Adam and Eve and Vishnu: Syncretism in the Javanese Slametan Author(s): Andrew Beatty Reviewed work(s): Source:

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jun., 1996), pp. 271-288 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3034096 . Accessed: 07/02/2013 13:24
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ADAM AND EVE AND VISHNU: SYNCRETISM IN THE JAVANESESLAMETAN

ANDREWBEATTY

University of Cambridge

or ritualmeal, often said to be This articleprovidesa fresh accountof the Javanese slametan, at the heartofJavanesepopularreligion.It shows how people of diverseideologycome together in ritualand, while apparently sayingthe same things, give expressionto opposedviews about God, revelation, Islam,and humankind's placein the cosmos. The case illuminatesthe ways in can be exploitedin a culturally diversesetting,and sheds new light on which ritualmultivocality
a locusclassicus of religious syncretism.

This article,in keepingwith its theme, attemptsto bringtogethercertaintheoreticalissues undera common focus and to show an inner relationbehind their diversity.The ethnographicfocus is the Javaneseslametan,or ritual meal. In analysingthe slametanI hope to reveal systematicinterconnexionsbetween syncretismas a social process, the multivocalityof ritual and the relationbetween local traditionand Islam. Among the many intriguingaspectsof ritual,polysemy or multivocalityhas proved a fertile source of theoreticaldebateand a continuingchallengeto ethnographers.Leach (e.g. 1954: 86, 286) and Turner(1967), to name only two pioneersin this field, were both concernedin their differentwayswith how the and tensions in socialstructure. ambiguityof ritualsymbolsrelatedto variations Ritual was to be seen as a 'languageof argument,not a chorus of harmony' of Durkheim,the terms (Leach1954:278). Nevertheless,true to the inspiration of the argumentwere takento be shared:they were collective representations, was the social order (Leach1954: 14). and what they represented Recent discussions of multivocalityhave placed a greateremphasis on the and public coninterplaybetween private,often idiosyncratic,interpretation structions of ritual (Barth 1987), or on the individual's manipulation of or 'off record' significance(Strecker symbolic meaning through 'implicature' 1988). There has been a trend awayfrom seeing ritualas 'symbolicconsensus' recognitionof the impro(typically reflectingsocialprocesses)towardsa greater creativeuse of symbolsand the 'fragmentation of meaning'.Humphrey visatory, and Laidlaw, to whom I owe these phrases(1994:80), have emphasizedthe way in which individuals in a culturally complexsettingdrawon differentsourcesof in knowledge construingritual (1994: 202-4). They conclude, in terms which would have seemed startlingnot long ago: We can now see thatvariety, discordance and even absenceof interpretation are all integralto ritual'(1994: 264).
Inst.(N.S.) 2, 271-288 J. Roy.anthrop.

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But problemsconcerningwhat kindsof interpretation arelegitimate,whether symbols mean anything(let alone manythings),andwhether ritualcan aptlybe characterized as communication (see Lewis 1980; Sperber 1975) are diminished, or at least modified, when dealing with ritualsin which speech is the principalmedium. The Javaneseslametanis exemplaryin this respect.It is an extreme instance of 'orderedambiguity'and is unusually explicit in that the multivocal elements are not simply actions or materialsymbols but words; moreover,words whose significanceis spelled out in partduringthe performance. Since the burden of symbolic interpretationis shouldered by the themselves(I venture none of my own), the patterning participants of symbols is relativelyconspicuous.And the social processeswhich give rise to this patteming (to revertto Durkheim) are, again,unusuallyclear:people of different orientationscome togetherin a single ritualand manufacture consensus, or at least the appearance of it. As I shall demonstrate,the significanceof the slametanhinges on what participantsmake of certainkey terms derivingfrom Islam. Some draw orthodox conclusions;others situate the Islamic terms in a Javanesecosmology or read them as universalhuman symbols.Yet all appearto be sayingor endorsingthe same thing. This unsuspectedcomplexityundermineseffortsto determinehow far the slametan (and by extensionJavanesereligion) should be regardedas Islamic.But it also, happily,illuminatesa criticalfunction of symbolism in an ideologicallydiverse setting;namely,its capacityto focus diverse interestsand thus to compel a collectiverespect.From this perspective,the multivocalsymnbol is itself revealedas an exampleandvehicle of syncretism. I will first review discussionof the slametanand its place in Javanesereligion to an analysis beforeproceeding of the riteas celebrated in Banyuwangi, EastJava. Thestametan injavaneseretigion Most anthropologists ofJava agreethatthe slametanlies at the heartofJavanese religion. It is surprising,then, that there are very few detaileddescriptionsin the literatureand perhapsonly one which carriesconviction as an eye-witness of Geertz's (1960) classicwork we have asreport.Ever since the appearance one sumed we know what the slametanis. As is often the case in anthropology, well-wrought account freezes discussion for a generation.Indeed, it was not of EastJava that until Hefner's (1985) admirable studyof the Hindu Tenggerese An attemptto reconsiderthe slametanmust therethe subjectwas reopened.1 discussion. fore begin with the standard Geertz opens his book with the claim that '[a]t the centre of the whole almost furtivelittle Javanesereligioussystem lies a simple, formal,undramatic, ritual:the slametan'(1960: 11). He goes on to outline the elements essentialto any slametan,whether it be held for a harvest,circumcision,or Islamic feast (1960: 11-15, 40-1). The host makesa speech in High Javaneseexplainingthe purposeof the meal to his guests, incense is burned,an Arabicprayeris recited by the guests, and the specialfestive food is dividedand consumed in part,the the speech invokes the host's ancestors, remainderbeing takenhome. Typically, place spirits,Muslim saints, Hindu-Javanese heroes, and Adam and Eve in a polytheistic jumble seeminglydesignedto scandalizeMuslim purists.

