Toba Significant

This work consists of two academic essays inspired by the people and geography of Lake Toba, Indonesia. The first essay investigates the possible connection of the Toba YTT eruption 72,000 years ago and a leap in cognitive ability (allowing for complex speech and thus thought) proposed by many evolutionary linguists to have occurred during the later Middle Paleolithic. The second essay focuses on the role of similarity in the underlying sign systems on the acceptance and integration of Christianity by the people of Toba, the Batak. An account of the current integrated Adat-Christian sign system is given through direct contact with the village people themselves.