Semantic paralelism in Rotinese ritual language

Abstract

[...]mockery speech' (aali-oolek), usually marked by two individuals' repartee from what is, in effect, a relatively circumscribed set of short, insulting phrases, differs as much from 'ordinary conversation' (kokolak) as a more conventional folk genre such as 'riddles' (neneuk) differs from 'tales' (tutuik) or that subset of tales which, when linked to specific genealogies, are regarded as 'true tales' (tutui-teteek) and serve as charters for political practice (Fox 1971). In all the round-dances I observed or participated in, in Termanu and in Baa, men and women danced together from the start. Since Granet, for one, has claimed to discover the origin of parallelism in the customary antiphonal rivalry of festival choruses, I should emphasize that however appealing this hypothesis may be, the round-dance is an important but by no means the exclusive context for the use of ritual language. 222 JAMES J. FOX own disclaimers show a surprising knowledge of proper dyadic sets and have usually memorized some short bini and songs. Since the title, man&-helo, is not conferred but is the popular attribute of a fluid consensus, it is impossible to number the chanters on the island.9 To judge from the folktales, Lords used formerly to challenge each other by sponsoring rival chant contests between their domains and to some extent, any ceremonial gathering10 may erupt into a competitive performance between manahelo. Some descriptions of the religious and cosmological systems of the SEMANTIC PARALLELISM IN ROTINESE RITUAL LANGUAGE 247 Indonesian peoples rely upon the analysis of a select number of important complementary dual oppositions. [...]Rotinese ritual language includes, among its dyadic sets, such familiar dual oppositions as: sun sky land east / / moon / / earth / / water / / west odd number / right / / male / / elder / / red / / / even number left female younger green An even longer selection of such oppositions would, however, hardly do justice to the parallelism! of ritual language.