Small Sacrifices: Religious Change and Cultural Identity among the Ngaju of Indonesia / Edition 1

by Anne Schiller

Overview

Small Sacrifices is an ethnographic study of Ngaju Dayaks, rain forest dwellers of the remote interior region of Central Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Like many indigenous peoples throughout the world, the Ngaju have recently been affected by exposure to world religions, by improvements in transportation and communication, by new demands on family-based production, and by other factors pertaining to their growing incorporation into an expanding state system in an era of rapid political and economic change. The Ngaju response to these pressures, Anne Schiller contends, is most clearly seen in the religious sphere. Over the past two decades, many Ngaju have taken to recasting and reinterpreting their indigenous religion, known formerly as Kaharingan, and now as Hindu Kaharingan. Paradoxically, this process of religious change involves the codification of religious belief and the standardization of ritual. It also includes efforts to distinguish "religious practices" from other "customs." These developments figure importantly in the construction of modern Ngaju identity. The author focuses especially on the form and content of tiwah, an elaborate ritual of secondary treatment of the dead, with multiple and complex meanings for Hindu Kaharingan Ngaju, as well as for those who have converted to Christianity or Islam.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900195095585
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	05/28/1997
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 1.25(h) x 9.00(d)

About the Author

North Carolina State University

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
The Ngaju "Death Cult"
The "Ngaju" People and the Ngaju Region
Tiwah and the Issue of Ritual Acceptability
Kaharingan Ritual and Ngaju Identity
Some Implications of Religious Change in Central Kalimantan
2. Death Begins
The Rituals Today
The Three Stages of Mortuary Ritual
Souls and Life Forces
Ritual Specialists
The Mortuary Cycle: Death and Primary Treatment
The Mortuary Cycle: Informing the Deceased
Journey to the Village of Souls
Preparations for Tiwah
The Start of Tiwah
Ritual Specialists at Tiwah
The Cosmos Unlocked: Souls and Remains Are Treated
Order and Anti-Order in Natural and Supernatural Worlds.
Transgression of Hadat
The Origin of Hadat
Hadat and the Inhabitants of Upper- and Lowerworlds
Hadat and the Jungle-Dwelling Beings

Editorial Reviews

"The book appeals to a broad audience with interests in religion, ethnicity, nationalism, social change, and so forth. Written eloguently and drawing on engaging episodes, it would also make a good textbook, paired with Schiller's ethnographic film on tiwah, 'Borneo: Beyond the Grave.'"—Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher