スンバ島西部における氏族とムラ
スポンサーリンク
概要
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This paper is a part of ms' research report on the Louli district of western Sumba, carried out from December 1974 to February 1975. The aim of this report is to describe the formation of a village by clans and the internal structure of a house cluster which constitutes a clan. In Louli the greater portion of the population still believes in "Merapu" which is a personal or impersonal, supernatural power, and they are beholders of an animistic native religion. The highest Merapu is a mysterious clan ancester elevated to the status of god. Ritual life' around Merapu occupies the most important part of their life. On Sumba, a clan is patrilineal and exogamous. Traditionally marriage has adopted a non-reciprocal circulating connubium among three clans. In Louli there are two kinds of clans, each of which forms a clan-federation. Every village without exception appears as a kind of compound body of several clans, and in the village, members of these two clan-federations co-exist peacefully. Among the villages, traditionally, a rigorous hierarchy has been constructed, that is, a stem village-a branch village-a permanent farm-hut. This hierarchy never chenges even if the stem village is reduced to only one house ; in other words the fixed prestige of each village never changes. This prestige is supported by a privileged position and the right to perform clan-rituals. The stem village is always the core village of one clan. The houses of leading clan members of the stem village have a certain pattern. Except for the branch house, they have a greatly magicoreligious nature based on the special role of rituals, such as a house name, a house god (merapu) and a house treasure which can not be divided. This nature of the house bears close resemblance to the Japanese "Ie". The number of these houses in one clan never changes. Besides, all houses are divided into sets of pairs. The relationship of each pair is called "Goba Kadu". Goba Kadu functions on occasions of traditional rituals, that is, two houses exchange betel nuts, animal meat and rice. This exchange is entirely ritualized, and has no economical merit. The clan ceased to be the land-owning unit in the distant past. Today all land is divided among individual house (households) , a household being the most elemental social unit. There never was a political leader of a clan, there being only a religious leader. Accordingly it seems that both a clan and the clan-federation are a kind of the 'ritual community', of which Goba Kadu is the most elemental unit. Now, in western Sumba the other characteristic features of the village formation is the village-association. Though in Louli there is only one case, we can find several cases in the neighbouring district, called Waijewa. In Waijewa one village consists of one clan, therefore the village-association entirely overlaps with the clan-federation. Perhaps this pattern of Waijewa is nearer to the original type of the traditional West-Sumba culture.
- 日本文化人類学会の論文
- 1976-03-31