Hat

Unknown artist

A hat made of woven cotton. The orange hat is round with two ear-shaped protrusions on the top with a short round flower-shaped protrusion with pink twisted threads in the middle. \This is probably the headgear of a Saniri, the member of the local council. \ÒThe adat costumes worn by the members of the council were a men's coat with long slips and yellow brass buttons, a vest and trousers. The clothing was usually cotton, like this one, but silk garments were worn for holidays.\ Each group dressed in a particular color. The saniri members of Eti wore red, those of Sapalewa yellow and those of Tala blue. At the end of the 19th century green was also worn and the colours were no longer fixed for a certain group. (Van der Crab already wrote in his book published in 1864 that the Saniri of Tala wore red). Martin saw that the Kapala Saniri of Sapalewa wore green and he had not seen yellow. Based on this description it is not clear to which saniri this clothing belonged. Since the hats refer to the saniri of Tala, this was most probably their clothing. On the three pointed hats the saniri members wore silver plates with their function in gothic letters. A Kapala Saniri possessed a staff of 1.75 m. with a trident end, on which an oval plate with the Dutch coat of arms was attached. This trident also referred to the three rivers. \The function of a Kepala Saniri was to govern the district, preside over the council, judge, adat-head, tax collector, and they jointly presided over the Great Land Council of Western Seram. \Next to him stood three followers and together they formed the Saniri. They were the link between the Alfuru and the Dutch government. The Alfuru people chose the Kapala Saniri and the Government appointed them. Valentine did not mention the Kapala Saniri, so it may have been created during the 18th or 19th century. \Pata-siwa Two major groups existed on Seram: the Pata-lima in the east and the Pata-siwa in the west. The Pata-siwa was divided into the Pata-siwa-hitam and the Pata-siwa-putih. \The former were members of the Kakean (Kakihan) society. They wore black clothes and had dark tattoos. In general, head snatching was very common on Seram in the nineteenth century, but the Pata-siwa-hitam were particularly feared. The Alfuru lived mainly in the mountains. The Pata-siwa-hitam could be divided into three groups, those of Sapalewa, Eti and Tala. Under the old administration of the Pata-siwa there were three Kapala Saniri with messengers and three Rajas (those of Sapalewa, Eti and Tala,). For leading the battle there was the Kapitan Makorissi (Makoeresi), but that also fell into disuse.These Kapala Saniri are closely associated with the Kakihan (Kakean) alliance, for they were also heads of the Kakihan alliance. For the hiring of the so-called newcomers, the rushing of heads was necessary. Indirectly, the Gouvernment agreed to this, while it also wanted to curb the killing.The saniri became a source of contention. After the murder of the Siwalete (a special messenger) of Tala the Dutch government banned the saniri. The Kapala Saniri and their messengers continued to exist. \Dutch administrative officials were called post holders (holding a post) on Seram, as well as other posts in the Moluccas (and Timor PW).\From newspaper articles it appears what was thought of the dress of the Kapala Saniri; "This was a fancy costume like that of a negro king, and yet it was less offensive to the dignity of the wearer than those European skirts which the decorum prescribed for native schoolmasters or Noesa Laut. Other travelers would laugh their heads off when they saw these as tanned alpine faces appearing under a dented and reddish cylinder head of the old-fashioned kind of fire buckets; furthermore some had skirts with too long slips, so that they swept the ground, others had sleeves as long as a straitjacket, a third had such a short body, that he seemed to be stuck in a black corset. Here it was not the clothes that made the man, but those that made him. \To the traveler Bickmore, who saw jewelry of human teeth with the Alfurs, their dance made a great impression: \"Our North American savages are civilized people compared to these devils in human form.‖ From the Java messenger's other description of 1896, it appears that the plate was then still attached to the chest. So then this hat and the other clothing very likely dates from the period 1896 - 1924.‖ Christiaan de Jong, F.J.P. Sachse, K. Martin