meskain pass through these, from Nadel "Witchcraft in Four Societies"

As Nadel notes, the Korongo of Africa recognize 6 age classes for males aged 12-50+. These are associated with different wrestling duties and places of residence. The Mesakin, by contrast, recognize only 3 throughout a similar chronological period.

In summary, you progress through an age grade, while you stay in an age set forever.

Life stages and anthropology

Life stages, sets, groups, or classes are not things cultures intrinsically possess. Rather, we should think of these as imperfect concepts that anthropologists apply to cultures. So, when we see distinct rights, responsibilities, and behaviors associated with a period of life, we might label that a "stage of life", or a "age set", or an "age group". But we must remember that, in many cases, one could interpret and debate what constitutes a stage of life in any culture. 

For more on life stages please listen to my short podcast entitled “Lifecycle” : https://itunes.apple.com/au/itunes-u/the-audible-anthropologist/id574638820?mt=10

Circumcision Ceremony

On Sunday, May 3, a local family put on a circumcision ceremony. It was based in and around a marquis and metal pole that had been put up for the occasion. Nek Sofia explained some of the elements to me, as quoted below.

Circumcision

As is the practice in other Muslim cultures I have experienced, boys on Home Island have the foreskin of their penis removed. This process known in English as "circumcision" and in Malay as "sunat" (during fieldwork in Indonesia I recall the word "sunatan" being most common). 

The circumciser on Home Island used to be known as a bengkung. Nowadays, boys are flown to the mainland, Perth, to be circumcised by a medical doctor. As far as I can tell, Islamic and Cocos Malay ritual elements have been removed from this process. Many previously significant elements from the rituals of circumcision have probably been reduced. It seems the procession, which normally came before the removal of the foreskin, now occurs afterwards, once the boy returns from the operation in Perth. 

Procession

The ritual began with what might be called a procession. This procession involved the boy's mother, who was holding an umbrella over him. He was flanked by his sister. Behind, older men walking along the road were accompanying the newly circumcised boy. The chanting is called mengarak. They chant Koranic Arabic. Some men played the long drum with two heads (gendang) others played the a kind of tambourine (rebana).

As Nek Sofia explained it, they were "just chanting around so his friends and family can see; to show that he's been circumcised. Sometimes we do this to show that people are married ". In fact, most people know what has been happened so the display seems mostly symbolic. The other explicit purpose of the procession is to make the boy girang (excitedly happy). Actually, the boy did not betray any emotion. (When I visited circumcision ceremonies in Java, the circumcised boys also demonstrated the same emotional restraint.)

Silat dancing

Still of older man (black hat, beige shirt, checked sarong) performing silat.

As the procession neared the marquis, older man performed silat. Silat is often thought of as self-defense, inner strength building, but it also "is like entertainment; a show for the bride and bridegroom or for the anak sunat".

Hanging presents / Gantong

Still of women reaching up, trying to tear down hanging presents

Following the silat  was the next stage of the ritual.  From the poles and struts of the marquis various presents (baby powder, cooking sieves, shampoo and the like) were hung in plastic bags. It is not easy to get them off so it presents a dilemma for the women who reached for them. On the one hand they wanted the presents, on the other hand they were, in the words of one group I filmed, "embarrassed" (malu) as they strained to obtain them.  Gantong (hanging of the presents), says Nek Sofia, "is something a bit new these days; like decoration; instead of balloons and flowers. These days there's more and more". This stage of proceedings was apparently of minor importance as many people were engaged in preparing for the next stage, bringing over more benches etc.

Eating

The eating part of the ritual had taken the most extensive preparation. I think there were about 150-200 guests. Us men brought out the food, dish by dish to the tables under the marquees. This took about 10 minutes. The food had been prepared by all the women attendees; those who are closer to the family apparently cooked at the home of the circumcised boy; those who are more distant prepared their food at home. My family (wife, kids and I) brought a carton of soft drinks, and many others seemed to have done this either in addition to, or instead of, preparing food. I have written in more details about this aspect of rituals in my blog "Ritual Meals on Home Island".