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Whetherthe slametan,in this form, is reallyat the centre of the whole Javanese religious system, and whether there is in fact a whole Javanesereligious system, are questions left unsettled. At any rate, Geertz blurs the issue by placinghis descriptionin a section devotedto peasantspiritbeliefs,one of three variantsin his total system. Geertz'sview is that the Islamization ofJava,begun in the thirteenthcentury, has been partialand variable.Pious Muslims, whom he callssantri, are concenIslamicschools tratedalong the northerncoast, in ruralareaswhere traditional are common, and among urban traders.The so-called abangan culture of the majorityof peasants,though nominally Islamic, remains embedded in native The traditional, 'animism'andancestral tradition. Javanese mainlyurban,gentry, though also nominallyMuslim, practisea form of mysticismderivingfrom the Hindu-Buddhistera precedingIslamin Java.These nobles-turned-bureaucrats, and those who adopttheir lifestyle,are known aspriyayi. Latercommentatorshave tinkeredwith the Geertzianterminologyand found all kinds of subvarieties(Bachtiar1973; Ricklefs 1979). But the debate has moved on, and one trend has been to replace Geertz's three dimensions of in culturalvariationwith a starkerdichotomy basedon degree of participation
Islam (Koenjaraningrat 1985: 317; cf Hefner 1985: 3-4, 107; 1987: 534; Stange

1986: 106). The high culture that Geertz calls priyayiand the native peasant traditionare subsumed under a single term kejawen (or equivalent),meaning Javanism.Kejawen is then opposed to the Islamicpiety of the santri. Woodward (1988; 1989),who has employedthis oppositionmost extensively, has given the terms of debate a further twist by claiming that Javanistreligion, in both its of Sufism. The dichopopularand mysticalforms, is basicallyan adaptation and santrithus refers to a division withinIslam. Hence, for tomy of kejawetn Woodward too, Javanesereligionis one; but the unifyingfactoris Islam,not, as Geertzwould have it, Java. Woodward's thesis exemplifiesa recent tendency in SoutheastAsian studies (e.g. Bowen 1993; Roff 1985) to redress a scholarlybias based on a liberal for Islam.He arguesthat 'the slametanis the productof the interpreantipathy tation of Islamic texts and modes of ritual action shared by the larger Muslim community' (1988: 62); and that the slametan,at least (non-Javanese) in CentralJava,is not especiallyor even primarilya village ritualbut is modelled on the imperialcult of the court of Yogyakarta, which he sees as Sufi in inspiration (1988: 85). This scripturalist,top-down view of village ritual is contraryto that of Geertz,for whom the slametan(the 'core ritual'ofJavanese religion)is rooted in peasantanimisttradition. There is much more to Javanesereligion than slametans,but if we accept their centrality, this is as good a place as any on which to begin a rethinking.I want to shift the scene, however,awayfrom the well-known heartlandof Java to Banyuwangiat its easternextremity. This was the setting of the kingdom of the last region ofJava to be Islamizedand still, reportedly, Blambangan, Hindu in partswell into the nineteenth century (Arps 1992: 116). Although Banyuwangi is only three miles acrossthe straitsfrom Hindu Bali, the culturalmix is still much closer to the rest ofJava.A recentvisitorhas characterized the region as 'stronglyIslamic'(Arps1992: 116).

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The slametanin Banyuwangiresembles,in essentials,those describedelsewhere in Java. There is the incense, the paradeof offerings, the speech of dedication(spokenby a delegate,not the host as reportedfor other localities), there is an impressionof uniformityand simplicand the prayers.Superficially, ity, as has been noted elsewhere (Hefner 1985: 107;Jay 1969: 209). But the in this ritual, though almost all impression is deceptive. For the participants peasants,hold strikinglydifferentviews of its meaning. Indeed, as religious orientations,we find all three of Geertz'svariants,and combinationsthereof, the animistfarmerand the presentin the same event. It is as if the pious trader, mystic were seated at the same meal and obliged to talk about the very thing that divides them. Whatcould they possiblyhave in common?And what keeps held differencesfrom eruptingin discord? their passionately of slametan Description Let me begin, then, with a description of a slametan. In Banyuwangi the slametanis specificallya rite for the living, distinct from prayermeals for the dead (sedhekah).2 In generalterms,the purposeof the slametanis to createa stateof well-being, and spiritualkind - a securityand freedom from hindrancesof both a practical used of the dead (in be can Althoughthe word slamet statewhich is calledslamet. is that the word slametan occasions I told on several was of the sense 'saved'), if used of funeralfeasts,amountingto a solecism. Specificreasons inappropriate harvests,a wish of rites of passage, for holding slametansincludethe celebration to restoreharmonyaftera maritalquarrelor a bad dream,to safeguarda new motorbike,and to redeem a vow. But often, there is no ostensiblereasonother than that one seeks the desiredstateof well-being. The slametantakes placejust after dark in the front room of the house. A mat is laid out, with a set of offeringsat one end. Cigarettes, long rectangular flowers and a packetof face powder lie on a pillow placed at the head of the mat, with other offeringsto either side. On the right ('male')side is a flask of water;on the left ('female')side a brassbetel set; and in front, a small lamp, a coin, a dish containingfive blobs of porridgein differentcolours,quids of betel, a dish of red porridgewith a drop of white in the middle, and a glass of water containingred,yellow andwhite petals.The types of food spreadout along the mat dependon the occasion.Often there is a largecone of rice, restingon briars a chicken is serakat); in a basket, called the 'mound of misfortune' (tumpeng of glutinous rice in tubes and buriedin anothermound; and there arepackages diamondshapes. Dressed soberly in sarongs and black velvet hats, men arrive from all the nearbyhouses, the number of guests dependingon the importanceand elaboWhen they are all seatedcross-leggedaroundthe mat, ratenessof the slametan. the bananaleaves covering the food are removed and the host fetches a small clay braziercontainingglowing embers.He placesit before a guest seatednearest the offerings and tells him quietly the purpose of the feast. The delegate then crumbles incense onto the embers and, as the aromaticsmoke startsto rise, he addressesthe other guests solemnly,beginningwith the Islamicgreethere) recordedin August 1992. ing. I quote one such address(abbreviated

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Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarokatuh Thanks to you gentlemen who are present today to witness this act; I am merely conveying the wishes of our hosts Sukiband Sumi and family.Let the intention/slametan3 be jointly (ajat) witnessed and prayed for from our sincere hearts so that it be granted. Their intention, namely,is to glorifyand restoreto its pristinestatethe whole body,and to glorifytheir siblings born on the same day,elder siblingamnioticfluid andyoungersiblingplacenta.May these two people, Sukib and Sumi, be guardedday and night by their siblings.The stipulationshave all been fulfilled such that there is red and white porridge,acknowledgingthat one possesses Mother Earth and FatherPower,FatherDay and Mother Night, takingthe form of Mother Eve and FatherAdam. May the actions of Sukib and Sumi and their family,young and old, male and female, be safeguarded northwards, eastwards and westwards;may they southwards, be confirmed and prosper.There is five-coloured porridge:red, yellow, white, black, and green, dedicatedto their four wise siblingsof many colours, the fifth being oneself. There is savouryrice which Sukiband Sumi give to their guide, the LordMuhammadRasulullah, may the blessing of Allah be upon him. May Sukib and Sumi receive his mercy and that of the Prophet'sCompanions.There are yellow wongso leaves, forty-fourin number, for the fortyfour angels guardingSukib and Sumi day and night; ... fragrant water so that they acknowto the LordAlmighty. rice acknowledging that ledge the body and supplicate There is packaged they possess nine saintsguardingthe nine holes of the body ... The rice cone of misfortune, this too is part of their slametan,may the misfortunebe lost and the slamet remain, ... Let this be witnessedby the Lordand his Prophet.

