Balancing the spiritual and physical worlds: Memory, responsibility and survival in the rituals of the Sama Dilaut (Bajau laut) in Sitangkai, Tawi-Tawi, Southern Philippines and Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia

摘要

This paper looks at ritual processes as means of fulfilling responsibilities between the dwellers of the physical world and the spirit world among the Bajau Laut. Ritual is, among many other ways, seen as a transactional event that binds individuals of a given community and habitues of the spirit world in a web of memory, notions of responsibility and expression of the primary value of survival and well-being or continued existence via ideas or conceptualizations of "balance." The introductory section talks about the special class among the Sama dilaut as constituted by the igal djin and their position in the Sama cosmos. The first part reviews some key concepts relating ritual to community particularly that of Victor Turner's "social drama" and Maurice Bloch "rebounding violence." It also discusses how rituals, ritual phases and elements may be read as "texts," referring to symbols with meanings. The second part introduces the idea of symbolic elements and symbolic practices, particularly those found rituals as well as in music and dance, that are observable among Sama Dilaut communities in the Southern Philippines and Insular Malaysia, relating this to memory-making, socializationudto the idea of responsibility, and operationalization of "survival." The third part proceeds with a brief description of three rituals, the Magpaii-bahau, Magpa-igal and the Pag-udKanduli, and then respectively followed by a discussion of practice or elements that bring in the idea of "balance." Finally, the fourth part, as a way of tying together theuddiscussion presents implications to future research on ritual, music and dance.