A Selako Household Festival.
|
THE SARAWAK MUSEUM JOURNAL |
|
Title :
A Selako Household Festival. |
|
Author :
William M. Schneider |
|
Abstract:
We often write very detailed descriptions of the religious rituals of different ethnic groups. These usually concentrate on the particular symbolism of the rite or the belief system underlying it. Religious rituals, however, always take place in a social context, and a crucial element in understanding religious behavior is to place it in the context of the society in which it occurs. This article is a description of a particular festival in terms ofthe social connections surrounding the festival and those that are formed, reinforced and expressed through the particular festival. It reveals a good deal about the nature of Selako societyas well as Selako religion. Selako festivals are of two principal types: village festivals and household festivals. Household festivals like this one are sponsored by individual households. Attended by everyone in the longhouse or hamlet, by most people in the village and by relatives and friends from other villages, they deal with matters of importance primarily to the household rather than the whole village. Thus curing rites, funerals, weddings, circumcisions and harvests are celebrated by each household with the assistance of relatives and friends. On June 25, 1971, at Bantang Saka’ampat in Kampong Pueh the household of Bingar celebrated the marriage of Bingar’s daughter, Bihe, to Ilis, a young man from another longhouse in Pueh. Bihe and Ilis had married in 1968. They have a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. The actual wedding in 1968 had involved little ceremony. Possibly the parents felt that Ilis, then twenty, and Bihe, then seventeen, were too young to marry. The marriage has, however, been a success. Ilis has proved himself a hard worker and a welcome addition to the household of the widowed Bingar. Ilis has been the oldest man in the household since the marriage of Bihol, Bihe’s older brother.
|
| DOI: XXXX |
|
How to cite:
Schneider, W. M. (1985). A Selako Household Festival. The Sarawak Museum Journal, XXXIV (55): 53-66 |
|
References
|
