A Borneo Journey into Death: Berawan Eschatology from Its Rituals
Peter A Metcalf
Death has this peculiarity, that it is a transition into a state that is unknown. Among the Berawan of central Borneo, the process of dying is conceived of in terms radically different from our own. Even the definition of what constitutes death, of who is dead and who is not, is different from that held by our culture. In 'A Borneo Journey into Death', Peter Metcalf explores the Berawans' elaborate and complex funerary rites. The exotic features of these rites, which have struck and amazed all since the earliest visits to Borneo, are here analyzed in the first full-length study of the subject based on modern ethnographic research. Metcalf penetrates the surface features of the rituals to uncover and reveal to us the religious significance they hold for the Berawan people. The details of mourning, the treatment of the corpse, the funeral ceremony, the connected rituals of healing and headhunting all link in the rich conceptual geography of heaven. Metcalf demonstrates how the rituals and social organization of death serve as a crucial point of entry into the cosmology of a non-Western culture, for not until the encounter with death does Berawan cosmology become manifest and the soul become conceptually concrete. This remarkable ethnography is enhanced by an engaging and highly readable style. It will prove valuable in many disciplines, including anthropology and religious studies.
More information at wildasia.net
Project Sponsored By: Univ of Pennsylvania Press
Start Date: 1/1/1983
- End Date: 1/1/1900
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