violence, sacrifice, and divination: giving and taking life in eastern Indonesia
Classical theorists have focused on the "gift of life" in sacrifice and its reinforcement of hierarchical divisions, but have paid little attention to the violent "taking of life" and the divinatory significance of the body. This case study from the Kodi people of Sumba examines...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
American Ethnological Society
1993
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| In: |
American ethnologist
Year: 1993, Volume: 20, Issue: 1, Pages: 159-178 |
| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy |
| Further subjects: | B
Sacrifice Religion
B Girard, René (1923-2015) B Violence B Indonesia (Ost) |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Classical theorists have focused on the "gift of life" in sacrifice and its reinforcement of hierarchical divisions, but have paid little attention to the violent "taking of life" and the divinatory significance of the body. This case study from the Kodi people of Sumba examines what is at stake in the bloody struggle between sacrificers and their animal victims. Social relations between juniors and seniors are dramatized by the subjugation and killing of water buffalo that have been contributed by junior members. When these usually meek, docile animals suddenly turn on their slaughterers in a final desperate battle of resistance, the young men who sacrifice them identify with the animals they kill and praise their courage and manliness. The violent death of the animals is part of a contested process that moves from metonymic bonds to metaphoric transfers, taking symbolic associations and giving them a performative significance. After death, the "reading" of the liver and storing of the horns turns the buffalo into a visual medium of communication and memory, returning the "voice" that a myth says was lost at domestication. [sacrifice, violence, divination, man/animal symbolism, Indonesia] |
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| ISSN: | 1548-1425 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American ethnologist
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1525/ae.1993.20.1.02a00080 |