Kelli Swazey: Life that doesn't end with death

Summary

In Tana Toraja, Indonesia, death is a gradual social process rather than a single event. Funerals are the center of social life, involving elaborate rituals and animal sacrifices that bind the community in a reciprocal debt system. The deceased are considered 'sick' or 'asleep' until a funeral ceremony is held, reflecting a belief that relationships continue beyond physical death. This perspective offers a transformative view of death as a social and cultural process, challenging Western notions of mortality.

Takeaways

• 🏔️ The Toraja people of Sulawesi island, Indonesia, view death as a gradual social process rather than a singular event.
• 🎭 Funerals in Tana Toraja are the central social moments characterized by elaborate rituals involving the sacrifice of animals like pigs, chickens, and water buffalo.
• 🌐 The cultural complex around death in Toraja makes it a public and communal affair, focusing on the identity of the living and the remembrance of the dead.
• 🕊️ The physical death of a person is not considered the end; a member is only truly dead once the family can afford and organize a funeral ceremony.
• 🏠 After physical death, the deceased is referred to as 'to makala' or 'to mama' and continues to be a member of the household until the funeral ceremony.
• 👪 The tongkonan, a special room in the traditional Toraja residence, symbolizes the family's identity and the human life cycle.
• 👴 The Toraja believe in a predetermined amount of life called 'sunga', which should be allowed to run its natural course.
• 💵 Funeral ceremonies are a display of wealth and status, with the sacrifice of buffaloes thought to carry the soul to the afterlife.
• 👵 The saying in Toraja that 'all people will become grandparents' reflects the belief in an ancestral line that connects past, present, and future generations.
• 🌟 The Toraja perspective on death offers a transformative view, suggesting that our relationships with others continue beyond the physical cessation of life.

Q & A

How does the Toraja community view death?

The Toraja community views death not as a singular event, but as a gradual social process. Funerals are focal points of social and cultural interaction, characterized by elaborate rituals that tie people in a system of reciprocal debt.

What is the significance of funerals in Tana Toraja?

In Tana Toraja, funerals are the most important social moments, serving as the focal points of social and cultural interaction. They are characterized by elaborate rituals involving the sacrifice and distribution of animals, which are significant in the community's social structure.

How are the dead treated in Toraja culture until the funeral ceremony?

Until the funeral ceremony, which can be held years after a person's physical death, the deceased is referred to as 'to makala' (a sick person) or 'to mama' (a person who is asleep) and continues to be a member of the household. They are symbolically fed and cared for.

What is the role of the tongkonan in Toraja culture?

The tongkonan is a traditional Toraja residence that is symbolic of the family's identity and the human life cycle from birth to death. It is the structure that carries a person from birth to their ancestral resting place.

How do Torajans express the enduring relationship with the dead?

Torajans express the enduring relationship with the dead by lavishing love and attention on the human body, which is the most visible symbol of that relationship.

What is the significance of the tau tau wooden effigies?

Tau tau are wooden effigies of ancestors who have already been buried and had a funeral ceremony. They represent the transformation of the deceased from a living person to an ancestor.

How does the funeral ceremony embody the relational perspective on death in Toraja culture?

The funeral ceremony ritualizes the impact of death on families and communities, serving as a moment of self-awareness and reflection on one's place in society and the life cycle.

What is the concept of 'sunga' in Toraja culture?

In Toraja culture, 'sunga' refers to a predetermined amount of life that each person is thought to have. It is likened to a thread that should be allowed to unspool to its natural end.

How does the Toraja perspective on death influence their views on healthcare and life?

The Toraja perspective on death as a social process influences their everyday decisions about health and healthcare, affecting how they approach life and the end of life, often focusing on the quality of life rather than the mere prolongation of it.

What can the West learn from the Toraja approach to death?

The West can learn to see physical death not only as a biological process but as part of the greater human story. This shift in perspective could lead to a more holistic understanding of death and its impact on life, potentially transforming the way we approach end-of-life care.

How does the anthropologist's perspective on death in the Toraja culture differ from the biomedical definition?

The anthropologist sees death in Toraja culture as a social and cultural phenomenon that extends beyond the physical cessation of life. This contrasts with the biomedical definition, which focuses on death as an irrefutable biological condition.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 Cultural Perception of Death in Tana Toraja

The paragraph discusses the unique cultural approach to death in Tana Toraja, a region in Sulawesi island, Indonesia. Here, death is not a single event but a gradual social process. Funerals are the central social events, marked by elaborate rituals involving the sacrifice of animals like pigs, chickens, and water buffalo. These rituals create a system of reciprocal debt and are a public affair, reflecting the identity of the living and the remembrance of the dead. The physical cessation of life is not considered death until a funeral ceremony is held, which can be years after the person has physically died. The deceased are referred to as 'to makala' (sick person) or 'to mama' (sleeping person) and continue to be part of the household until the ceremony, which is a communal event signifying the transition from life to afterlife.

