Sulawesi - GIS

Most people in South Sulawesi live in villages. Relations and marriage show big similarities to Western patterns: individuals both belong to the family of the mother as to the family of the father, and a married couple lives in their own house. The relation between father and son is kind of formal. Brothers, who have the same status, are often big rivals. In the Chronic of Tanere, a little kingdom along the western coast, it told that the ongoing fights between brothers were the cause that their father was looking for someone to ascend the throne after him in the neighboring Segiri.

Mothers and daughters have a more close relation, but the best is the relation between brothers and sisters. According to the Buginese and Makasarese the brother is a protector and guardian of his sister. This is an important theme in the Buginese epic poem I La Galigo, which tells about the separation of Sawerigading and his twin sister Wé Tenriabéng. A girl is the symbol of the honor of the family. In earlier days, even a co-incidental meeting between a girl and a guy could lead to severe consequences; the habit demanded that the brother of the girl vengeance to kill the guy. In the tragic poem I La Padoma, the hero La Padoma is killed by the brother of his love, which catches them in a sleeping room. Even nowadays a male visitor coughs upon entering a house sometimes, to give young women the chance to retreat.

Most Makasarese and Buginese girls between three and seven years old are, following Islamic traditions, subjected to clitoridectomy and pearcing the ears. Boys are circumcised between their tenth and fifteenth. The festivity that comes with the operation is often very large, especially in the higher classes. The filing and blackening of the upper teeth is a habit that dates back several hundred years; it used to be for both genders at the start of puberty, but not anymore.

Most marriages are arranged by the parents of the couple, often with the help of a respected elderly. There is a strong favor for marriages with relatives; the ideal marriage is between a full niece and cousin, but marriages between cousins with one generation difference is more often. In the competitive and status-aware communities of South-Sulawesi, an ambitious young man with an aggressive personality is the ideal partner. A girl is expected to have the complementally personality: obedient and timid. Nowadays more youngsters pick partners by themselves. When a couple doesn't get permission from their parents, they tend to get out.

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