Nuaulu Religious Practices How Religious Practices Are Reproduced Has Become a Major Nuaulu Religious Practices Theoretical Issue
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Nuaulu religious practices How religious practices are reproduced has become a major Nuaulu religious practices theoretical issue. This work examines data on Nuaulu ritual performances collected over a 30 year period, compar- ing different categories of event in terms of frequency and The frequency and periodicity. It seeks to identify the influencing factors and reproduction of rituals in the consequences for continuity. Such an approach enables a focus on related issues: variation a Moluccan society in performance, how rituals change in relation to material and social conditions, the connections between different ritual types, the way these interact as cycles, and the extent to which fidelity of transmission is underpinned by a com- mon model or repertoire of elements. This monograph brings to completion a long-term study of Roy Ellen the religious behaviour of the Nuaulu, a people of the island of Seram in the Indonesian province of Maluku. Ethnographi- cally, it is important for several reasons: the Nuaulu are one of the few animist societies remaining on Seram; the data emphasize patterns of practices in a part of Indonesia where studies have hitherto been more concerned with meaning and symbolic classification; and because Nuaulu live in an area where recent political tension has been between Chris- tians and Muslims. Nuaulu are, paradoxically, both caught between these two groups, and apart from them. Roy Ellen Roy Roy Ellen is Professor of Anthropology and Human Ecology at the University of Kent, a Fellow of The British Academy, and was president of the Royal Anthropological Institute between 2007 and 2011. He was trained at the London School of Economics and at the University of Leiden. Among his other books are The cultural relations of classification (on Nuaulu animal categories) and On the edge of the Banda zone (on trade in east Seram). ISBN 978-90-6718-391-8 9 789067 183918 NUAULU RELIGIOUS PRACTICES VERHANDELINGEN VAN HET KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT VOOR TAAL-, LAND- EN VOLKENKUNDE 283 ROY ELLEN NUAULU RELIGIOUS PRACTICES The frequency and reproduction of rituals in a Moluccan society KITLV Press Leiden 2012 Published by: KITLV Press Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) P.O. Box 9515 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands website: www.kitlv.nl e-mail: [email protected] KITLV is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) Cover: Sam Gobin ISBN 978 90 6718 391 8 © 2012 Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner. Printed in the Netherlands Frontispiece. Hatarai making an invocation over the new sokate hanging beneath the rine shelf in Sounaue-ainakahata clan sacred house; Rouhua, August 1973. Contents list of figures xi list of tables xiii list of plates xv preface xix a note on spelling xxv acknowledgements xxvii 1 things, cycles and exchanges 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 In relation to theories of ritual 6 1.3 The concept of ritual reproduction 8 1.4 A point of methodology 14 1.5 Clans, houses and social organization 17 1.6 Nuaulu rituals as events 25 1.7 Rituals as work and work as ritual 28 1.8 The organization of the analysis 33 2 components of ritual performance 35 2.1 Introduction 35 2.2 Cognitive architecture 36 2.3 Material paraphernalia 47 2.4 Food and feasting 61 2.5 Words and movements: kahuae 63 2.6 Spirit participants 68 2.7 Divisions of labour 72 2.8 Scripts, schemas and sequences: the syntax of ritual composition 73 | Contents 3 life-cycle rituals: birth 77 3.1 Introduction 77 3.2 Birth ritual 78 3.3 The posune 79 3.4 Birth and post-natal care 83 3.5 Erecting the asinokoe 86 3.6 The washing ceremony at the posune. 88 3.7 Reintegration ritual: first day 92 3.8 Reintegration ritual: second day 95 3.9 First hair-cutting ceremony 97 3.10 Variation and change 101 3.11 Frequency and periodicity 104 4 life-cycle rituals: female puberty (NAHANE PINAMOU) 107 4.1 Introduction 107 4.2 First menstrual seclusion 108 4.3 Entering ritual 109 4.4 Preparations for coming-out ceremony 114 4.5 At the posune: the washing ceremony 115 4.6 At the clan sacred house 119 4.7 The second day 124 4.8 At the hatu pinamou 126 4.9 Variation, change and periodicity in female puberty rites 127 5 life-cycle rituals: male puberty ceremonies (MATAHENNE) 131 5.1 Introduction 131 5.2 The morite relationship 132 5.3 Preparations 134 5.4 First day: bathing 139 5.5 First day: dressing 140 5.6 Walk to the hantetane 141 5.7 At the hantetane 143 5.8 Investiture with barkcloth 144 5.9 Sacrificing the cuscus 146 5.10 Return to the village 148 5.11 The second day 149 5.12 Variation and change in matahenne 152 viii Contents | 5.13 Periodicity and frequency of matahenne 155 5.14 The connecting logic in rituals of sexual maturation 158 6 life-cycle rituals: adulthood and death 161 6.1 Introduction 161 6.2 Investiture with tupu-tupue 162 6.3 Variation