05:01

👵 The Enduring Relationship with the Deceased

This paragraph explores the Torajan belief in the enduring relationship with deceased loved ones, which contrasts with the biomedical definition of death. The Torajans believe that relationships do not end with the physical death but transition into a different form. They express this belief by caring for the deceased's body, which is a visible symbol of their ongoing connection. The funeral ceremony is a ritual that embodies this relational perspective, ritualizing the impact of death on families and communities, and serving as a moment of self-awareness. The ceremony also reconfirms and transforms relationships, highlighting the impact of death on the living. The Torajans see death as part of life and do not strive to prolong life unnaturally, believing in a predetermined lifespan called 'sunga'. The death of an elder is anticipated as an opportunity to celebrate his life and integrate his story into the community's history.

10:06

🌱 Transforming Our View on Death

The final paragraph reflects on the transformative potential of viewing death as a social process rather than just a biological one. It draws a parallel between the U.S. healthcare system's approach to end-of-life decisions, which are influenced by emotional and social ties, and the Torajan cultural practices. The speaker suggests that expanding our definition of death to include its social aspects could change our attitudes towards it, potentially leading to less fear and a different approach to end-of-life care. The paragraph concludes with a call to consider the value of different cultural knowledge about life and death, which could enrich our understanding and change the way we live and die.

Keywords

💡Intimacy with Death

Intimacy with death refers to the close relationship or familiarity with the concept of death. In the video, it is discussed as a cultural phenomenon where people in Tana Toraja experience death not as a single event but as a gradual social process. This concept challenges the Western notion of death as a distant and isolated event, suggesting a more integrated approach to life and death.

💡Tana Toraja

Tana Toraja is a region in the highlands of Sulawesi island, Indonesia, known for its unique cultural practices surrounding death. The script describes how funerals are the central social events in Tana Toraja, highlighting the community's focus on death as a social and cultural process rather than just a biological one.

💡Funerals

In the context of the video, funerals are not just the end of a life but the focal point of social and cultural interaction in Tana Toraja. They are characterized by elaborate rituals involving the sacrifice of animals and are a time of public celebration and remembrance, reflecting the community's view of death as a transition that affects both the deceased and the living.

💡Rituals

Rituals in Tana Toraja are complex cultural practices that accompany death. They involve sacrificial offerings and are meant to tie people in a system of reciprocal debt, indicating the importance of community and social relationships. Rituals are a way of expressing the impact of death on families and communities, and they are a moment of self-awareness and reflection on one's place in society.

💡Reciprocal Debt

Reciprocal debt refers to the social obligation to return favors or services, which is a key aspect of Torajan funerals. The script mentions how the number of animals sacrificed during funerals creates a system of reciprocal debt, binding the community together in a network of social and economic exchange.

💡Water Buffalo

Water buffalo play a significant role in Torajan funeral rituals. They are the most important animals sacrificed and distributed during funerals, symbolizing the wealth and status of the deceased's family. The script uses water buffalo as an example to illustrate the economic and social implications of funeral ceremonies.

💡To Makala / To Mama

These terms refer to the deceased in Tana Toraja before the funeral ceremony. 'To makala' means 'a sick person' and 'to mama' means 'a person who is asleep.' They reflect the belief that death is not the end of existence but a transition, and the deceased continues to be a member of the household until the funeral ceremony.

💡Tongkonan

The tongkonan is a traditional Torajan residence where the deceased is placed after death. It symbolizes the family's identity and the human life cycle. The script uses the tongkonan to illustrate how death is integrated into the physical and cultural landscape of Tana Toraja.

💡Puya

Puya is the afterlife in Torajan belief. The script describes how the deceased's transition to Puya is a public and communal event, involving ritual practices that communicate to the community the ongoing relationship between the living and the dead.

💡Tau Tau

Tau tau are wooden effigies of ancestors in Tana Toraja. They represent the deceased who have already been buried and had their funeral ceremonies. The script mentions tau tau as a physical symbol of the enduring relationship between the living and the dead.

💡Sunga'

Sunga' refers to the predetermined amount of life that every person is thought to have in Toraja. It is likened to a thread that should be allowed to run its natural course. The concept is used in the script to contrast Western views on prolonging life with the Torajan acceptance of death as a natural part of life.

