CAP TIKUS

CAP TIKUS: Knowledge and Minahasan Identity places the knowledge of maker families at the centre of its account of a’kel, saguer, batifar, fermentation, distillation, work in the daseng, and the surrounding economy. Colonial records, newspapers, dictionaries, regulations, and research are treated as supporting sources that require critical examination. The book follows changes in naming, taxation, trade, stigma, confiscation, legalisation, and unequal rights over the name Cap Tikus. It does not dismiss the harm caused by alcohol abuse, but it also refuses interpretations that erase knowledge, working practices, customary rules, and the dignity of maker families. From within the life of Tou a’kel, Cap Tikus emerges as technical knowledge, social history, identity, and a question of justice.