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In the South Moluccan island of Tanebar-Evav (Tanimbar-Kei), relations with the overseas world are constitutive of the village society. In Welcome to Tanebar-Evav—Can One Be Incorporated in a Village Society?, Cecile Barraud relates how ‘spirits’ originating abroad are the supreme guardians of the social and ritual order. Newcomers since times immemorial have been assigned a social status in a House and the ritual tasks and exchange participations accruing to these without denying them their foreign provenance. The collective gift to her of a house built on ancestral land signalled that Barraud had been taken into village society without needing to relinquish her status as stranger. She argues that this relation between village inhabitants and newcomers entails a social ethics of reciprocal service that is grounded in a morality of collective responsibility, allowing for the incorporation of strangers. |
