SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang

jro I Signs in Ethnographic Context
Transactional Symbolism in Belauan Mortuary Rites I 5 j
suit of orders from German (1899-1914) and Japanese (1914-44) colonial officials,
whose fear of "public health" contamination parallels the Belauans' fear
of spiritual contamination caused by the presence of death.
Immediately after a death many different groups spring quickly into coordinated
yet seemingly undirected action. Close female kin who happen to be living
nearby gather at the house of the deceased and attend to the intimate details of
preparing the body for burial. In traditional times, a person who became seriously
ill would move to the house of a senior member of his or her matrilineal
group, to be visited there by the spouse. Even today terminally ill patients leave
the hospital in Oreor town to die in their own houses, although women frequently
die in the familiarity of their husbands' houses rather than move to another
village. As the news spreads throughout the archipelago by means of repeated
radio announcements, additional female kin will join this "mourning
group" (remengeung). Three sorts of messages are common: the first in the name
of the deceased's eldest male child, 4
the second in the name of the close male
matrilineal relatives of the deceased, and the third in the name of the titleholder
of the deceased's spouse's house. While the second solicits aid from relatives of
the deceased, the third summons titleholders from many other districts who are
linked by the complex system of "house affiliation" (kebliil) (see Parmentier
1984).
The women arrive carrying funeral mats of various sizes, weaving styles, and
value, most of which are piled up in a corner of the house. Said to be "presents
for the deceased," these mats will play an important role in the burial rites and
subsequent distributions. Meanwhile, senior titled men from the village assemble
together, either in a different partition of the house, in a nearby house, or else in
the village meeting house. As the day wears on they too are joined by titleholders
from affiliated houses in other villages. If the deceased is a woman, these titled
men do not have much to do during the funeral, since the heaviest obligation falls
upon the woman's brothers. If the deceased is a fellow titleholder, then they must
engage in discussions about finding a suitable successor to the title. And if the
deceased is the wife of one of the high-ranking titleholders of the village, this
man will take responsibility for orchestrating the funeral sequence, although he
is likely to ask a junior relative or friend to transmit his decisions, keep financial
records, and oversee the timing of events. In this case there is also likely to be
some tension between his decision-making role and that of the woman's brothers,
especially if they too are high-ranking. This was exactly the situation at one of
the more elaborate funerals I attended, where the surviving male titleholder
warned his male associates, "Our responsibility is to be careful to help out those
on the [wife's] side, but we should not take charge of anything. Together, we are
all subject to debt [obals]." (The meaning of this last comment will be explained
below.) Of course if the deceased is already a widow, then a senior matrilineal
relative takes charge. But primarily, the senior men will spend the next few days
sitting together, telling stories, chewing betelnut, giving orders, and being served
meals.
Death has suddenly created a dangerous situation in the house and village,
both because the ghost of the deceased has become separated from its physical
body (the two are thought to be mirror images of each other) and because the
malevolent spirit which caused the death continues to linger, identity still unknown,
near the living. This situation requires several symbolic responses by female
mourners and villagers. The former become "confined" {chelsimer)
in the
house, where they are prohibited from cooking or washing and where they spend
their time weeping and singing "dirges" (kelloi).
Cooking and other domestic
activities are transferred to a small, makeshift structure near the main house. At
the heart of this core group of mourners sits the deceased's oldest sister, who
holds the handbag of the person Belauans say is "one of her." In this dangerous,
isolated state, these women are labeled meai "taboo," a term connected to the
word meang "sacred" (Parmentier 19873:241). I was told by a mourning woman
that their task is not only to stay close to the deceased but also to prevent strangers
from being able to look upon the corpse:
It is prohibited for a stranger to view the death of my relative, since then this
person would have the opportunity at some later time to insult me by saying:
"I held the dying person." I would be ashamed to hear a stranger say this. (F)
As close kin, these women have the obligation and the strength to withstand the
pollution or contamination of the corpse/ghost disjunction, although they do
take steps to protect themselves, the most important act being covering the corpse
with layers of mats. In addition, women overtly signal the affection they have for
the deceased by rubbing the body with oil and turmeric, which is said to represent
the "feelings of the women." The ritual use of turmeric is widespread in
Austronesian cultures (see Sopher 1964). In Belau the word for the plant, reng,
is also the word for "contents," "core," and "inner feelings" (Krämer 1917-19,
3:347; Kubary 1969:1-2). An elderly man told me, "Women use a lot of turmeric
on the corpse, until it is red all over. The turmeric [reng] represents the
feelings of the women [rengrir a mechas}. And when women from related houses
come to the village they will carry turmeric as a sign of their feelings." 5
The village as a whole also reacts to the presence of contamination by beginning
a period of funeral restriction (taor), during which time children may
not play in the road and all loud noises are prohibited. The purpose of this imposed
silence is not so much to show respect for the deceased but rather to avoid
scaring off the hovering ghost before it can be properly sent on its final journey. 6
This period of restriction does not imply, however, that the village becomes still,
for much intensive activity is taking place. The local men's club goes fishing to