COMMENSALITY AND FOOD PROHIBITION

Abstract

Until recently, Savu island in eastern Indonesia had no written traditions, and kinship ties were recalled through a variety of mnemonic devices some of which were neither oral nor auditory. This article deals with a set of ceremonies involving commensality and food prohibition. The second ceremony called ‘The matter of the chicken's head’ (manu kètu lai), takes place once in the life of a woman when her marriage no longer produces children and is one of the mechanisms used in Savu for building social memory across generations as well as within one generational level. The article analyses the ceremonial practices leading to processes of knowledge and memory transmission of these particular ceremonies. No special ritual text is uttered and messages are conveyed in other ways. The precedence among the generations as well as at one generational level is visually demonstrated. The ceremonial food shared at each meeting, an essentially incorporating practice, also contributes to recollecting the events. In addition, the gift exchange allows the switch in gendered positions between the respective parties. Finally, this article exposes how the ultimate purpose of ‘the matter of the chicken's head’ reaches beyond memorising genealogical links.