The speaker,or whoever is able, then begins a short praise of Muhammad followed by a recitationof the openingof the Qur'anin which alljoin, and then a specificArabicprayerfor welfare (do'a to which all sayAmin. slamet) This done, the meal begins, each person helping himself from the arrayof food. The host standsby,encouraging guests to try all the dishes. He alone may not eat; it is his offering. In contrastto other parts of Java, the guests eat to their satisfactionand there is no division of the leftovers. Instead,when the men have departedthe women and children come in and, with much less decorum, devour the rest. But before they leave, the men drink coffee and smoke clove cigarettes from among the offerings.Conversationis amicableand good-humoured,and when they get up to shakethe host's hand, saying,'May your wish be granted',between half an hour and an hour may have passed. I have describedthe basic sequence of speech and action in the slametan. forms demandedby the occasionand are Many such feastshave more elaborate insertedinto complex ritualsequences:for example,at a housewarming.But I am concernedhere with generalfeaturesof the slametan.What, then, can one conclude from this baredescription? One feature that strikes the anthropologist who has worked on ritual elsewhere in Indonesia is the studied explicitness of the slametan. The only unexplained,uncomprehended element is the Arabicprayer.It is importantto note, also, that the guests are presentnot as a passiveaudiencebut as witnesses (seksi) validatingthe reiterated intentions of the host and as participants in the Their sincereassentis requiredand each phraseof symbolicexplication prayer. is followed by a collective 'Yes'.One could hardlyfind a more emphaticdemonstration of cultural uniformity and social harmony than this oath-like It is all the more surprising, performance. then, that each element of the event, from the moment the incense is lit to the partinghandshake,has a disputed meaning;or ratherhas a rangeof meaningswhich variouslycontradict, complement, or nest inside each other. These variantreadingsare not the quibbles of over the finerpoints of tradition; specialists they reflectdifferences of worldview

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so radicalthat they overturnconventionalwisdom on the slametanand confound some of our expectationsabout ritualaction. A few of the participants and UnknowableGod createdman and sent down believe that a Transcendent actions the Qur'anto Muhammadas his sole guide, and thatman'spreordained lead inexorablyto heaven or hell. A few others disbelievein any kind of afterlife, and question the idea of a personalGod, the absolutetruth of the Qur'an, - perhapsa smallmajorThe remainder andthe divinemission of Muhammad. ity, though proportionsvary - believe in the continued existence of ancestors but not in a Muslim afterlife.But they all and perhapsin some form of karma, pronouncethe samewords.What,then, do they mean by them? in theslametan reflected Sources of tradition Before I try to answerthis question I must indicatethe sources of these disparate forms of knowledge. Unlike the better-knowncase of CentralJava, the in the late eighteenth century led to the total Dutch conquest of Blambangan destructionof the kingdomand the depopulationof whole areas(Kumar1979: 1923: 1064). The court culture vanished and, although a 191-2; Lekkerkerker few literarychronicles of the period survived, there is no indigenous high and Solo since therewas no aristocracy to thatofYogyakarta culturecomparable In terms this had severalimplicationsat village to maintainone. comparative no elevatedurbanmodel level. Firstof all, therewas no court-countrypolarity, of manners and ideas to emulate. In fact, there was nothing, politically or between the villageand the colonial state,just so many peasantcomculturally, munities each with its own local traditions.Crucially,there was no unifying religious or cultural authority similar to the Muslim states of CentralJava. When Islamcame it was at the behest of the Dutch anxiousto wardoff Balinese political influence (Pigeaud 1932: 253; Stoppelaar1927: 6). The piecemeal Islamizationof the region has also come about through the settling of large numbers of Madureselabourersand peasantfarmersfrom elsewhere in east faith- the Islamof Java.The Islamthey broughtwas a simple, uncontemplative old-fashioned rural seminarieswhere village boys memorized the pesantren, Qur'an and magicalformulaefor healing.ModernistIslam,representedby the has not made a big impactin the countryside. organization, Muhammadiyah and santrn. village So much for the priyayi What, then, of native Banyuwangi Here, too, one is hardput to define a distinctregionalstyle - rather, traditions? innumerablesmall local differences,a greateremphasison kinshipvalues,and a ethos. The indigenouspeople are amongvery few populations more egalitarian in Javato have a distinctname, the Osing orJawaOsing; but they remaina part Whatdefines the region culturallyfor outsidof the widerJavanesecivilization. ers is its performingarts- stronglyinfluencedby Bali - and the dialect. Cara Javanese.A Osing,as it is called, lacks the intricatespeech levels of standard form of High Javanesecalled besikiis rarelyspoken except in slametans,in which it is used in the dedication. To bring this brief culturalhistoryup to date, there have been severaldevelopments in the religious make-up of the region since Independencein 1949. Alongside a steadydrive for Islamicconformityand piety there have been two movementsawayfrom Islam,both of them given a largeimpetusby the events of the late 1960s when the Left in Indonesiawas crushed.These are the rise of

