Houses, Graves and the Limits of Kinship Groupings among the Sa'dan Toraja

Abstract

Among the Sa'dan Toraja of highland South Sulawesi, Indonesia, the kinship system seems to be fluid, without clearly defined kinship groups. Here, via analysis of disputes, identified during fieldwork in the region, 1977-1983, the kinship system is understood by tracing ties to & through houses of origin & to the graves that belong to those houses. Kinship claims are both to a material house structure & to a group of people. During their lifetime, individuals press membership claims to houses of origin, graves, land, & ancestors by negotiating their way through powerful emotional bonds, but once dead, the houses lay claim to individuals. While living, they know that as they choose allegiances, their reputations may be built or lost. The two types of cases analyzed both involved attempts to transform one kind of linkage to a house into another: the acknowledgement of a linkage to house by members who were previously ignorant of the linkage, & an attempt to relate branches of houses to each other. M. Pflum.