Rituals of Manhood by Gilbert H. Herdt

Author:Gilbert H. Herdt [Herdt, Gilbert H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780765804051
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 2021-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

Handalaki: The coming-out-of-seclusion ceremony is held, and the stone bride is received from the memul. Then the animals are cooked, and the ceremony of distribution is conducted.

When conditions are right in a community, one begins to hear discussion of a bau a. Preparations include the selection of ritual officers (ayasilo), assessment of food availability, and some instruction of the ayasilo concerning the proper way to proceed.

As mentioned earlier, there are usually a number of precipitating circumstances that lead a community to sponsor a bau a. In the case of WDgole bau a sponsored by the community of clan Bona, in about 1943, a certain amount of subtle pressure was brought to bear on the community from outside. Bona had received a substantial amount of mado from a bau a held at a place called Asibi, sponsored by clan Waliso and supported by two other communities. Four years later Bona’s people began to hear rumors that the former leader of Asibi bau a was wondering aloud to his housemates whether he would ever get some return for the mado distributed at Asibi. About the same time, a spirit medium from clan Didesa (also participants in Asibi bau a) visited Bona and held a seance. A spirit came up and suggested that Bona hold a bau a. Nothing was done, however, until a senior man of the community had a dream in which he learned that the memul were preparing to bring a (stone) bride. Thus assured that the bau a would be a success, the old man secretly started discussions among the men of the community about sponsoring a bau a, and he urged the oldest bachelor in the community to act as leader and organize it.

The bachelor designated to be leader gets together with the other young men of the community, and, in consultation with the older married men (who have been to a bau a themselves or have received mado from one), they decide which communities will be designated to receive mado from their bau a, who will serve as the other ritual officers (there are seven altogether), and when to hold the g omul 3, or opening rite.

The time of the gomub for a bau a is kept secret, but it is usually staged to coincide with the celebration of some other, larger social event, such as a wedding. That way there is a large gathering of people to whom the gomulo can serve as a dramatic surprise and also, implicitly, as a public announcement that a new bau a has gone in session. In the days preceding this event, the older men of the community, particularly those who have recently participated in a bau a, instruct the prospective leader in some of the fundamentals he needs to know about bau a procedure; but they reveal none of the esoterica.

In addition to the leader, there are six other ayasilo who act as ritual and practical officers under his direction. Of the total seven ayasilo, five are adult bachelors, and the remaining two are a youth of about sixteen and a boy of twelve or thirteen years.

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