Highlights

Death in Tana Toraja is a gradual social process, not a singular event.

Funerals are the most important social moments in Toraja, not weddings or births.

Funeral ceremonies involve elaborate rituals and are a focal point of social interaction.

The number of animals sacrificed indicates the social status of the deceased.

Death is a public event that celebrates the transition from life to afterlife.

The deceased are considered 'sick' or 'asleep' until a funeral ceremony is held.

The tongkonan, a traditional residence, symbolizes the human life cycle.

Torajans view death as part of a larger social genesis, not just a biological condition.

The relationship with the dead continues even after the physical cessation of life.

The Torajan way of viewing death encompasses aspects of the human experience that medical definitions leave out.

The funeral ceremony ritualizes the impact of death on families and communities.

Death in Toraja is about the identity of the living and remembrance of the dead.

The saying 'all people will become grandparents' reflects the ancestral line and societal role after death.

The sacrifice of buffalo and ritual display of wealth exhibits the status of the deceased and their family.

Funerals are a ritual drama that highlights the impact of death on the living.

Torajans do not prolong life in the face of debilitating illness or old age, believing in a predetermined life span called sunga'.

Death is integrated into the cultural and social fabric of life in Toraja.

The anthropologist suggests that viewing death as a social process can transform our understanding of it.

A shift in perspective on death could change the way we approach end-of-life care.

Expanding our definition of death to encompass life could help us face it with something other than fear.

Valuing other definitions of death could change the discussions we have about the end of life.

Transcripts

I think it's safe to say

that all humans will be intimate with death

at least once in their lives.

But what if that intimacy began

long before you faced your own transition

from life into death?

What would life be like

if the dead literally lived alongside you?

In my husband's homeland

in the highlands of Sulawesi island

in eastern Indonesia,

there is a community of people that experience death

not as a singular event

but as a gradual social process.

In Tana Toraja,

the most important social moments in people's lives,

the focal points of social and cultural interaction

are not weddings or births or even family dinners,

but funerals.

So these funerals are characterized

by elaborate rituals

that tie people in a system of reciprocal debt

based on the amount of animals --

pigs, chickens and, most importantly, water buffalo --

that are sacrificed and distributed

in the name of the deceased.

So this cultural complex surrounding death,

the ritual enactment of the end of life,

has made death the most visible

and remarkable aspect of Toraja's landscape.

Lasting anywhere from a few days

to a few weeks,

funeral ceremonies are a raucous affair,

where commemorating someone who's died

is not so much a private sadness

but more of a publicly shared transition.

And it's a transition that's just as much

about the identity of the living

as it is about remembrance of the dead.

So every year, thousands of visitors

come to Tana Toraja to see, as it were,

this culture of death,

and for many people these grandiose ceremonies

and the length of the ceremonies

are somehow incommensurable

with the way that we face our own mortality in the West.

So even as we share death as a universal experience,

it's not experienced the same way the world over.

And as an anthropologist,

I see these differences in experience

being rooted in the cultural and social world

through which we define the phenomena around us.

So where we see an unquestionable reality,

death as an irrefutable biological condition,

Torajans see the expired corporeal form

as part of a larger social genesis.

So again, the physical cessation of life

is not the same as death.

In fact, a member of society is only truly dead

when the extended family can agree upon

and marshal the resources necessary

to hold a funeral ceremony

that is considered appropriate in terms of resources

for the status of the deceased.

And this ceremony has to take place

in front of the eyes of the whole community

with everyone's participation.

So after a person's physical death,

their body is placed in a special room

in the traditional residence, which is called the tongkonan.

And the tongkonan is symbolic

not only of the family's identity

but also of the human life cycle from birth to death.

So essentially, the shape of the building

that you're born into is the shape

of the structure which carries you

to your ancestral resting place.

Until the funeral ceremony,

which can be held years after a person's physical death,

the deceased is referred to as "to makala," a sick person,

or "to mama," a person who is asleep,

and they continue to be a member of the household.

They are symbolically fed and cared for,

and the family at this time

will begin a number of ritual injunctions,

which communicates to the wider community around them

that one of their members is undergoing the transition

from this life into the afterlife

known as Puya.

So I know what some of you must be thinking right now.

Is she really saying that these people live

with the bodies of their dead relatives?

And that's exactly what I'm saying.

But instead of giving in to the sort of visceral reaction

we have to this idea of proximity to bodies,

proximity to death,

or how this notion just does not fit

into our very biological or medical

sort of definition of death,

I like to think about what the Torajan way

of viewing death encompasses of the human experience

that the medical definition leaves out.

