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Construction Sacrifice, Kidnapping and Head‐hunting Rumors on Flores and Elsewhere in Indonesia
Author(s) -
Barnes R.H.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1993.tb02459.x
Subject(s) - sacrifice , argument (complex analysis) , phenomenon , politics , history , head (geology) , product (mathematics) , ancient history , ethnology , political science , law , archaeology , philosophy , epistemology , biochemistry , chemistry , geometry , mathematics , geomorphology , geology
Three recent articles have examined head‐hunting and kidnapping rumors in connection with construction sacrifice on Borneo and Flores. This paper presents further information on such rumors on Flores and elsewhere in Indonesia which largely confirms their interpretations. However, the argument is made that rather than being a new phenomenon and a product of the colonial era, these rumors may well have been characteristic of Indonesia from ancient times and have typically been associated with offices of political and military potency. Policies and activities of the Dutch near the Solor islands since the seventeenth century may have strongly reinforced suspicions that they were capable of taking heads through local agents.