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Javanistmysticism and large-scaleconversions to Hinduism. In the case of mysticism, one particular sect has developeddeep roots and indirectlystimulated a re-evaluation of local tradition;in the case of Hinduism, convertshave sought to restorewhat they see as the originaland true religionofJava,and have adaptedlocal traditions accordingly.In parts of Banyuwangithere are now Hindu as well as Muslim slametans. The mysticalsect, which I shall call 'The Wayof Perfection',is based in the Banyuwangiregency but has adherents,numbering a few thousand, all over the villagewhere I EastJava.The regionalleaderhappensto live in 'Sukosari', stayed.This village of over two thousandsouls has had followers now for two are members.Unusually, and aboutone fifth of its adultinhabitants generations basedin the countrysideand faraway then, forJava,this is a mysticalassociation from the old kingdoms. The Way of Perfectionfollows the teachings of an aristocratic wanderer,a half-legendaryfigure who died in 1956. One of his it is said, was Seh Siti Jenar,a Javanesehereticwho, like former incarnations, the Persianmartyral-Hallaj,declared'I am the Reality',suggestinga monism disallowed by Islamic orthodoxy (Schimmel 1975: 55, 72; Zoetmulder 1995: were personallyinitiatedby the 300-8). Most of the older membersin Sukosari founderand knew him face to face.However,the sect is not basedon a personAs such alitycult; it espousesa practical philosophyrootedinJavanesetradition. it translateseasily into the village context, availingitself of the symbolism to hand. For the village mystics, the sect providesa philosophical justificationof what they have alwayspractised,an answerto orthodox Islam, and a means of understanding experienceand one's place in the world. So far I have given a baredescriptionof the slametan,pointed to threevariant readingsof the ritualand briefly sketchedin the historicalbackgroundof this variation.Let us now look more closely at the slametan,so as to understand how these diverseinterpretations are made. Interpretation of theslametan Incense is referredto in the invocationas holy rice (sekul suci). It is what the ancestorsand spirits eat along with the smells of the offerings and food, the essence of the feast. Some participants believe the ancestral spiritsto be present attracted at the gathering, by the incense and flowers.The incense also servesas a vehicle for the words. Communicationbetween the coarse, material(kasar) world and the refined, spiritual(alus)realm is difficult, so we convey wishes with incense and symbolicofferings. The speaker's firstwords are the Arabiccustomarygreeting,directedboth to the guests and the unseen spirits.He continues in Javanese,either High Javanese (krama) if he is able, or in the Osing dialect interlacedwith phrasesof village krama.(Most key terms in the addressare common to both speech levels.) He addressesthe guests as siblingsor kinsmen,though most in fact are not kin. Even among pious villagers,the concept of the Islamiccommunity of believers, the umma,has little significance,and the Indonesianword umatis hardlyever used in any village context, though it is familiarfrom radiobroadcasts. What unites the guests is a momentaryfictional kinship which signifies both common background and common humanity;any notion of a community of the faithfulwould only drawattentionto the differencesamong participants.

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The speakerthen identifieshis own role, sayingthat he is merely passingon His disclaimerdrawsattentionto the tradicertainwishes as an intermediary. tionalstatusof his words - thatthey expressancientwisdom, not his own ideas. Trueknowledgeis timelessand cannotoriginatewith an individual.By contrast, Islam is historicallybounded and recent. While santri like to point out that Muhammadwas the lastof the prophetsand thereforethe purveyorof the most complete and perfect revelation,in the eyes of the less devout this makes his revelationnew-fangledand derivative. The speakerthen casts his eye down the arrayof offeringsand festive dishes and refersto them one by one, in no fixed order,giving a formulaicexplanation of their meaning.There can be twenty or more items, though on averagethere are about a dozen. One of the purposes of the addressis to enumerateand displayto the spiritswhat is on offer;the speech is intendedfor them as well as for the living witnesses. The deceasedarejealous of the living and are apt to Each element must be individufrustratethem if not properlyacknowledged. ally dedicatedon behalfof the hosts, specifyingtheir names or stipulating,like the small printof an insurancepolicy,that male and female,young and old, and those on both sides of the family,are included in the dedication.Among the mystics the naming of partshas a furtherpurpose. To name something is to attestto its existence.Since we cannotaffirmwhat we cannotperceiveor know the existenceof the phenomenalworld depends throughintuitivefeeling (rasa), in some sense on our perceivingit. The enumerationof symbolicfoods and the realitiesto which they referis therefore,for those initiated,a kind of metaphysical contemplationof what there is. Among the most importantitems are the red and white porridgeand the dish of five-coloured porridge.A brief comment on their range of meanings will give some idea of the symbolic scope of the slametan.Red and white are primary symbols in Javanesethought. In the slametan,white and red porridge representrespectivelythe father'ssemen and the mother's procreativeblood and, throughthem, Adamand Eve, our firstparents.Other oppositions,such as day and night or right and left, may be linked in the addresswith this primordial pair.All this is explicitand generallyagreed.The importanceof filial piety, linked as it is to the sources of fortune and misfortune,can hardlybe exaggerated. For many ordinary villagers filiation is the dominant theme and one's thatin acknowledging with the understanding motivationof the slametan, oneself A minimal slametan,in fact, consists deceasedparentsone safeguards only of the red and white porridge. Pious Muslims look beyond the parenOthers place the emphasisdifferently. Eve historical as Adam and figures, Nabi Adam being the first tal symbols to Each man contains the seed of is Adam Everyman. prophet. For the mystics, 'means'bibit(seed). Adam and nabi (prophet) Hence, humanity in his sperm. not the mere intermediaries are (lantaran), like immediate our parents, Eve, of account the For the wisdom. scriptural of life and mystics, originalsource to fitted and for be mined to symbolism story creationis a humanly-invented of source true the knowledge. what we can know directlyfrom ourselves, only one might say that the santrireads into the At the risk of overschematizing, the symbols an Islamiccosmogony; ordinaryindifferentvillagerplacesthem in a familialcontext;and the mystic referseverythingbackto the self