Entertainment

After eating there was some entertainment. To win an anchor, you needed to be able to lift a bottle using a nail tied to string.

Throwing gifts

After this, "They also throw things; we've got more and more of these things. We've got brothers, sisters, and friends throwing away gifts. They do it as a return from when the other family is doing it." This is also a form of entertainment as to get the presents,  people have to demean themselves by scrounging, scrapping and bumping each other as the scramble for cash notes and presents.

Greasy Pole / Tiang Bubutan

At the next part of the ritual, other boys attempt to climb a greasy pole (tiang bubutan). Apparently, the term bubut means "to lathe"--as in to use a spinning machine to carve or shape a piece of wood or metal.  The pole looks like it has been lathed, hence its name. Grease was applied and boys competed with each other to be the one who reaches the top. This amply entertains the guests. Adding to the excitement, Nek Tiara beat out a rhythm on the gendang. 

Zuhaili being helped up.

Zuhaili at the top. 

Zuhaili made it there first and threw down the presents attached at the top. Other children waited below, expectantly. From my perspective, it looked dangerously high. I think it is brave for a boy that young to be the center of attention of so many adults, performing a difficult and dangerous task

It seems this was once more than just entertainment, perhaps possessing greater significance in times past. Nek Sofia remembers that the smoke and aroma from the menyan was once used to 'bless', as it were, the greasy pole.

Circumcised boy

During all the activity that followed the procession, the circumcised boy was sitting impassively. This seems attuned to the Southeast Asian ideal that men should be balanced, free of passion and emotion, taciturn, or at least laconic.  He was wearing what is identified as a "traditional costume for the wedding and anak sunat [circumcised child]". The hat is called "stangan tanduk" (handkerchief horn)

The circumcised boy. 

Circumcision in the past

This image, apparently taken in 1941, can be found in Gibson-Hill (1947, plate 6 ). On p. 202 it is explained: "Three small boys dressed in the correct traditional costume on their way to the mosque to be circumcised. They are about six to eight years old, which was the usual age at which this rite was performed." With circumcision being a medical procedure in Perth, it would appear that this part of the ceremony is no longer performed. Possibly by the way the middle boy's sarong is protruding, it is possible he is wearing a cingkalak, but Nek Sofia thinks it's probably not. Nek Sofia says "this one was taken a day before the circumcision, usually late in the afternoon. The potong konek occurred the next morning before sunrise."

Nek Sofia cast his mind back to circumcisions in the past, I have paraphrased and edited a bit: 

It took years of preparation to save up for for a circumcision. The circumcision was conducted outdoors. The men would hold a tikar (woven pandan leaf) covering to keep the operation private. Inside was the circumciser, the bengkung, with one or two helpers. Before the operation, they would give the boy some puffs on a cigarette. Then they would use bamboo to pinch it and then cut it with a knife. They tried to get it over at once. Sometimes they cut too much; sometimes they cut too little. Outside people were playing drums (gendang). There were also three or four guys who cut the neck of the chicken right off at the same time as foreskin was cut. Ladies would cut the chicken open (it was an ayam hutan [wild chicken], I think it was a rooster) and collect the heart cook it and feed it to the circumcised boy. We don't know what the belief was. Afterwards, a ceremony took place with food or drink, that included whiskey and brandy. Blood would drop into a clam shell. The foreskin was stored in a coconut I think. A cingkalak made from bamboo was used to hold up the sarong so it didn't brush against the wound. The next day, the boy would sit down with lollies on one side, bananas on the other. Sometimes the boy would take two or three weeks to get better.  If it was swollen or took longer to heal, they would put us in the sea water. I'll have to check, it's been a long time since we have done circumcisions like that. But as for the costume, they are still doing it.

Phallic symbolism

Ritual involves symbolic action. In other words, during rituals and ceremonies, our actions have meanings. This ritual, which involves the cutting of the phallus has, unsurprisingly, phallic symbolism. The greasy pole, it would not be too much of a leap to suggest, is one such example.  

