The Stranger-Kings of Sikka

Judul	:	The Stranger-Kings of Sikka
Penulis	:	E. Douglas Lewis
Penerbit	:	KITLV Press – Leiden
Bahasa	:	Inggris
Tahun Cetak	:	2010
Halaman	:	432
ISBN	:	978-90-6718-328-4
Status	:	Kosong

One custom in ethnographic writing is to begin with the name of the people about whom one writes. But ethnonyms, we anthropologists have discovered, can be a problem, in Indonesia no more than in other places on the planet, but certainly there. This book is about the Ata Sikka: ata meaning ‘people’ in Sara Sikka (‘the way or language of Sikka’) and it is as the Ata Sikka – the people of Sikka – that I shall identify the people who are the subject of this book, with an occasional regression to the term Sikkanese. The –ese in Sikkanese means ‘of, relating to, or originating in (a certain place or country)’ (where the –n- comes from is another matter). However, just where the Ata Sikka came from and who they are problems that conjure themselves at the outset of any inquiry into the ethnology of Flores. Indeed, the name Sikka is wrapped in ambiguities. Among the people generally referred to as the Ata Sikka are those whose ancestors ruled east central Flores until the 1950s. their traditions identify them as immigrants, newcomers, to the island  who arrived by ship after a voyage from the west. These former rulers use the autonym Ata Sikka, yet their own traditions distinguish their origins from those ao the autochthonous people of the district, who are also Ata Sikka.