“The Voice of a Child”: Constructing a Moral Community through Retteng Poetic Argumentation in Toraja
The topic of this article is a genre of ritual poetry, retteng, or poetic argumentation, performed by the Toraja of Sulawesi (Indonesia) as part of their elaborate funerals. It is interesting to ethnographers and linguistic anthropologists because it is a highly interactive type of verbal contestati...
Shranjeno v:
| izdano v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/archipel, |
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| Glavni avtor: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Anglais |
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Archipel
2017
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| Online dostop: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Izvleček: | The topic of this article is a genre of ritual poetry, retteng, or poetic argumentation, performed by the Toraja of Sulawesi (Indonesia) as part of their elaborate funerals. It is interesting to ethnographers and linguistic anthropologists because it is a highly interactive type of verbal contestation. By means of quoted speech and elaborate metaphors, it allows participants to comment on, evaluate, and shape the performance of the ritual as it is unfolding, and thus to (re)affirm the moral values of society. I first describe this genre and the settings in which it occurs, then analyze one particular example from my fieldwork in the southern part of Tana Toraja, and finally discuss some of the broader implications of these findings. The approach I take draws from linguistic anthropology, especially functional semiotics, and treats these data as denotational texts (what is being said), interactional texts (what is happening socially), and mediational texts (how the two are indexically linked). Such an approach enables us to better appreciate how what participants say (i.e., through metaphors and allusions) is best understood by also attending to what they do communicatively and socially (i.e., challenge the authority of a speaker, argue over what is the truth, mediate conflict before it becomes violent). I show how speakers use various strategic cultural linguistic devices (for example, quoted speech, contextualization and entextualization, phonological play and metaphors) to advance their poetic argumentation and indicate the topic under discussion. A thorough analysis of the retteng performance shows that the main topic being debated is “the voice of a child,” which is a way of talking about what constitutes verbal expertise and leadership. Ultimately, “the voice of a child” refers to several things: to “honesty” and the “ability to connect what is in someone’s heart with what he says,” “the capacity to express his extensive knowledge with expertise in speaking,” and a good moral society which enables community members to effectively address social problems by means of the performance of ritual speech. |
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