Picture of a jukung in taken 1977, available from NAA.
White hull with blue and yellow stripe painted above.

A connection also must be made with the jukung. The jukung is a sailing boat once commonly used by the Cocos Malays, but now almost entirely replaced by small boats with engines. Jukung mostly fulfill only symbolic actions now, such as being used in races, which are still held to celebrate Hari Raya, the end of the fasting month. Jukung are painted white at the bottom and yellow and blue stripes above (near what I would call the gunwale). The boy's dress, being white below  (pants) with blue (shirt) and yellow(sash) above, thus resembles a jukung. 

Cracked and faded, the blue and yellow paint on a
weathered, old jukung made by Nek Sofia's father.

The jukung itself seems to have phallic significance. For example, the back end of a jukung is called a "konek".  The same term is used for the foreskin. Thus, aside from the verb "menyunat", the phrase "potong konek" (cut the foreskin) can also be used to mean "circumcise". Using a crude symbolic schema, we could say that jukung=phallus=boy=pole=boy's phallus.

Back end of sailing boat (jukung).
The konek is circled in red.

In the past, it seems there may have been more to it. The cutting of a male chicken at the same time as the foreskin makes an immediate symbolic connection. The male chicken is often thought of as a penis in Southeast Asian cultures--an idea that might not appear too strange to English speakers familiar with the term "cock". 

The kulit kima (clamshell) symbolizes the female genitalia. For example, trepang (sea cucumber) and kima (clam) are sometimes equated with penis and vagina. Last night, as a man explained to me that he would be going out trepang collecting, other started teasing him. It's part of the standard joking repertoire that Moni and I have come across. Or, I've been told, if someone's going out to get clams from the sea, someone might tease them, saying, "why are you going out to the ocean to see clams (kima laut), it's easier to get land clams (kima darat)!" 

But the symbolism is not always salacious. Babies' placentas are also stored along with ash in a clam shell. Nek Sofia told me that the father used to take shell to the lagoon in a jukung, and the further he took the clamshell out, the more independent and brave the child would be. 

Circumcision Worldwide

Circumcision is a widely occurring phenomenon. Most people realize it occurs among Jews and Muslims. But as an entry by Biedelman in the Eliade's famous Encyclopedia of Religion shows, circumcision is more widespread than that

Pop anthropologist, the great Joseph Campbell, author of Hero with a Thousand Faces, feels that through such rituals on boys may make a health psychological development. In the West, he lamented, men fail to properly grow up without such mechanisms. Man-making only occurs in the lounge next to a psychologist. Actually, Levi-Strauss, one of academic anthropology's greatest thinkers, had a similar kind of idea. He thought psychoanalysts were effective because they mimic the work of shamans.

Leach moved the focus from the individual's psyche to that of the group. He did this by analyzing the role of lingga (phallic symbols) and yoni (vagina symbols) of South Asia as explicitly sexual. He argued that such explicit symbols are not about the individual. His point was that if psychology has something to say, it is about the individual, not the society. However, the symbols anthropologist concern themselves with do not express unconscious individual desires, rather they express conscious social desires. 

Not very much in vogue these days are such explanations. But neither, I suppose, will contemporary trends hold much attraction to the anthropologists 50 years from now.

Main Point

One thing, I guess, all would agree upon is that the ritual is about preparing a boy for manhood. He is ready to be a man, as Nek Sofia explained it, now he can move on and get married. 

Further references

Morton, John. "Totemism Now and Then: A Natural Science of Society?"
Roheim, Geza. The Eternal Ones of the Dream. (I haven't read this, but I've heard it's fascinating!)
Sackett, Lee, "Punishment in Ritual:" Man Making" among Western Desert Aborigines"

Again, thanks to our wonderful hosts, Nek Sofia (Datok & Perempuan)! Thanks also to John Morton for stimulating my interest in this topic generally, and for his ideas specifically related to this blog. 

