TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘Moko’ drums and gongs, ritual musical instruments and local currency from Alor Island, Southeast Indonesia
T2 - A comprehensive and verified lexical data set
AU - WU, Shiyue
AU - Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco
N1 - WU, Shiyue, and Francesco PERONO CACCIAFOCO. (2024). 'Moko' Drums and Gongs, Ritual Musical Instruments and Local Currency from Alor Island, Southeast Indonesia: A Comprehensive and Verified Lexical Data Set, Data in Brief, 54, 110354: 1-10
Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors
PY - 2024/6
Y1 - 2024/6
N2 - This paper provides comprehensive and systematized lists of names of ‘moko’ drums from Alor Island, in Southeast Indonesia. ‘Moko’ drums are unique cultural objects from the Alor-Pantar Archipelago and, besides their ancient function of ritual instruments used mainly for religious purposes and in public events by the indigenous peoples of the islands, they represented and still are considered a very valuable local ‘currency’ for trade and for specific social interactions rooted in aboriginal culture, like bride price negotiations. Despite the fact that they are extremely popular and widespread among Papuan peoples in Alor and Pantar, the origins of these drums are still relatively obscure. The native speakers, indeed, cannot explain the name ‘moko’ in itself, at the etymological and semantic level, and, despite the fact that they agree upon non-local origins of the instruments, they do not know where the instruments themselves were produced and from where they came to the islands. Our paper provides the readers with comprehensive lists that systematically collect the names of the drums, with the related glosses and basic additional information, from three representative Papuan languages of Alor Island, namely Abui, Sawila, and Kula. Configured as potentially indispensable tools to develop further research, these lists enhance our knowledge and understanding of the culture of the ‘moko’ drums in the Alor-Pantar Archipelago, at the linguistic (etymology of the names), anthropological (social value of the drums), and archeological (typology and provenance of the instruments) levels. This cataloguing operation is also part of the effort of documentation of the languages and cultures, still scarcely documented and definitely endangered, of the native peoples of the Alor-Pantar Archipelago.
AB - This paper provides comprehensive and systematized lists of names of ‘moko’ drums from Alor Island, in Southeast Indonesia. ‘Moko’ drums are unique cultural objects from the Alor-Pantar Archipelago and, besides their ancient function of ritual instruments used mainly for religious purposes and in public events by the indigenous peoples of the islands, they represented and still are considered a very valuable local ‘currency’ for trade and for specific social interactions rooted in aboriginal culture, like bride price negotiations. Despite the fact that they are extremely popular and widespread among Papuan peoples in Alor and Pantar, the origins of these drums are still relatively obscure. The native speakers, indeed, cannot explain the name ‘moko’ in itself, at the etymological and semantic level, and, despite the fact that they agree upon non-local origins of the instruments, they do not know where the instruments themselves were produced and from where they came to the islands. Our paper provides the readers with comprehensive lists that systematically collect the names of the drums, with the related glosses and basic additional information, from three representative Papuan languages of Alor Island, namely Abui, Sawila, and Kula. Configured as potentially indispensable tools to develop further research, these lists enhance our knowledge and understanding of the culture of the ‘moko’ drums in the Alor-Pantar Archipelago, at the linguistic (etymology of the names), anthropological (social value of the drums), and archeological (typology and provenance of the instruments) levels. This cataloguing operation is also part of the effort of documentation of the languages and cultures, still scarcely documented and definitely endangered, of the native peoples of the Alor-Pantar Archipelago.
KW - Language Documentation
KW - Field Linguistics
KW - Linguistics
KW - 'Moko' Drums
KW - Cultural Anthropology
KW - ‘Moko’ kettle-drums
KW - Abui, Sawila, and Kula
KW - Alor-Pantar Archipelago
KW - Papuan Indigenous Cultures
UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352340924003238?via%3Dihub
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85189533330&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.dib.2024.110354
DO - 10.1016/j.dib.2024.110354
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85189533330
SN - 2352-3409
VL - 54
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Data in Brief
JF - Data in Brief
M1 - 110354
ER -