[6] They obtain monetary income from the sale of forest products or hiring themselves out to new settlers to clear jungle areas for farming.
Traditional beliefs, including the vestiges of shamanism and the cult of spirits, exert a strong influence in everyday life.
[9] The process of adopting Christianity among the forest Tobelo people living in the northeast of Halmahera was very lengthy and complex.
However, the version of Christianity that they chose was not the one that was preached to them by the Tobelo language-speaking societies with which they maintain family and marriage ties, but the one that was brought to this region by American missionaries.
[11] The ceremony consisted of the adat ritual (from Indonesian, "customary law") and vowing that both sides of the conflict, Muslims and Christians, will respect each other's rights and will forever renounce violence.
It symbolized the majority decision in the province of North Maluku to recognize adat as a guarantor of social unity and harmony in the region.
They believed that the resurrection of adat would change the point of identification of people from their religion to their Tobelo ethnic identity.
In Dirk Nilanda's documentary "Tobelo Marriage", it is shown in detail how much the women's work is invested in the preparation of a wedding feast; such as weaving, preparing a "rice slide" festive dish, a special refined table in the form of a canoe, all of which indicates the importance of the ceremony for both parties.
[12] In the case of incest, a special ceremony of rupturing the hereditary line takes place, during which it is believed by sending the Tobelo couple floating or drowning into the river is done in order to prevent floods.
[14] The most common occupations are fishing, fishery and manual farming (bananas, copra, palm wine, root crops, tubers, beans, dry rice).
[12] A program on Indonesian national TV presented the habits and customs of the Togutil people,[16] and a Tik Tok account uses to publish videos to better know them.