Culture, Cooking, and Cuisine

Nek Sofia preparing pumpkin on a balok. Pumpkin is grown on Home Island and features in cakes, breads, or eaten with rice and meat during meals.

Culture and Cooking

Studying food and culture is typically extremely informative of how a society works. I am not sure why this is the case. Among the many reasons, one must be that, with few exceptions (infuses etc.), we need to eat.

We need to eat, but eat what ? In theory, we could survive from eating raw materials (grubs, raw vegetables etc.). However, humans generally like to take matter (such as dead or live animals, insects, fish, reptiles, and vegetables) and transform it into "food" or "cuisine".

I grew up with the idea that hunter-gatherers, on the edge of survival, would eat anything they could possibly get their hands on. But this is not the case. As I recall, several Western Desert Aboriginal Australian, whom I was fortunate to work with over several days, were very particular, for example, about what kinds of animal can be eaten, what parts (e.g. tail or not), and how the animal is prepared (e.g. cooked with skin on or off). They were also disgusted when I ate my beef steak rare.

What can count as food or cuisine? Acceptable vegetable and non-vegetable matter that is cooked. Often, cooking involves the application of heat. Matter transformed by heat typically takes an esteemed place at the table. Thus the roast (turkey at an Australian Christmas or an American Thanksgiving) was next to the 'man of the house' at the 'head' of the table c.1950s. The butter and salad are down the other 'end'. This reflects the importance of transformation of matter through the application of heat.

Cooking place = hearth

In many societies, a special area are set aside in the house for the purpose of transforming matter into food. We could call such areas "cooking places". But they are so important that some anthropologists use a special term. "Hearth" is an antiquated and odd-sounding word, being pronounced like "heart" but with a "th" at the end. It usually means just "fireplace". Anthropologists, however, specifically use the word "hearth" to refer to  a cooking place--what we might call a "kitchen" in the English tradition. However, on Home Island the "kitchen" inside, at the front part of the house isn't much used for cooking. 

Kitchens without Stoves

All houses have an area designated by the architects as a "kitchen". You can see this in the plan I placed in my Blog "Built Places, Social Spaces". Below is an image of one such "kitchen" at the front part of Nek Sofia's house.  This is a beautiful room and the morning mood is great. For breakfast we eat at the table, toast bread (toaster) and make tea/coffee (kettle). Food is kept in the fridge. However, you can notice there is gap between the benches, in the far wall, underneath the fan. This is where the stove was to be placed, according to the design.

The "kitchen" has a kettle, toaster, fridge, coffee machine and so on.

Stoves out the back

Actually, Cocos women (who almost always do the cooking) prefer to cook out the back of the house. Actually, the term used is "outside" (di luar). In many Home Island houses, you can find there a gas stove, an electric stove and a wood-fire stove, in different areas at the back. For example, Nek Sofia has a gas stove and an electric stove out the back. A pipe connects the gas stove to a large bottle of.LPG located on the other side of the wall.

Nek Sofia's electric stove, in a 'closed' cooking area out the back.

Nek Sofia's gas stove in an open area at the back.

The gas bottles which connect to the stove on the other side of the wall.

However, nothing beats wood fire for cooking. A variety of woods can be used. Keriting wood is the best but hard to source--you have to go to another island to chop it down. Nyamplong can be found on Home Island, so it's easier to source. These woods are stored in a wood shed at the very back.

Wood shed piled with keriting and nyamplong wood

Wood fire is used in different ways. For example, you can wrap fish in banana leaf and bake it. You can also use it to heat a wok (waja). Even deep fried food heated on a wood fire is thought to taste better. 

Various wood stoves and waja (woks)

Wood fires are generally located under a roof in a well-ventilated, open area. This, presumably, allows the smoke to disperse.

Nek Sofia's sister-in-law, Nek Callum, cooking
serondeng in another well-ventilated kitchen.

Notwithstanding, the local doctor has banned many of the older women from using wood fires. After a lifetime of inhaling the smoke, their lungs are chronically damaged. So many speak with weak, raspy voices. 

