Research

Electronic Journal of Folklore: Folklore Vol. 85. https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol85/ PDF: https://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol85/danerek.pdf https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2022.85.danerek   Abstract: This article examines the Palu’e Tata liba ceremony with the help ofmultimedia research documentation, participant observation, and comparisonwith other local ceremonies. The form and performance, including reasons andeffects, are described and analysed. On Palu’e, a person who is ill, or who hastried medicines without results, wonders if he/she has done something wrong ac-cording to custom or toward fellow human beings, and can request one of severalceremonies or healing genres. Tata liba is integrated into a holistic system ofgeneral health and can also be performed preventively for good feelings and themaintaining of good relations. The ancestors are called upon with ritual language,shown to exhibit semantic parallelism, to heal the participants’ suffering rela-tions and possible ill health. The overcoming of negative feelings is symbolicallydisplayed by wiping the participants with water, throwing rice grains behind theback, and spitting in a coconut bowl. The main objective is to achieve harmonywithin or between families, and there is no argumentation or chronological issuesproducing a win-win situation. Keywords: ancestors, folklore, healing, medical anthropology, Palu’e, reconcili-ation, semantic parallelism, traditional ceremony  

Abstract This article discusses the basket inventory of the Palu’e (Palu’e Island, eastern Indonesia) in the comparative framework of the Flores linguistic-cultural chain. Fibers, technique, and usage are identified, with notes on current distribution and skill transmission. The basketry is made of lontar leaves by women, who are also responsible for the agricultural products that the baskets are mainly used for. The most common function and shared denominator of smaller basket types in the Palu’e-Flores cultures, shown with the aid of museum collection items, is to keep betel for chewing, highlighting its tremendous cultural importance. Decoration is limited to triangular curls/twists on mad weave (dense triaxial) works, while smoking adds color and makes the basketry more durable. Only the ceremonial head-strapped betel basket, common also on Flores, is decorated with supplementary objects, such as beads. This basket only is made with one of the other two main techniques, oblique checker work and twill. All the basketry, with few exceptions, is still in wide use, but makers of more intricate works tend to be elderly. Comparison with baskets on the main island of Flores shows that Palu’e basketry is a close affine to this tradition but with locally distinctive features. Future comparative research could consider geographic and linguistic proximity in cultural contacts as a significant element in skill transmission, which is otherwise vertical (via closest kin), and relationships with migration patterns to and from Flores. Keywords: basketry, Palu'e, Flores, plaited crafts, lontar https://fltjournal.libraryhost.com/index.php/flt/article/view/5 Published 2022-02-23 Issue Vol. 2 (2022): Fiber, Loom…

Phonologic variation in Palu’e, a language from Eastern Indonesia, and the devising of an orthographic system. Abstract: This article presents a phonological description of the Palu’e language variants and reflects on the problems of representing the language in writing. Verifiable lexical and phono-logical data are made available and an orthography is introduced. Data and analysis is drawn from a comprehensive documentation, and specific recordings of three speakers/language variants reading the same wordlist, available in an online audio collection. The phonetically transcribed recording of one speaker is compared with the other two and the corpus-based phonological description, and provided in an annotated appendix. The annotated recordings support the estimate of >99% lexical congruence and mutual intelligibility between variants. From a multi-variant perspective several phonemes are in free variation with each other. /tʃ/ does not occur mid-word/second syllable in the interior variants that use the initial PMP *c instead of the coastal /s/, but is in complementary distribution with mid-word /dʒ/. /s/ is neither in complementary distribution with /tʃ/ nor /dʒ/ in the coastal variants. Several Palu’e variants exhibit sufficient specific features to be referred to as dialects, including two of the recorded samples, whereas the speech patterns of the phonetically transcribed speaker make sense from the perspective of the surrounding variants. Keywords: Austronesian, Palu’e, Flores, phonology, orthography, language variation, language documentation PDF: Ethnorema_Danerek DOI: 10.23814/ethn.15.19.dan

Abstract This paper presents Palu’e storytelling on the basis of the on-going work with the Palu’e audio collection, created in the context of language/oral traditions documentation. The main aim is to show that the collection is a research resource for the humanities by discussing and comparing items which are referenced and accessible in the Kaipuleohone Ethnographic Archive. While the  contents of the collection are showcased for this specific presentation, the intention is directed towards the body of digital humanities collections. The problems of what genres should be included, definitions, method of analysis, are discussed and put to the test. Recordings initially focused on oral literature, but expanded to include personal narratives with content related to culture and tradition. The cross-referencing between genres and items demonstrates the benefits of a comparative methodology, and suggests ways of using the collection. Keywords: storytelling; language documentation; oral traditions; folklore; digital humanities; Palu’e. DOI: 10.17510/wacana.v18i3.634 PDF Documentation of Palu'e

The strange world of human sacrifice.. can it be true that in the 20th century foetuses, children, or their heads, were immured into buildings, like in the medieval legends? Most anthropological or sociological analyses tend to explain away this as a rumour, lacking eyewitnesses, and using theory rendering the local or subaltern voices insignificant, as if arising from external social forces and power relations. Why are sacrifices in connection with construction thought to be needed? And how does the type of building correlate with the nature of the sacrifice? Find out all about this in the article below which relies on relatively recent oral history and eyewitness accounts. Anyone immured? Abstract: 20th century. Europeans also featured in such rumours, especially in the eastern Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) and in the context of church construction, several decades after independence. This article discusses previous research on the construction sacrifice rumours and various construction sacrifice traditions which are viewed as local expressions of one ancient tradition. It harnesses oral history as its methodology with crucial eyewitness data from fieldwork in eastern Indonesia and recordings are available in a digital repository (Kaipuleohone). The data affirms that headhunting and kidnapping for construction sacrifice was practised on Flores during the mid to late 1900s. Strong evidence is presented of collaboration between one missionary and his local assistants, particularly a notorious witchdoctor-cum-‘kidnapper-headhunter’. The author concludes that the rumour is not merely folklore. PDF: Construction_sacrifice_Eastern_Indonesia To cite this article: Stefan Danerek (2017) Construction sacrifice in…

The Short Story Genre in Indonesia. Book based on M.Phil. thesis. Available as PDF on request, or better, request the Ph.D. dissertation Tjerita and Novel [...], which encompasses this publication. See also here.