Beyond Looting: Reinterpreting Prehistoric Burial Sites through the Macucuk Tradition in Southern Sulawesi

Widya Nayati

For over ten decades, the macucuk tradition in South Sulawesi, including the regencies of Takalar, Jeneponto, Bantaeng, Bulukumba, and the Selayar Islands, has operated within a state of epistemic dualism. While national legal frameworks categorise this informal recovery as illegal looting, for practitioner communities, it is a deeply spiritual act of ancestral care. This study employs an ethnoarchaeological lens to challenge the "Authorized Heritage Discourse" (AHD) by revealing a startling archaeological reality uncovered through these local practices. The most significant finding of this research is the identification of a vast area of, continuous prehistoric burial sites stretching along the entire southern coast of South Sulawesi. This extensive distribution has remained largely overlooked by formal institutional surveys. While traditional scholarship interprets foreign ceramics merely as maritime trade commodities, this paper argues for a radical re-reading of this data. These assemblages, as mapped through the macucuk network, serve as primary markers of a massive, interconnected prehistoric mortuary system. The research concludes that the criminalization of these practices leads to "epistemicide" - the erasure of alternative knowledge. It advocates for a participatory governance model that moves beyond top-down enforcement, recognizing that these burial sites are not isolated "find-spots," but a vast, continuous, living heritage landscape that demands a decolonised, community-led approach to protection.