Misa, Lefa, Puang: ritual, piety, and performance in opening the ocean season in a Southeast Asian marine hunting community

Abstract

ABSTRACT Lamalera, a small community on the island of Lembata in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, is home to a rich tradition of marine hunting and an environmental cosmology that brings together its people, their ancestors, and the Savu Sea. Each year the community, its diaspora, and other island residents gather to celebrate, demonstrate symbolic patronage of, and observe the opening of the ocean hunting season, or Musim Lefa. Over time the ritual cycle has adapted, and taken on different layers of significance, as Lamalerans have worked to preserve their hunting-based way of life, in the face of changing economic, social, and legal contexts. Applying the overall conceptual framework of this thematic issue, this article examines the opening of the Lefa as an adaptive constellation of piety, performance, patronage, and protection through time. It argues that the festival represents a unique moment each year for contestation and renegotiation of symbolic and practical power.