Embodied difference; The ‘body-person’ of the Sa’dan Toraja

Abstract

In Tana Toraja1, as elsewhere in insular Southeast Asia (see Fox 1987:526), humankind is not believed to have a single origin or source of being. The indigenous notion of humanity comprises a multiplicity of heterogeneous manifestations. For instance, while some humans are described as ripe, others are depicted as raw, soft, wet, and even empty. Deeply embedded in myth and legend, epithets such as these are thought to encode disparate ways of being. This disparity, often expressed in terms of 'essence' (bombong), is largely seen as immutable. By outlining its major features and elucidating the reasons behind its acknowledged immutability, I shall try to chart the way it is perceived and explore some of its major implications. As the articulation of disparity is intimately linked with the Toraja ancestral religion (aluk to dolo, 'the ways of the ancestors') and the sacrificial practices embedded in it, this exploration of human diversity will focus on certain aspects of Toraja tradition and the configuration of disparate human natures derived from it. Since most of my information originates in the eastern community of Buntao' (see map, no. 3), the term Toraja will be used here mostly as an appellation for the people of Buntao'. Despite considerable regional variation, there is a great deal of similarity between the various communities, however, and in this sense, much of the following discussion is meant both to extend and to support the extant