and periodicity of tupu-tupue ceremonies 169 6.4 Mortuary rituals 170 6.5 Default death – preparation of the corpse 171 6.6 At Hatu Nohue 174 6.7 Two case studies 177 6.8 Post-funeral mortuary practices 179 6.9 The symbolic geography of death as a ritual mnemonic 182 6.10 Variation in mortuary rituals 184 6.11 Periodicity and change 191 7 rituals of the house 193 7.1 The house defined 193 7.2 The pre-life of houses 196 7.3 Planting the first post and erecting the frame 199 7.4 Roofing, walls and floors 202 7.5 Transfer of valuables into a new house 205 7.6 Rituals of things 210 7.7 Completion ceremonies 213 7.8 Variation and change 215 7.9 Frequency and periodicity 221 8 rituals of the SUANE 225 8.1 Introduction 225 8.2 The suane defined 226 8.3 The suane as a physical structure 231 8.4 The suane and kahuae 234 8.5 The pre-life of the suane 236 8.6 Planting the first post 239 8.7 Installing the fireplace 240 8.8 Planting and transplanting kokine 243 8.9 Entering the suane for the first time 246 ix | Contents 8.10 Completing the cycle 247 8.11 The great kahuae festival 249 8.12 Variation, change and periodicity 250 9 managing ritual 257 9.1 Quantifying and comparing ritual events 257 9.2 The coherence of ritual and the consequences of differential frequency 262 9.3 Subsistence rituals as default models 268 9.4 Planning, sequencing and coordinating interlocking cycles 273 9.5 The precision of performance: social tension, retribution and redemption 280 9.6 How and why rituals change 285 9.7 Size matters: demography, mobility and viability 291 9.8 The consequences of civil disturbance, 1999-2003 301 9.9 Summary and conclusions 305 9.10 Postscript: the end of ritual? 306 glossary 311 appendix: log of nuaulu ritual events attended and described, 1970-2003 319 bibliography 325 index 341 x List of fi gures 1.1 The geographic location of the Nuaulu area in relation to Maluku as a whole and Seram in particular 4 1.2 The eastern part of Amahai subdistrict, Seram 4 1.3 Bar charts for six categories of activity 32 2.1 Outline structure of Nuaulu house, showing relative position of selected components mentioned in the text 42 2.2 Basic cognitive geometry of the Nuaulu sacred house and village space 43 2.3 Seating plan for a first hair-cutting ritual, Sounaue-ainakahata, 1970 45 2.4 The social passage of betel in ritual 56 3.1 Genealogical connections between main actors in the bathing ceremony for Kaune Sounaue-ainakahata, 1971 89 4.1 Seating arrangement for pinamou reintegration ceremony in clan sacred house 120 5.1 Male puberty ceremony: the flow of morite services between clans in Rouhua 133 5.2 Male puberty ceremony: projected estimates for number of novices for five-year periods between 1945 and 1985 156 7.1 Comparison of relationships between those involved in repairing ritual heute belonging to the numa kapitane Neipane and those belonging to numa onate Soumori 199 7.2 Plan illustrating spatial aspects of ritual for insertion of first walling in new Neipane-tomoien clan sacred house, 1970 204 7.3 Variation in clan sacred house design as evident from floor-level plan 217 8.1 Seating arrangement in the Matoke clan sacred house for principal actors involved in the kokine transplanting ceremony, 1971 244 8.2 Suane cycles for three Nuaulu settlements, 1970-1996 252 9.1 How change in the composition of domestic groups influences the expe- rience of different categories of ritual 261 | List of figures 9.2 How individual cultural models are reinforced and modified over time through the interplay of repeated experience and generic information inputs 267 9.3 The interconnections between different cycles of Nuaulu ritual activity 275 9.4 The causal history of a ritual event: planting the first posts for a suane 278 9.5 Growth in Nuaulu population compared with Seram as a whole 292 9.6 Population pyramids for five clans in Rouhua, 1971 298 9.7 Number of males available for puberty ceremonies in successive generations, 1971-1991 299 xii List of tables 1.1 Distribution and size of Nuaulu clans by settlement, 1971 and 2001 com- pared 20 1.2 1970-71 survey of work allocation for selected Nuaulu adult males 30 2.1 Distribution of ritual objects in five sacred clan houses in Rouhua, 1971 49 2.2 Selected plant species significant in Nuaulu ritual cycles described in this book 54 5.1 Male puberty ceremonies: correspondence between year, location, clan and number of individuals inducted, Rouhua 1971-2003 157 7.1 Distribution of clan sacred houses in different Nuaulu settlements, 1971 and 2001 compared 195 7.2 Participation in selected house-building rituals by adult males between 1970 and 1996 208 7.3 Nuaulu clan population figures in relation to number of sacred houses: 1971 and 2001 compared 223 9.1 Nuaulu fieldwork episodes conducted by Ellen, 1970-2003 257 9.2 Growth of Nuaulu population in south Seram compared with that at other levels of administrative grouping, 1970-2001 293 9.3 Population of different Nuaulu settlements, indicating mobility between settlements and the creation and abandonment of settlements 296 List of plates Frontispiece.