The Legend of Lamòling: Unwritten Memories and Diachronic Toponymy through the Lens of an Abui Myth

Abstract

This paper reconstructs a number of Abui (Papuan) place names and micro-toponyms from the coastal area of Alor (South-East Indonesia) through the analysis of a legend centered on two gods from the Abui traditional religion, ending with the replacement of the first deity with the second one. The myth appears as diachronically ‘multi-layered’, from ancestral times to the arrival of Christianity in Alor, with the consequent identification of the ‘bad’ (or ‘weaker’) god as a demon and, then, as the devil. The story allows the etymological explanation of the meaning of around eight place names (toponyms and micro-toponyms), drawing a map of that ‘mythological’ space and landscape that is real and still attested, existing, known, and recognized by Abui native-speakers. The etymological and historical / diachronic analysis of place names, in this context, is fruitful not only in the reconstruction of their origins and in map-tracking, but it also involves an anthropological study of cultural aspects of oral tradition in the Abui religion. The story documented in this paper is considered true and not a legend by the Abui people and all the place names in this story known and accepted by the Abui people according to the parts they play in the legend. These place names and micro-toponyms, therefore, have a relevance that goes beyond their etymological reconstruction, allowing important insights in the fields of anthropology and history of culture and a close association between diachronic toponomastics and anthropological linguistics.