reburied in a special sepulcher or reunited in a single tomb
with the bones of other members of the descent group. Often
the groups involved in performing these mortuary rituals
complete and reverse the exchanges that began at the mar-
riage ceremony of the parents of the deceased, thus ending
one phase and beginning the next phase of a continuing
cycle. On Bali, a Hindu cremation marks a comparable stage
following a similar pattern, whereas in Java and elsewhere,
despite an Islamic requirement of immediate burial, the spir-
its of the dead are given regular offerings and the tombs of
former great rulers and leaders are prominent places of
pilgrimage.
A feature of many of the rituals of life and death is their
botanic idiom, which reflects a common Austronesian agri-
cultural inheritance. The rituals describe a process of plant-
ing, growing, and ripening into old age; after the harvest
comes the renewal of the cycle with the planting of new seed.
Thus the rituals of the life cycle often parallel those of the
agricultural cycle. Conceptually they are part of the same
process.
Headhunting was once a prominent feature of the social
life of many of the peoples of the region. Although this form
of limited warfare was given various cultural interpretations,
headhunting was frequently linked in rituals to the general
cycle of death and renewal. In this sense, headhunting was
a form of “harvest” in which particular individuals were able
to achieve great reknown.
THE CELEBRATION OF SPIRITUAL DIFFERENTIATION. In the
traditional religions of the region, there is no presumption
of identity attached to any of the manifestations of life. Cre-
ation produced myriad forms of being and the processes of
life that began in the past continue to the present. Generally,
not even humankind is credited with a single origin or source
of being. The result is an essential openness to life, a basic
acceptance of life’s many manifestations, and ultimately a
celebration of spiritual differentiation.
The tendency in most traditional religions is to person-
alize whatever may be considered a manifestation of life. In-
cluded among such manifestations are the heavenly
spheres—the sun, moon, and stars; the forces of nature—
thunder, lightning, or great winds; points of geographical
prominence—high mountain peaks, volcanic craters, water-
falls, caves, or old trees; places endowed with unusual signifi-
cance as the result of past occurrences—sites of abandoned
settlement, a former meeting place of some spirit, or the
point of a past, powerful dream; and simpler iconic represen-
tations of life—ancient ancestral possessions, royal regalia,
amulets, and other objects of specially conceived potency.
Veneration for all such objects is accorded to the potency
that the objects are considered to possess, but only as long
as this potency is evident. Confrontation with any new
source of unknown power requires a kind of ritual empiri-
cism to discover precisely what is that power’s appropriate
due.
In social terms, these spiritual premises are conducive
to notions of precedence and hierarchy. No society in the re-
gion is without some form of social differentiation. Even in
the simplest of tribal societies the birth order of the children
of the same parents becomes a means for such distinctions.
In many societies—perhaps a majority of the societies of the
region—forms and degrees of differentiation are endowed
with considerable importance. The populations of many of
these societies regard themselves as derived of different ances-
tral origins or even of different classes of creation. Thus, for
example, the ranked class structures of the Ngaju of Kali-
mantan, of the Bugis of south Sulawesi, or of the peoples of
Sumba or Tanimbar in eastern Indonesia are all predicated
on distinct creations.
Equally, the same spiritual premises may promote no-
tions of achievement. A recurrent image of life involves the
metaphor of the “journey of achievement.” Myths recount
the founding journeys of the ancestors, folk tales extol the
attainments of heroic journeys, and dreams and séances can
take the form of a spiritual journey. Furthermore, many so-
cieties encourage a period of journeying in early adult-
hood as a means of gaining knowledge, wealth, fame, and
experience.
Literally and spiritually, individuals are distinguished by
their journeys. Rank, prowess, and the attainment of wealth
can be taken as evident signs of individual enhancement in
a life’s odyssey, and this enhancement may be celebrated
through major rituals, both in life and after death. In many
traditional religions, mortuary rituals and the feasting that
generally accompanies them are the primary indicators of a
person’s social and spiritual position and are intended to
translate this position into a similarly enhanced position in
the afterlife. These rituals invariably invoke a journey, often
described as the sailing of the ship of the dead, and by these
rituals the living act to accord the deceased a proper spiritual
position. (Often heaven or the underworld are considered to
have many layers through which the soul of the dead wanders
to find its proper abode.)
In return for the performance of the mortuary ritual, the
deceased ancestor becomes capable of returning benefits to
the living. In ancient Java, these ideas were given an Indic
interpretation in the mortuary elevation of rulers to identifi-
cation with S ́iva or the Buddha. Similar ideas still underlie
major temple rituals on Bali, megalithic tomb building
among the Sumbanese, the spectacular mortuary ceremonies
and cliff burial of the SaDdan Toraja, or the simple, less ob-
trusive rituals of rock and tree elsewhere in the archipelago.
Today throughout insular Southeast Asia, the basic
premises of traditional religions are under challenge from re-
ligions such as Islam and Christianity that preach transcen-
dence in place of the immanence of life and assert spiritual
equality rather than celebrate spiritual differentiation. These
religions are also under challenge from modernizing national
governments that insist upon bureaucratic homogeneity and
positive rationalism. Yet despite present pressures, traditionalSOUTHEAST ASIAN RELIGIONS: INSULAR CULTURES 8651