Biosocial Synchrony on Sumba by Fowler Cynthia T.;

Author:Fowler, Cynthia T.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic

Chapter 5

Listening for Cosmic Voices and Speculating about Their Perspectives

Kodi People’s Entanglements with Astronomical Objects

What are the “particular social forms” (Descola 2013: 232) that Kodi culture projects onto the universe? This is a question about how humans make the biosocial worlds that extend beyond Earth’s boundaries, and to answer it this chapter takes on the task of assessing Kodi people’s knowledge about the objects in their sky and their practices related to cosmic bodies. Kodi people factor material information and symbolic meanings from the Moon and Sun into their conceptualizations of and practices in space-time.

Being Kodi, being human always involves co-belonging in the same universe as cosmic agents. The lives of Earthly humans and nonhumans are entangled with cosmic agents. While many astronomical objects are actors in Kodi’s biosocial worlds, the Moon and the Sun are especially active agents in the Kodi universe as indicated by their being the ones people most frequently evoke. Through thinking, expressing, and acting out their cosmology, Kodi share their world with these two especially prominent subjects/objects in the sky.

The question of whether the Moon, Sun, and other cosmic bodies are more accurately referred to as “objects” or “subjects” is tricky to answer because in Kodi cosmology the sky-beyond-Earth is inhabited by objects with “dispositions, motivations, and intentions” (Kohn 2007: 5). In possessing these qualities, the Moon and Sun are selves in a similar sense as seaworms are selves. Kodi people communicate information about the “dispositions, motivations, and intentions” (Kohn 2007: 5) of the Moon and Sun in various everyday and ritual contexts. In rituals, they chant the names of cosmic companions in rhythmic couplets, sing to them, play music for them, offer sacrifices to them, and divine their feelings while coaxing them into feeling and behaving in desirable ways. In everyday situations, Kodi people recount the histories of the Moon and Sun in myths and stories, and describe their own and their loved ones’ encounters with the cosmic actants.

The Moon and Sun have “traditional” Kodi monikers as well as common everyday names. Wulla is the everyday name for the Moon. Lod’do or Mata Lod’do is the Sun’s common name. The traditional names of the Moon and Sun are spoken together in this lyrical couplet: Pati Ndera Wulla Raŋga Horo Lod’do. This name identifies the Moon Sun as a complementary pair that includes a female side, Pati Ndera Wulla, and a male side, Raŋga Horo Lod’do. Pati Ndera is an iconic name for Kodi people; usually women, but also some men. Raŋga Horo is an iconic name given to Kodi men. These human names were taken and given to the Moon and Sun, or vice versa. The Moon Sun is a double-gendered or transgendered subject. S/he belongs to the same taxonomic class as Mother Seaworm Father Fish (Inya Nale Bapa Ipu Mbaha), Mother Guardian of the Earth Father Guardian of the Rivers (Inya Mangu Tana Bapa Mangu Loko), and Great Mother Great Father (Inya Bokolo Bapa Bokolo). Members of this class occupy the top of the supernatural hierarchy.

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