Warring Societies of Pre-Colonial Southeast Asia_ Local Cultures of Conflict Within a Regional Context

Warring Societies of Pre-colonial Southeast Asia

their “right-to-place” through descent.^125 Nevertheless their claim was
refuted by the Talaud peoples themselves. In one of the Maguindanao
expeditions in 1773, the natives killed the sultan’s brother “possibly
[because] he was exercising his power too roughly, for the revenues are
most cruelly collected from those defenseless islanders.”^126
The foregoing discussion illustrates the nuances of the Maguindanao
interaction with the Sangir archipelago. The notion of kinship, particu-
larly marriage, seems to be an under-recognized element in the configu-
ration of warfare and alliance. The story of Salawo shows that marriage
relations seem to precede raiding, while the captivity of Pahawuateng
demonstrates that raiding could also be a prelude to establishing politi-
cal and economic vassalage. Meanwhile, the case of Daniel Katiandaho
illustrates that close family alliance with the Maguindanao could mean
being spared of raids, although the invocation of ties through family
descent did not always end successfully for the Maguindanao as their
experience in Talaud shows.

Conclusion

This essay links maritime raiding emanating from the southern Philip-
pines with two varieties of social affiliations: religion and family. It sheds
light on how conceptions of religious and familial connections were
pivotal to determining the conduct of raids. It provides concrete exam-
ples of how manifestations of religion and family served as channels for
peaceful alliances, paradoxically at a time when the use of violence – in
the form of raids – was particularly rife.
While the few scholarly works on maritime raiding in Southeast Asia
focus on the causation of raids, this essay approaches raiding from its
broader social context. It illustrates how the use or disuse of raiding was
tied with the invocation of essentially non-violent forms of interaction.
On the one hand, this shows how selected individuals – participants

125. The Maguindanaos reportedly appointed a person named Mahabata of the village
     of Lirung. This settlement fell under the traditional jurisdiction of the Tabukan
     settlement of Sarab (Sahabe) ruled by the family of Pandialangs. It is from this
     village that Bassing, the grandmother of the then ruling Sultan of Maguindanao,
     Pahar ud-Din (r. ca. 1755-1780), originates. NA VOC inv. 1.04.02, no. 7935
     (1776) (Banda), 136; see also Walter E. Aebersold, “Het verhaal van Makaampo”,
     Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde (1957): 161.


126. Forrest, A Voyage to New Guinea, and the Moluccas from Balambangan, 330.