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Sawerigading In Strange Places: The I La Galigo Myth In Central Sulawesi, Jennifer W. Nourse

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this chapter I present an alternative response to Sawerigading. Among the Central Sulawesi Lauje who live in the Kecamatan Tinombo on the Tomini Bay, Sawerigading is not a Bugis hero, but a native son. In what follows I explore his transformation from Bugis into local Lauje hero and what this transformation reveals about the extent of Bugis influence in a Central Sulawesi coastal kingdom which is at the political periphery of South Sulawesi. Most of the people in the community discuss claim to be either Lauje, the indigenous ethnic group, or an immigrant mix of Kaili, Gorontalo or Mandar. …