I think that Torajans socially recognize

and culturally express

what many of us feel to be true

despite the widespread acceptance

of the biomedical definition of death,

and that is that our relationships with other humans,

their impact on our social reality,

doesn't cease with the termination

of the physical processes of the body,

that there's a period of transition

as the relationship between the living and the dead

is transformed but not ended.

So Torajans express this idea of this enduring relationship

by lavishing love and attention

on the most visible symbol of that relationship,

the human body.

So my husband has fond memories

of talking to and playing with

and generally being around his deceased grandfather,

and for him there is nothing unnatural about this.

This is a natural part of the process

as the family comes to terms with the transition

in their relationship to the deceased,

and this is the transition from relating to the deceased

as a person who's living

to relating to the deceased

as a person who's an ancestor.

And here you can see these wooden effigies

of the ancestors,

so these are people who have already been buried,

already had a funeral ceremony.

These are called tau tau.

So the funeral ceremony itself

embodies this relational perspective on death.

It ritualizes the impact of death on families

and communities.

And it's also a moment of self-awareness.

It's a moment when people think about who they are,

their place in society,

and their role in the life cycle

in accordance with Torajan cosmology.

There's a saying in Toraja

that all people will become grandparents,

and what this means is that after death,

we all become part of the ancestral line

that anchors us between the past and the present

and will define who our loved ones are into the future.

So essentially, we all become grandparents

to the generations of human children

that come after us.

And this metaphor of membership

in the greater human family

is the way that children also describe

the money that they invest

in these sacrificial buffaloes

that are thought to carry people's soul

from here to the afterlife,

and children will explain

that they will invest the money in this

because they want to repay their parents

the debt for all of the years their parents spent

investing and caring for them.

But the sacrifice of buffalo

and the ritual display of wealth

also exhibits the status of the deceased,

and, by extension, the deceased's family.

So at funerals, relationships are reconfirmed

but also transformed

in a ritual drama that highlights

the most salient feature about death in this place:

its impact on life and the relationships of the living.

So all of this focus on death

doesn't mean that Torajans don't aspire

to the ideal of a long life.

They engage in many practices

thought to confer good health

and survival to an advanced age.

But they don't put much stock

in efforts to prolong life in the face of debilitating illness

or in old age.

It's said in Toraja that everybody has

sort of a predetermined amount of life.

It's called the sunga'.

And like a thread, it should be allowed to unspool

to its natural end.

So by having death as a part

of the cultural and social fabric of life,

people's everyday decisions about their health

and healthcare are affected.

The patriarch of my husband's maternal clan,

Nenet Katcha,

is now approaching the age of 100, as far as we can tell.

And there are increasing signs

that he is about to depart on his own journey for Puya.

And his death will be greatly mourned.

But I know that my husband's family

looks forward to the moment

when they can ritually display

what his remarkable presence has meant to their lives,

when they can ritually recount

his life's narrative,

weaving his story

into the history of their community.

His story is their story.

His funeral songs will sing them a song about themselves.

And it's a story that has no discernible beginning,

no foreseeable end.

It's a story that goes on

long after his body no longer does.

People ask me if I'm frightened or repulsed

by participating in a culture

where the physical manifestations of death

greet us at every turn.

But I see something profoundly transformative

in experiencing death as a social process

and not just a biological one.

In reality, the relationship between the living and the dead

has its own drama in the U.S. healthcare system,

where decisions about how long to stretch

the thread of life are made based on our emotional

and social ties with the people around us,

not just on medicine's ability to prolong life.

We, like the Torajans,

base our decisions about life

on the meanings and the definitions

that we ascribe to death.

So I'm not suggesting that anyone in this audience

should run out and adopt the traditions

of the Torajans.

It might be a little bit difficult

to put into play in the United States.

But I want to ask what we can gain

from seeing physical death not only as a biological process

but as part of the greater human story.

What would it be like to look on

the expired human form with love

because it's so intimately a part of who we all are?

If we could expand our definition of death

to encompass life,

we could experience death as part of life

and perhaps face death

with something other than fear.

Perhaps one of the answers to the challenges

that are facing the U.S. healthcare system,

particularly in the end-of-life care,

is as simple as a shift in perspective,

and the shift in perspective in this case

would be to look at the social life of every death.

It might help us recognize that the way we limit

our conversation about death

to something that's medical or biological

is reflective of a larger culture that we all share

of avoiding death, being afraid of talking about it.

If we could entertain and value

other kinds of knowledge about life,

including other definitions of death,

it has the potential to change the discussions

that we have about the end of life.

It could change the way that we die,

but more importantly,

it could transform the way that we live.

(Applause)