Balok

Nek Sofia cutting the fins off
a fish on the balok

Frequently used in the preparation of food is the balok (log). It is made of kayu nyomplang. This is shaped like a three-legged stool with log cutting on top. Nek Sofia uses it to scale and gut the fish, cut up vegetables, etc.. It is located at the edge of the concrete, next to a hose, beside the garden. That way scraps wash off into the garden. This means that the nutrients from the meat [and vegetables] that are cut there make their way into the soil.

Nek Sofia gutting a fish on the balok

Nek Hanah with two kinds of balok. The log and the table placed on chair legs made by Nek Jamilah and which Nek Hanah calls "balok berkaki"

Table with hole

Most cooking areas have a table with a hole. You can see them in my blog "Spirals of Community Life". Here PJ/Nek Hannah is gutting and filleting silveries (ikan putih). The guts, spine and head, and skin are deposited in the tall white bucket and then fed to the fish at the jetty later. Parts of the 'rib cage', being too hard to bone, but still holding lots of flesh, are passed into the hole and drop into the shorter white bucket underneath the tables. This flesh will be turned into a kind of floss made out of fish flesh, coconut meat and chili. It's called serondeng and it's a Cocos Malay favourite.

Nek Sofia sitting a table with a hole and a bucket underneath

The process of separating is much assisted by the table with a hole. 

Freezer

Fishing is a crucial part of life for Cocos Malays. Extra fish are frozen in the large freezers located out the back of most houses. The fish is used in daily cooking. Fish are also preserved by salting and drying.

Large freezers, filled with fish mostly.

Frozen fish inside freezer.

Rice cooker

This unassuming device is also crucial. I have written about mode of adaptation in "Making Things Grow" and the significance of fishing  in "Teach a Man to Fish". Yet rice, an imported product that can not, in practice, be grown on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands takes pride of place, literally, in the Cocos Malay diet. It is considered impolite to have the pile of rice sitting on the side your plate furthest from you. Rather, as I was reminded on one occassion, it must be closest to you. 

Nek Sofia's rice cooker (white) and her rice

In contrast to other parts of Southeast Asia I have visited, many Cocos Malays use basmati rice, a kind of long grain rice popular in South Asia. OSo there you have it--with a large outdoor area out the back replete with at least one wood-fired stove; a wood pile; a freezer full of fish; a balok; and a rice cooker, you are ready to cook, Cocos style. Looking at cooking places on Home Island with an anthropological lens, what features stick out?

Gender and cooking

Cooking is mainly for females and the hearth is a feminine area. I'm not sure how to the two are causally related. In Australia, the BBQ area tends to located out the back of a house, outside, and is thought to be a place for males to cook, as I described in a Sydney Morning Herald article. Among Cocos Malays, cooking with fire in the back area remains the province of women.

Out the back, in the center

When I first arrived on Home Island, I felt sorry for the women; cooking way out the back, or so it seemed to me. I was told that it is much easier to cook outside where it is cooler. But as I have observed in "Built Spaces, Social Places"  the back is the center of household life. It is also an area in which much cooking, eating and socializing occurs.

So the cooking place reflects aspects of gender, social space, and kinship among the Cocos Malays of Home Island. As is usually the case with different aspects of culture, it's hard to assess which is the cause of the other--is the back the center of household life because cooking and eating occurs there? Or does cooking and eating occur out the back beca-9use the back is the center of household life? We anthropologists tend to evade such questions by saying "they both cause each other" or some such.

Anthropologists tend to view culture as a set of human created arrangements that seem natural to us. One of the characteristics which recommend fieldwork to us, is that we tend to go to situations which are unfamiliar to us. The experience hopefully makes us reflect on our own ideas of what is natural. It also makes us question the ideas of what is natural among the people we study. Thus, my ideas of what is natural in cooking conflict with Cocos Malay ideas. This allows better insight, hopefully, into both cultures and humans in general.

Thank you to our host family Nek Sofia perempuan and laki laki for having us stay with them these last few weeks and experiencing their 'hearth', hospitality and wonderful cooking.