SIGNS IN SOCIETY - STIBA Malang

jz I Signs in Ethnographic Context
Transactional Symbolism in Belauan Mortuary Rites I 53
provide food for the funeral feast, village women start weaving food baskets and
preparing large cauldrons for boiling taro and fish, and a group of young men
digs the grave while another group kills one or more pigs.
Initial Funeral Transactions
The primary responsibility for providing betelnut and for preparing meals
for mourners and visiting titleholders falls to the women who are categorized as
"spouses of men" {buch el sechal), that is, women married to men belonging to
the houses of the husband and wife. These women may be assisted by unrelated
women from the local women's club. This food service is in accordance with the
normal asymmetrical pattern of "affinal exchange" (omeluchel):
aided by their
children, sisters, and brothers, women prepare food for their husbands and husbands'
sisters. Also included in this category of spouses of men are wives of male
children of men and women related to the houses of the husband and wife. Additional
food is supplied by the "female children" (ngalek el redil) of the deceased;
these contributions, too, are consistent with the normal pattern in which young
people provide food and service to senior kinspersons. These two groups of
women may bring identical kinds of food (including sacks of rice, baskets of taro,
bakery goods, sweets, and pigs), but their contributions are kept physically separate
and are labeled differently, the spouses-of-men-food being called "boiled in
water" (ngeliokl),
while the female-children-food is called "carried on the shoulder"
(chelungel). 7
This distinction is important because the two kinds of food,
which correspond to distinct paths of relationship, will merit different forms of
repayment. Food and labor provided by women who are in-married spouses will
be paid for by the women at the house (including relatives of both husband and
wife), who present them with female valuables. These valuables may be turtleshell
trays or oystershell slicers, and in the contemporary context store-bought items
such as plastic basins, tin trays, utensils, soap, cloth, and glassware are also given.
Although these modern items are simply called "goods" (klalo), it is clear that
the traditional symbolism continues: all these objects are associated with the female
sphere of activity, food preparation (cf. Traube 1980:100). In contrast, the
female children will not be directly recompensed for their food and service, since
that transgenerational financial settlement will be the subject of the second segment
of the mortuary sequence:
These kinds of food [ngeliokl and chelungel] are identical; they just have different
names. The reason that they have different names has to do with the
goods which will be distributed after the customary event is over: those who
are female children will not receive any goods, while those who are spouses of
men will receive goods afterward. But those who bring chelungel do not receive
anything, since they just "carry" the food as the proper duty of being children
of the house. And so this is why we notify those women who are in charge of
the distribution how many spouses of men there are and that the other women
are just female children who are not to receive anything. (F)
Another slight difference between ngeliokl and chelungel is that the former category
is used up first, and the latter is cooked only if there is a shortage. The point
of this difference is that chelungel is seen as uncooked food (i.e., "just carried"),
since the labor of cooking (i.e., "boiling") is the responsibility of the spouses
of men.
The use of female valuables (generally called toluk) to pay for the funeral
food follows the usual pattern according to which women reward service, whether
from unrelated friends or from their husband's sisters, with valuables:
Toluk are the real money of the women of Belau. Let's say I am living right
here, and the wife of one of my brothers comes here and cleans up the front
yard of my house. When I go to say goodbye to her I will take a toluk and give
it to her and that would be enough. And if she clears weeds from my garden,
I will also give her a toluk, saying, "Thank you very much." This is women's
money. ... It is completely impossible for a man ever to give a toluk, and yet
women carry them to give to the spouses of their brothers, though she is
equally capable of giving them to any other woman who has expended effort
on her behalf. And the husband of a woman is very happy to purchase these
turtleshell pieces and to give them to people skilled in making them into trays.
He purchases them and gives them to another person skilled in polishing them,
and he purchases them again and then gives them to his wife. So if we know
that a woman has lots of female money, then people are eager to help her, since
they will be able to say, "Give me one of those." And, inversely, if a woman
does not have any of this kind of money, no one will want to help her, because
these toluk do not automatically go to our brothers but rather become the possessions
of us women. Toluk presented by my husband's sister are my personal
possession, and I do not give them to my brother; my brother just uses male
money. Howevet, should his wife encounter a customary obligation requiring
a toluk, he can say, "My wife does not have a toluk," and then I will give him
one. On the other hand, if she is energetic in helping me, then I will be constantly
giving her toluk. (F)
These payments to food workers are not the only presentations at the funeral.
Visiting women not directly related to the deceased who spend time comforting
the close mourners and who sing dirges honoring the memory of the deceased's
ancestors are also given female valuables. This is called "giving presents" (mengebar),
and the objects given include turtleshell trays and oystershell slicers. Women
sometimes refer to this gift-giving as "laying down funeral dirges" (olekerd er a
kelloi):
one mourner leads the singing until all the women have joined in, and
then one of the mourners presents her with a valuable, saying, "I am giving you
this for the funeral dirge, since it is the dirge of our relative who is dead."
When the women come to attend a funeral in Ngeremlengui and sing dirges
and songs which praise the ancestral titleholder of the house (or his sistet), the