Life, death and journeys of regeneration in Saribas Iban funerary rituals

Abstract

My concern in this chapter is with what Penelope Graham (1991: 217), in her study of ‘paths of life’ in eastern Flores, has called ‘regeneration’— that is, the sociological process by which a younger generation in society accedes to the social and ritual roles previously performed by members of the preceding generation. Here, I focus, in particular, on Saribas Iban funerary rituals and the way in which these rituals represent societal regeneration through imagery of paths and journeys and by an analogic association of societal regeneration with the seasonal renewal of botanic life, particularly the life of cultivated crops.