Sagu Salempeng Tapata Dua: Conflict and Resource Management in Central Maluku

Communal violent has shattered the image of Maluku as a socially harmonious community where traditional institutions, such as pela and sasi, have been thought to represent or facilitate inter-group harmony and sustainable resource management. More than three years of sectarian conflict has destroyed settlements and resources, and left many displaced people. It has changed the physical and social landscape of communities in Maluku, and broken down various strategies and arrangements that once enabled practical cooperation between individuals and communities in using resources and making a living. Using experience from anthropological field research on local resource management, in this paper I focus on how the recent conflict remade communities in certain ways, how people coped with the unrest, and how unrest impacts on people’s relationships and strategies in making a living and using resources. I also consider how the legacy of conflict will affect research in Maluku in the foreseeable