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in the addressthus mask divergentpositions The formulaicinterpretations and motivations.Of these, the two extremes,the mysticaland the santri,are the with the majorityfallingsomewherein between. It clearestand most articulate, is the mysticswho go furthest,by far,in developingthese ideas,in smoke-filled, all-nightsessions. I will give a brief examplerelatedto the symbolismso far considered.In the teachingof the sect, Adam and Eve, or male and female,each contributesfour things in conception.Fromthe fatherderivethe fourwhite constituents(which need not be named here), from the mother the red. But since not every act of sex leads to conception, for life to exist there must be a third admixture,and this is divine.The mysticsreferto this thirdingredientby a varietyof terms:the As they put it, Hidden (ga'ib),Life (urip),Wisnu (Vishnu), or Power (kwoso). 'the Arabicword is Allah' though, of course, this is not what most people understandby Allah. The dualityof red and white thereforeimplies a trinity: Adam and Eve and Wisnu. The third partof the trinity,the divine spark,is (or some say results from) the confluence of the four elements, earth,wind, fire and water,and these elements continuallyrenew and sustainlife. How much of this is spelt out in the addressdependson the speakerand the audience.Some of the numbersets, such as the four materialelements, have a wide currency,but only those who have studied mysticism understandthe interrelationbetween the sets. Ordinaryvillagers,and even santri,will sometimes refer to a concept of three-in-one, symbolized by the three coloured flowers, without being clearabout what they mean by this. But whereas ordinary folk will often refer to one of the mystics for an authoritative interpretation, the santrirarelydo so and simply claim that it is all there in the Koranif only one knows where to look (which in factno-one does). In general, the explicit interpretation containedin the addressis, to use a somewhat untropicaltrope, the tip of the iceberg. The most interestingfeatureof the slametansymbolism from a theoretical point of view is not simplythat it is polysemicin the mannerof Tumer's(1967) colour symbolism: we are now familiarenough with the idea of a symbol meanings in different contexts among having layeredand even contradictory people who share a common ideology.I am describingsomething more complex: ideologicaldiversitycontainedwithin a common frame. A parallelcase is that of the kenduri, or prayer-meal, of the SumatranGayo (Bowen 1993: 229-50). In a penetratinganalysis,Bowen shows how factional Muslims are muted in the differences between modernist and traditionalist As in the slametan,ritual ambiguityis exploited - thougb in quite kenduri. differentways- to enablepeople of diverseorientationto come together.In the of the ritual Gayocasethe riskof conflictis reducedby 'a compartmentalization of its to some allows components and ignore acknowledge [which] people others' (Bowen 1993: 241). Controversialparts of Gayo ritual are performed 'no public privatelyby specialists(1993: 317). Equallyimportant,at a kenduri decoding takesplace, and people draw their own semiotic conclusions' (1993: in spite of ideologicaldifferences. 232). Community is thus maintained
It is the unsaid, the underinterpreted, the absenceof exegesis at the event itself that permits ritualpractitioners to reconstruct communityon top of a wide diversityof individualopinions about what is rituallyproperand practically possible (Bowen 1993:318).

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of EastJava: Likewise,among the Tenggerese

ceremony, and no one comes forth to provide'item-by-itemexegesis' No sermonaccompanies communalrites alone ... The efficacyof ritual of ritualsymbolism.Often the priestcelebrates rarelydepends upon the presenceof an activecongregation(Hefner 1985:20).

Consequently,'ritual social organizationin Tenggerbuffers the liturgy from bodies of ritualsymbolpopularregard,helpingto maintaintwo almostparallel ism, each internallyconsistent and sustainedin its own field' (Hefner 1985: (which fit 186; see also pp. 18, 184-8, 269). Against these characterizations in sharpconmany SoutheastAsian cases) the examplepresentedhere appears trast - a contrastall the more strikinggiven family resemblancesamong the specialization and an avoidanceof pubritualsconcerned.Insteadof separation, of very slametana systematicintegration lic speech,we find in the Banyuwangi ideas in a fully collectiveenterprise.Public exegesis forms a key part, disparate and social compromiseis achievednot merelyin spite of ideologicaldifferences but by means of their combinedexpressionin ritual.4 Perhapsthis is clearerin my second example,the five-colouredporridge.In the address it refers to the dulurpapatlimo badan,literally the 'siblings-four five-body (self'. The four siblingsare the personalguardianspirits,important in magic and protectionfrom sorcery (see Weiss 1977). Usually only two are respectively elder and younger sibling named:the amnioticfluid and afterbirth, to the person, and these stand for the set of four. The dulurare represented, then, by a dish containingfour blobs of rice porridgeoriented to the cardinal points, with black to the north, red south, yellow west and white east. In the warna, centre is a blob of green porridgeor a mixtureof the other four, manca for the focus and The centre explicitly, the person, stands, 'multicoloured'. origin of the four directions.Hence the phrase:'siblingsfour, body (or self) fifth'. In the dedication,the four-five configurationis linked to other sets, such as the elements, and to Islamicquartets,such as the four drives, the archangels, and the Companions of the Prophet;though not to quintets such as the five or the pillarsof the faith,which lackreferenceto a centralcompodailyprayers nent. As with the red andwhite porridge,a publiclyagreedformulais given differential emphasis in private or esoteric interpretations.For the ordinary the four spiritualsiblings are primary,and are assumed, like the participant, ancestralspirits,to have a direct influence on one's welfare.Many santrishare when pressedin discussion.Typically, this view,but playup the Islamicparallels and elaborating the corresponit is the mysticswho go furthestin systematizing dences. For the mystics,at one level of exegesis,the four siblingsrepresentthe four facultiesunder the control of rasa,'intuitive feeling' (Stange 1984: 119), locatedin the centre (solarplexus).Rasais synonymouswith indwellingdivine thatouter and inner,man and God are united (Geertz1960: life, and it is in rasa 238-40; Stange1984;Zoetmulder1995: 182-4). A scheme widely shared among people of different orientation is that of microcosm and macrocosm,denoted in Javaneseby the termsjagadcilik and jagadgedhe.The four-five configurationis one of the structureswhich links these two realms.5Man is composed of the four elements and returnsto these at death;man is the centre from which the four directionsradiate,and so on.

