Lyric, History, and Allegory, or the End of Headhunting Ritual in Highland Sulawesi

Abstract

This article explores how a minority religious community in highland Sulawesi, Indonesia, brings meaning, history, and polity into being through the lyric discourse of headhunting ritual. The discussion shows how divergent interpretations of a single song work as tactical modes of understanding, as ways to “read with the polity.” In one case, a villager reads the lyrics in such a way as to link the ritual headhunt to the intercultural tensions of the past. In another case, however, a villager finds in the lyrics an allegory of local sexual politics. Both approaches connect ritual violence to the shaping of community.