Saints, Heroes, Myths, and Rites by Marcel Mauss Henri Hubert Robert Hertz

Author:Marcel Mauss, Henri Hubert, Robert Hertz [Marcel Mauss, Henri Hubert, Robert Hertz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317252603
Google: of9YCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-01-08T05:06:33+00:00

II. THE FINAL CEREMONY

The institution of a great feast connected to the final funeral is general among the Indonesians: under various names it is found in the majority of islands in the Malay Archipelago from Nicobar in the west to Halmahera in the east. This feast, which lasts for several days, sometimes as long as a month,152 has an extreme importance for the natives:153 it requires laborious preparations and expenditures that often reduce the family of the deceased to poverty;154 numerous animals155 are sacrificed and consumed in banquets that frequently degenerate into immense orgies; invitations are addressed for the occasion to all the nearby villages and are never refused.156 Thus this feast tends to take on a collective character; the costs ordinarily exceed the resources controlled by a single family; and moreover such an interruption of everyday life cannot take place frequently. Among the Olo Ngaju, the Tiwah is generally celebrated for several deceased persons at the same time, the families involved sharing the expenses between them.157 In other societies, the feast is regularly repeated, for example every three years, and is celebrated collectively for all those who died during the intervening period;158 it therefore directly involves not simply the family of a particular deceased person, but the entire village.

The final ceremony has three objectives: it must provide the final burial place for the remains of the deceased, assure peace and access to the land of the dead for his soul, and finally relieve the survivors of the obligation of mourning.

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