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are offered): The centre representsthe whole in two senses (both explanations either as encompassingthe outer componentsor as being their combinationis limited. The hence the multicolouredblob. But, again,explicitinterpretation formal speech merely points to correspondences between various sets of four without specifying the nature of their links. Are microcosm and macrocosm Clearlythe answersto connectedby analogy, metaphoror identityof substance? this question sort out the sheep from the goats, doctrinally. Santriswould not - their identificationof the archangels accept the mystics' anthropocentrism with the faculties,nor the identityof God and man in rasa,the centralcomponent; nor would the average villageracceptthat the ancestorsare in oneself or that Adam and Eve are purely symbolic figures. But since these ideas are not spelled out in the addressthere is no problem. As will be evident by now, numerologyservesvariousends in the slametan. of differingcast can be it createsa frameworkon which interpretations Firstly, pinned. All agreeon the importanceof the four-siblingset, but some go on to link this with the four passions,others the four elements. It does not greatly mattersince each set can symbolizethe others. One set can be primaryand in some sense real, the other derivativeor merely symbolic, dependingon one's rather point of view.The particular meaningsarenot exclusive.On the contrary, than reject a rival interpretation (so far as it is known), one fits it into one's conceptualscheme at a differentlevel. basa. Another technique of explicationis by a form of word play called kerta Here, one takes some word or syllableand either constructsan etymology or finds in one's scheme some key word with which it rhymes.The word is then taken to have this meaning. One example alreadygiven is nabi (prophet).Its seed. second syllable-bi is found (almost) in bibit,seed, so nabi'means'(tegese) Sego golong, the packaged rice, rhymeswith bolong, hole; thus, commonly,signifying the nine orificesof the body.The orifices in turn are guardedby (or, for some, merely symbolize) the nine saintscreditedwith spreadingIslam in Java. This much is common knowledge. But for the mystics these quasi-historical saint or friend of God, personagesare merely symbols in turn: waliyullah, a key term in their ethicalsystem. rhymeswith and 'means' polah(action/doing) K6rta basa,like numerology,is a way of connectingdiverserealmsand establishing correspondences. Perhapsone should say it is a means of recognizing correspondences,since many of these are felt to be real, not imagined (c? Keeler 1987: 251-3). In fact, the goal of much mysticaldiscussion is to reveal of things,to realizethat 'the cosmos is one community' the interconnectedness - numerologyand k6rta (Pigeaud1983: 65). Both techniquesof interpretation basa- have the effect of synthesizingor syncretizingdisparatematerialsby This procedurealsopermitsa divergenceof identifyingcommon denominators. within a common rituallanguage. opinion and interpretation Perhapsthe most extremeexampleof this phenomenon is the term Muhammad Rasulullah: 'Muhammadthe Apostle of God'. The mere utteranceof the epithet is enough to identifythe speakeras a Muslim. But what kind of Musin Arabicscriptlooks like, or can be perceivedas, lim? The word 'Muhammad' a human body lying on its side. This conceit, which featuresin otherJavanese mysticalsystemsas well as in classicalSufism (Schimmel 1975: 153), is related by adepts to the notion that the body is a script, a 'wet book' (kitabteles)in

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contrastto the dry book of the Qur'an.(It also fits neatlywith the distinctionin Islam between nabi [prophet]and rasul[apostle,bearerof a holy book]). The body's scriptis eternal,unlikethe temporalrevelationof the historicalMuhammad. The script is reproduced in each generation, our bodies being the anew by those with a mind to it. One to be readand interpreted intermediaries, does not need to look outside oneself for illumination.Hence, for the mystics, the slametan,in its detailsand as a whole, is a meditationon the human body, and as the source of knowledge. The the self: as microcosm, as intermediary, ancestors,Adam and Eve, the four siblings and Muhammadare all in oneself Rasul,apostle, in this serious play of words, means rasa,the divine faculty of feeling-perception.So when the addresscloses with the words, 'May this be the apostleof God', simplemonotheists,near-polytheists by Muhammad granted and mysticshoveringsomewherebetweenpantheismand a scepticalhumanism can nod in unison. meaningsis itself a matterof varying That the slametancomprisesdisparate Santrirelativize interpretation. javanistknowledgeas a matterof adator custom, something inferior to the universaltruths of religion. The mystics, for their part,sometimes refer to the stagesof the Sufi path. Knowledgeattainedin the final stage,gnosis, may be so far removedfrom the first stage that it appearsto contradictit.6 But esoteric knowledgeis never brought into open comparison with common knowledgeexceptamong adepts.I found that pious Muslims in beyond a travestyof the identifithe village knew little ofJavanistmetaphysics cation of God and man. But many of the mystics were among the more This puts knowledgeableabout Islam and could recite the prayersproficiently. them at an advantagein debate and is one reasonwhy santriare reluctantto The quiet, words like Wisnuthatmaycrop up in slametans. quibblewith arcane bewilderedmajoritycaughtbetweenthe two sides is apt to defer to either as the occasion demands.But while ordinaryvillagersmight side with the santribecause they feel they ought to, they defer to the mystics because they believe distinctionbetweenwhat them to be in possessionof the truth.In this practical or politicallysafe and what is ultimatelytrue, many,perhapsthe is respectable of villagerstacitlyacceptthe mystics'frameof reference. majority, may be, they are hidden in the To sum up, however sharpthe disagreements slametanby severalfactors:the ambiguousphrasingof the address;a refusalto contest meanings in public; a relativismwhich grants a limited truth to the other'sview; and a recognitionof common socialvalues and common humanity which overridedoctrinaldifferences. I have concentratedon some details of the slametandedicationin order to revealthe wide variationin meaningcontainedin what appearsto be, to quote ... little 'a simple,formal,undramatic againGeertz's(1960: 11) characterization, is which of the again decepritual, ritual'.Before turningto the social context of the slametan. some aspects linguistic tively simple, I want brieflyto consider of theslametan The discourse the ancestorsand other spiritsactuallyhearthe addressand the prayers 'Whether Ancestorsare said to 'have returnedto eteris a matterof muted controversy. an ambiguous phrase which can nity' (mulihnang[neng]jaman kelanggengan), or simply mean 'reunitedwith God in heaven','moulderingin the graveyard',

