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