The Ko'a Videoproject

By Michael P. Vischer

The project represents a continuation of a long-term general ethnographic research on Palu'é. During my last fieldtrip (February - June 1994) it had been possible to obtain extensive elucidation about all of the chants performed (and recorded) in the context of the previous Ko'a ceremonial cycle (1985-1987). A video documentation of the new cycle will now allow for a satisfactory conclusion of this research to be reached.
The project was undertaken at the invitation of the main priest-leader of the domain who requested the documentation of the cycle as a means to instruct future Ko'a generations. As most other Eastern Indonesian outlying islands Palu'é is undergoing significant changes. Perhaps most importantly, during recent years most adult men on the island have migrated to Malaysia (Sarawak) to seek work in the timber industry and lately even women have begun to leave Palu'é to follow their husbands and brothers. In such a situation it is doubtful if it will be possible to conduct future cycles in the way prescribed by the ancestors once the Ko'a elders and ceremonial specialists have passed away. It is of course also doubtful if a video documentation can help maintain a cultural tradition in a radically changing setting.

Precedence
The main theoretical concern of the project is the issue of precedence. The domain of Ko'a, one of fourteen territorial and ceremonial entities on Palu'é, is periodically the site of a ceremonial cycle which culminates in the sacrifice of water buffalo. At the beginning of the cycle water buffaloes are purchased from ceremonial allies on Flores. The animals are brought back to the domain (which is notorious for its lack of drinking water) and raised there for a period of five years (in the present cycle only two years), at the end of which they are sacrificed. As an atonement for grievous transgressions against ancestral law additional water buffaloes are often purchased and sacrificed immediately upon returning to the domain. The cycle is sponsored by the two groups of first settlers of the domain from which its two political-cum-ceremonial leaders are recruited. The sacrifice, which is carried out by their constituent houses, is aimed at restoring harmony in the universe and at ensuring the proper sequence of the seasons and the movements of the heavenly bodies. In doing so the first settling groups reaffirm their superordinate position of precedence over groups which subsequently settled in the domain. At several levels the cycle provides an arena for the creation and contestation of an order of precedence. In those domains such as Ko'a where two first settling groups stage parallel cycles their status with respect to each other can be altered by the success of their respective sacrifices and the existing order of precedence between them can be inverted. Similar processes of hierarchialization are set in motion at inter-domain level where precedence between allied domains is expressed in an idiom of gender.
Maleness, which is defined as being superordinate to femaleness, is an expression of several factors such as size and population numbers, but also of the prestige gained during a ceremonial cycle. If a domain emerges from a cycle as conceptually male, it is in a position to rally its allies and wage war on one of its non-allied neighbouring domains. A successful war in turn confirms its male status.

Feedback sessions
With regard to the issue of precedence, the project was very fortunate to have been able to witness a number of important incidents and events. It is expected that with this footage we will be able to demonstrate how processes of hierarchialization are carried out in practice and the context in which this takes place. Later this year, preceding the final editing, it is planned to hold a number of 'feedback-sessions' in Flores. Here individual Ko'a actors will be confronted with the footage in a setting outside their domain and their reactions and interpretations will be recorded. Information obtained in this manner will be crucial to the final analysis of the footage. A preliminary edited version in support of the concept of precedence will be presented for the first time at an IIAS conference on processes of hierarchialization scheduled for winter 1995.