11Story

23 December 2008

Buffalo sacrifice

"We have eaten the forest"

Contents:  "We have eaten the forest"  - Introduction  - Aim of the exhibition  - Synopsis        * Ethnology as an art of living        * The Sar Luk villagers        * A poetic and oral tradition        * Burning the forest of the stone spirit Goo        * Works and days        * Buffalo sacrifice        * Sickness and death         * Sar Luk today  - The purpose of ethnography: an interview with Georges Condominas with Yves Goudineau  - Biography of Georges Condominas  - Main publications

 

Buffalo sacrifice

 

“Sacrificial posts and poles have been extravagantly decked with fronds, and I find the colorful geometrical designs with which they have been partly adorned of particular interest. They would intrigue anyone who discovered them, although their evocative powers must already be somewhat blunted in the eyes of those for whom they were drawn and painted.” “We see similarities drawn here between man and buffalo; just as the villagers must leave a rngool [village site] where an epidemic has killed several men in a few days, they can stay no more than a year (a somewhat elastic period, it is true) in a place where many buffaloes have been slaughtered. Each Earth Festival – the slaying of buffaloes – is followed by moving the village, just as happens after an epidemic – the slaying of men.”

 

The setting of the rite

 

Drawing of a shamanism scene by Georges Condominas
	© Georges Condominas

 

		Jar post, ndöng yang, to which the main jar of the buffalo sacrifice is attached. A paper-turbaned figure is carved at the top, wearing an Edê hat with ear mufflers, a tin comb, and a necklace of multicolored beads. The figure is squatting on an elephant with white wooden tusks. Exchanged with the son-in-law of Ung Tung Yan of Ndut Lieng Krak village, against six feet of black calico.
Jar post Wood. 71.1951.3.306 © musée du quai Branly / P. Gries / B. Descoings

 

Field notebook: the jar
	© Georges Condominas

 

Putting Buffalo to death

 

"At my arrival, at 7 o'clock, everything was ready for the buffalo sacrifice; they had waited so I could attend. The two beasts were killed in less than ten minutes."

 

Buffalo sacrifice. Maang-ddôong putting the buffalo to death © Georges Condominas

 

Ritual offerings and clothings

 

Ritual winnowing tray, dôong môok tlaa, woven by Bbaang-Lang           called Bbaang-the-One-Eyed. Paid the asking price (30 piastres). Bamboo, small rattan, reh. 71.1950.24.83 © musée du quai Branly / P. Gries	Ritual apron-belt (detail), suu ntêeng, placed on  the sacrificial pole for the Merit Festival. Tâm triu artifact (the collective name for reciprocal gifts  given by the two protagonists at the buffalo  sacrifice exchange). Cotton. Extra warp, picked, twisted weft. 71.1951.3.325 © musée du quai Branly / P. Gries

 

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