Word and act in the curing rituals of the Ata Tana ’Ai of Flores

Abstract

I. The Etiology of Illness The people of Tana Wai Brama 1 , one of the seven ceremonial domains which make up the Tana 'Ai region of Kabupaten Sikka in eastern Flores, say that all things derive from their origins. The origins of the world, plants, animals, people, clans, and the domain itself are recorded in the mythic histories of the domain. On ceremonial occasions, ritual specialists recount in ritual language the mythic histories of the domain and thereby both affirm the world as it is and legitimate it as it is continually becoming. As with material things and the social arrangements of the domain, so, too, do events and States of affairs have their origins. The events which shape the configurations of things and persons in the world occur in sequences in which the Ata Tana 'Ai ('people of Tana 'Ai') perceive a necessary order. That order is called sejara, 'history'. Both intentional acts and accident contribute to the creation of history (see Lewis 1989). The intentional acts of persons in accord with hadat confirm the basic patterns which govern the world and its processes. Hadat'is the largely unarticulated organon of tradition, mores, etiquette, and proper relations, all of which accord with the cosmology of the people of Tana Wai Brama, that guides and legitimates relations of individuals to others, groups to groups, and human beings to the world of nature, ances-tors, spirits, and the deity. However, not all human acts, whether intentional or unintentional, are in accord with hadat and, because every act has consequences, some acts result in misfortune not only for actors them-selves, but for their kin and consociates. Wrong acts are manifested in the future as misfortune. Whenever misfortune occurs, the Ata Tana 'Ai set about to discover its origins and sources and seek, through ritual, to undo 1 See Lewis 1988 for a description of the social and ceremonial order of Tana Wai Brama.