Beneath the volcano : : religion, cosmology and spirit classification among the Nage of eastern Indonesia / / Gregory Forth.

• Superior document: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; 177
• Author: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Netherlands)
• VerfasserIn: Forth, Gregory,
• TeilnehmendeR: Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Netherlands)
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden : : KITLV Press,, [1998]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 1998
• Language: English
• Series: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde ; 177.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

Beneath the Volcano is the first major account of the Nage, who inhabit the central part of Flores in eastern Indonesia. The book focuses on Nage ideas concerning a variety of spiritual beings and how these influence both ritual practices and ideas about human beings. In exploring these subjects, the author sets out to uncover a classification of spirits. While quite different from taxonomies of natural beings, Nage ways of linking named categories of spirits nevertheless reveal a regular conceptual order. In describing this order, use is made of a version of Dumont's notion of 'encompassment'. Common ideas informing relations between Nage humans and several categories of spirits are further interpreted as instances of a pervasive principle of 'symmetric inversion', according to which human beings are spirits for the spirits.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- CHAPTER I: Introduction -- 1. Nage then and now -- 2. An overview of Nage social and ceremonial organization -- 3. Social and religious change -- 4. Methods and format -- CHAPTER II: The story of Wonga Wea -- 1. The story of Wonga Wea -- 2. The history of Lowa Bata and clan Deu -- 3. The story of Lalo Sue and Siku Sue -- CHAPTER III: Souls and free spirits -- 1. Mae -- 2. Mae mango and the buffalo spirit -- 3. Plant souls -- CHAPTER IV: The category of nitu -- 1. The unmarked nitu -- 2. Nitu and natural kinds -- 3. Relations with human beings -- 4. Marriage with spirits -- 5. Earth, gold and buffalo: unmarked and marked nitu -- CHAPTER V: Specific images -- 1. Logo Lia -- 2. Manu ke'o and naga -- 3. Noa -- 4. Ana ula -- 5. Ebu gogo -- 6. Comparison and classification -- CHAPTER VI: Varieties of ga'e -- 1. The spirits of trees, stones and water -- 2. Ga'e hebu and ga'e peo -- 3. The guardian spirit of the house -- 4. The guardian spirit of the village -- 5. The guardian spirits of rice and buffalo -- 6. Comparisons and conclusions -- CHAPTER VII: Theconceptof bapu -- 1. The people atop the volcano -- 2. Ritual expressions: tu téte wolo -- 3. Birds and snakes: bapu and nitu -- 4. Trophy horns and hebu trees -- 5. The water buffalo -- CHAPTER VIII: Power-granting spirits, or bapu of the below -- 1. Power-granting spirits and questing for power -- 2. Spirits and spirit questing in Nage myth and legend -- 3. Bapu and polo -- 4. Bapu in ritual -- 5. Bapu in spirit classification -- CHAPTER IX: Ga'e déwa Divinity and supreme being -- 1. Dewa and ga'e -- 2. Sky and earth, male and female -- 3. Functions, powers and features -- 4. Ritual associations -- 5. Ga' e dewa and nitu -- CHAPTER X: Creation and cosmogony -- 1. Myths of creation -- 2. Cosmological themes -- 3. Ancestral figures.

4. Extraordinary ancestors -- 5. Mythology, cosmology and geography -- 6. The category ebu -- CHAPTER XI: Ancestors and spirits of the dead -- 1. Nage conceptions of ancestors -- 2. Death and mortuary ritual -- 3. The destination of the dead -- 4. Ancestors, dead souls and free spirits -- 5. Comparative issues and further questions -- 6. Concluding remarks -- CHAPTER XII: Spirits, persons and powers -- 1. Toa mali -- 2. Witches, wealth and power -- 3. Leaders, trunk riders and killers of buffalo -- 4. Stones and dreams: ordinary and extraordinary uses of mystical power -- 5. Further observations and conclusions -- CHAPTER XIII: Buffalo sacrificing in the constitution of Nage cosmology and society -- 1. Instances of buffalo sacrificing -- 2. A synoptic account of pa -- 3. Violence, blood and efficacy -- 4. The victim -- 5. Buffalo sacrificing and social structure -- CHAPTER XIV: A classification of spirits -- 1. Spirit classification -- 2. Encompassment -- 3. Resemblance -- 5. Lexical pairing -- 6. Transformation, derivation and value -- 7. Ritual, knowledge and classification -- 8. Free spirits, ancestors and divinity: classification and ideology -- Bibliography -- Index.