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the formalspeech is there'extinct'.Depending on one's preferred eschatology, fore a direct address to disembodied spirits, a message to be passed on by intermediariesto God, or a reflective contemplation.Since the audience is mixed, it has to be all of these things at the same time. speechasa wholeisjudged in relationto the The significance of the invocatory prayerthat follows it (c? Bowen 1993:230-1). For the pious, orthodox-leaning Muslim, the invocation is less importantbecause the role of the ancestorsis - they are intermediaries with God, not a source of blessing in themancillary selves. The prayeris more powerfulbecauseit goes directlyto God; moreover, Arabicis God's language. For Javanists,in contrast,Arabicwords frame the more importantJavanese speech, like a vessel protectinga precious content. In the same way, official or containerof the esoterictruthsofJavanistphilosophy7 religionis the wadhah The power of the vernacularwords resides partly in the fact that they are pronouncedclearly, understood,andwitnessed,in contrastto the opaqueArabic words of the address,moreover, words which are merelygarbled.The Javanese aretuw&k, ancientand repletewith wisdom and power.They pertainto mysteries - the realmof eternity, origins and destinations. As powerfulspeech,the addressis said to be mandi, a word which refersboth to verbal efficacy and, curiously,to the potency of venom.8 (To break one's utterword is 'to incur its poison'.) Like a spell, the addressis a performative ance which acts on the world, achievingits end in the saying (c? Austin 1970; Tambiah1985). Personnel or Accordingto reportsfrom elsewhereinJava,it is the mosque official (modin) some similar figure who presides at a slametan.In Banyuwangi,everything in the office and there is no 'ritual points away from a religious specialization dependency' (Hefner 1985: 107) on the pious. The modinonly presidesif he happensto figureamong the usual guests and if there is no-one senior or more skilful in performingthe address.The host's delegateis not thereforea token Muslim amongthe heathens,as is sometimesalleged,but is much like the other guests.9 The speakerdoes not even have to be a highly respected or moral person. In any neighbourhood there are one or two men who possess the necessaryknowledge and are usually called upon. One man may speak the addressand another the prayer,or one person may perform the whole ceremony. Although each speaker has his personal style, certain elements are The prayers are- errorsaside- invariable and arelearnedfrom manustandard. als or by repetitionfrom a teacher. A crucialpoint for the sociology of the slametanis that the content of the addressis roughly the same whateverthe religious orientationof the speaker. or bias in the The emphasisvariesbut nobody imposes a privateinterpretation at will: the formularized explicitform of the speech. Neither can one elaborate Just as the speaker meanings are traditionaland independentof the speaker. must be neutralin composingthe address,the host's choice of delegatedoes not he may ask a usuallyindicatean ideologicalbias on his part.On the contrary, neighbour of an opposite tendency to speak. One pious Muslim told me he would like to dispense with the addressand go straightto the prayers.His

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nekt-doorneighbouris a prominentmysticwho regardsIslamwith some hostility as a 'colonizationof the soul'. As a guest, on more than one occasion I witnessed each man presideat the slametanof the other. The santriwould do without the address,the mystic would do without the prayer;but each performed the whole sequencefor the benefit of his host and the group of guests. Here we come to the socialvalue of the slametanas distinctfrom its symbolic meanings.While the invocationspeaksof the personand the world, sayingvery of slametansis recognizedas having little of the community,the performance wider social benefits.Among other things, it promotes a state of rukunamong (Geertz 1960: 61). Rukun,which means both social harmony and participants is the prime socialvalue in villagelife. In everyday the makingof such harmony, affairsit is achieved by the mutual adjustmentof differing interests among fellow villagers.In the slametan,rukunis enhancedby severalmeans, the first implies sharingthejoys or sorrowsof being the factof takingpart.Participation labourof a major the occasion;it also requiresa contributionto the costs andc recruitmentis impartial: feast, and ultimatelya returninvitation.Significantly, guests are not chosen on the basis of grkap identity,personal preference,or like-mindedness;they are either neighboursor kin as the occasion demands. Secondly,rukunis achievedby the form of the slametanitself, which is, as we elements and ideologies.A symhave seen, a temporarysynthesisof disparate bolic compromisemirrors- indeed, effects - a social compromise.Syncretism is thereforeto be seen in this case as a dynamicsocial and culturalprocess,not as a mere historicalconcretionof bits and pieces left over fromJava'schequered in the slametan;and the synpast. The need for rukunmotivatesparticipation ideologicaldifferenceinto rukun.10 cretismof the slametantransforms Islamic? Is theslametan As I noted at the outset, discussionof the slametan,and ofJavanesereligion in general, has been preoccupiedwith whether or not, or to what extent, it is Islamic.It should be clearby now that this question cannotbe answeredsimply by a descriptionof what happensand comparisonagainsta checklistof Islamic rules and customs. Unlike Woodward(1988: 62), I could find no-one who as an Islamicritual.Anthrothe slametan(distinctfrom the sedhekah) regarded pologists may indeed have been misled by a narrowlylegalisticdefinition of asserts,but then so have the Javanesethemselves.Though Islam,as Woodward Islamicelements, most people regardthe slametanas it obviously incorporates Javaneseand pre-Islamicor even Hindu in inspiration.Islamic authentically and in some cases given senses wholly different terms have been appropriated from anything recognizablyMuslim, or else emptied of specificallyIslamic content by turningthem into universalsymbols. 'Weall practiseIslam',as one somethingwe all seek'. mystic told me, 'even you, becauseIslam meansslamet, is deconstructed sembahyang Even the Javaneseword for the salatritualprayer, worship of one's ancestors(variouslyconceived). It and becomes sembah e"yang, seems inadequatetherefore to view this kind of thinking as a local form of many regardIslamas a local form of 'true'knowledge. Islam. On the contrary, It is given a place,but an inferiorone, in the total scheme of things. What matters primarilyfor an understandingof ritual is, in any case, the themselves.The putativetextualorigins of significancederivedby participants

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the slametanor its parallelsin other Muslim societies have little bearingon its A case in point is the slametanaddress,the kabul.In significance. contemporary of an Islamic law the term kabulis pairedwith ijabas the formal 'acceptance' 'offer' made in a legal contractbefore witnesses (Juynboll1953: 157). Is the slametantherefore construed as a contractualexchangewith the ancestorsor God? Perhaps.But so are ritual meals the world over. The textual Islamic origin,if such it is, and the legalconnotations,havebeen forgotten.Intriguingly, in standard Javanesethe slametanaddressis called ujub(from Arabicijab),not for one of 'offering' kabul.The Osing substitutionof a speech of 'acceptance' suggestsa 'magical',coercive emphasis,a recastingof what was alreadya borrowed notion. Evidently the Islamic nature of the ritual cannot be settled by etymology, For who is to say, scripturalderivation,or even the opinion of participants. what counts as Islamic?There are, moreover,slametansin Banyuultimately, wangi which lack any Islamic reference.In the village of Cungking there is a popularcult of a sage associatedwith the last Hindu-Buddhist (buda)king in Java (d. 1691). Slametansat his shrine involve archaicbudaspells instead of Arabicprayersor greetings.Furthersouth, in the village of Kedunen, Hindu attendeach other's slametans. convertsand their Muslim neighboursregularly There is the usual incense-burning(joss-sticksfor Hindus, resin for Muslims), the speech of invocationand symbolic explication,and the prayers.Naturally, one keeps a respectful silence during prayersof the opposite faith. But the similarin each case. The offerings are the same formal addressis remarkably but there are differencesin the glosses; for example,insteadof dedicatingthe chicken to Muhammadone dedicatesit to Resi Wiyasa,a parallelfigure who reputedlybrought Hinduism to Java. Root vegetables normally dedicatedto Suleiman are offered to Antaboga,the underworld serpent. But, strikingly, many of the elements remainthe same for both Hindus and Muslims - the red and white symbolismand the five-colouredporridge,the three coloured flowers and fragrant water.These are, as we have seen, the essentialingredientsof the slametanin Sukosari. Conclusion closed, ideologicallysimple settings (notaStudies of multivocalityin relatively bly Barth 1987 and Strecker1988), stress the freedom of actorsto manipulate but in a complex and diverse setting meanings to their political advantage; serve as a means of blendingtogetherdissomay,on the contrary, multivocality nant voices and thus of orchestratingsocial harmony Symbols, in this work as common denominators ratherthan as indexesof difference perspective, - the more ambiguous (polysemic),the more resonantand focal the symbol, and the greaterits integrativepower. This does not, of course, mean that the slametanis all things to all people. For a given group of celebrantsit is a fairly specific embodiment of their variousviews: otherwise it would lose its relevance to their ultimate concerns. As Empson (1930) famously showed, ambiguitycan function with some precisionwhen employed as a stylisticdevice; and so it does in this case. The symbolic rangeof the slametan,far from techniques and by being unlimited, is specified by traditionalinterpretative referenceto restrictedsets of ideas. Social and politicalconstraints(which are

