The ritual folklore of Vera from Flores: a present window to the past and future

Abstract

This paper is about Vera, a kind of ritual folklore with dance ethnically associated with the Rongga people, east Manggarai, Flores Indonesia. It is argued that Vera is not an ordinary folktale, even though its content might be about folk stories of different kinds. Vera is a special kind of folklore having rich cultural, historical and philosophical significance to the Rongga people. The paper will discuss Vera and folk histories, highlighting its role as a window to the past e.g. stories about clan origins and taboos as well as its philosophical value innovatively adaptable to contemporary life in modern Indonesia, e.g. about racial tolerance.