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apt to change) determine which meanings shall be voiced and which shall remainimplicit. and syncretism.If people I have suggesteda connexionbetween multivocality as they do in the slametan,they to together, come orientation are of different them and what can what unites both discover ground, create common must focus their divergentinterests.This they do by means of multivocalsymbols. The resulting synthesis is, as we have seen, a temporaryaccommodationin are not requiredto abandontheir positions and think alike. which participants with the slametan; Nobody subscribesto the whole packageof ideas associated Moreover, underneaththe and nobody rejects outright a rival interpretation. differencesthere are commonalities- a sense of common humanity,a need for a desire to sharein the occasion. rukun, The enduringqualityof the slametanno doubt derivespartlyfrom its appeal to basic Javanese values which transcend local and sectariandifferences. It brings together neighboursas fellow men and women, not as fellow Muslims or Hindus. But its form - symbolicallydense and comprehensivebut at the same time flexible and ambiguous - has also helped it to survive and even encompassmajorculturalchanges (c? Lewis 1980: 8-9). The very adaptability of the slametanhas made conversionfrom Islam to Hinduism and sometimes backagainless troublesomethan one might imagine.As a ritualframeadaptable to diversefaithsand ideologiesit remainsat the heartofJavanesereligion.As an exampleof religioussyncretism,it shows how - and with what inventivegrace - people can come to termswith their differences.
NOTES Fieldworkwas conducted in EastJavafrom December 1991 to June 1993, funded by a British Academy PostdoctoralFellowship and sponsored by LIPI, Jakarta.Further researchwas funded by an Evans Fellowshipfrom Cambridge.I would especiallylike to thank Peter Carey and Rodney Needham for their invaluablecomments and advice.I am also gratefulto the editor and the anonymousJRAI reviewerfor their suggestions.Versionsof this articlewere presented at seminarsin Oxford and Cambridge. I Hefner's (1985: 104-10) accountof Muslim slametans,embedded in an illuminatingcomparisonwith Hindu ritual, is similarto Geertz's.See also Jay (1969: 206-14), Koentjaraningrat (1985: 347-52); Sullivan (1992: 90-4); and Veth (1875: I, 322-5). I give fuller considerationto recent studies in a forthcomingbook on religion in Banyuwangi. 2 Only Mayer and Moll (1909: 5-6) note this distinction.They also observed that Javanese was especiallyevident in these feasts.Word limits preclude a discussion religious 'synkretisme' here. of sedhekah 3 A homonym. The sense of 'intention,wish' seems indicatedhere. Cf Horne 1974; Pigeaud 1982; PrawiroAtmodjo 1990 s.v. ajat. 4 Another parallel,Barth's(1993) study of culturaldiversityin neighbouringBali, contraryto among a multiplicity of cultural my emphasis, stresses 'disorder'and 'underdeterminedness' traditions;and where I would point to constraintand public conformity,Barth stresses the 'rangesof options from which a Balinesecan choose in the perpetualwork of constructinghis or her reality'(1993: 5). This differenceof emphasisis partlydue to the fact that Barth'sfocus is on events and acts as the locus of cultural reproduction(1993: 96-7, 307) rather than on ritualor discourseas such. 5 The layout of the five-colouredporridgeis the same as the colour scheme associatedwith Hindu Java (Pigeaud the four quartersand the centre of the kingdom in fourteenth-century 1964, vol. 4: 57-8; Behrend 1985). 6 Many Javanesemystics regardsantriviews as false if taken literallyand few perform the daily prayersor attend the mosque (cf Woodward1989: 149-50; Zoetmulder 1995: 185-6).

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When I askedone (not a sect member)whether he had ever prayed,he gave the startlingreply: 'Prayto what?' 7 A classicalformulationof this view is found in Yasadipura's SeratCabotek, where the 'container' is Islamic Law and the 'content'Javanistmysticism (Soebardi1975: 53; see also Woodward 1989:72). 8 These meaningsare coupled in other Indonesianlanguages.See Beatty 1992: 277. 9 Woodward(1988: 61-2; 1989: 142-3) and Hefner (1985: 107) follow Geertz (1960) andJay in ritual. (1969) on the segregationof santriand non-santriand their complementarity 10 I am describingsomething more precise and systematicthan the diffuse significanceof community symbols astutelyanalysedby Cohen (1985: 20-1, 55). The slametanrecruitsovernot about group identityor boundarymarkers. lappingsets of neighboursand is emphatically

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Adam et Eve, et Vishnu: le syncr6tisme du slametan Javanais

R6sumt repas rituel considere par beaucoup Cet articlejette une lumiere nouvelle sur le slametan, comme etant au coeur de la religiosite populairejavanaise.On montre que des groupes aux ideologies tres diverses celbrent ensemble ce rituel, donnant ainsi l'impression de dire les memes choses. Mais, en fait, ils exprimentdes vues opposees sur Dieu, la revelation,l'Islam, et la place de l'homme dans l'univers. Cette etude, qui 6clairela faqon dont la multivocalite rituellepeut etre mise I profit dans des situationsmarqueesparune forte diversiteculturelle, permet donc de repenser un sujet tres classique, le syncretisme religieux.

C/o Wolfson College, OxfordOX2 6UD, U.K

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