Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor

This paper recounts a parallel story of the Lamòling myth. The original analysis of the legend addressed the relationship between two gods, Lamòling and Lahatàla, from the Abui traditional religion. The myth evolved from ancestral times to the arrival of Christianity in Alor, with the resultant asso...

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Main Authors: Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco, Cavallaro, Francesco
Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88388
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45731
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-883882020-03-07T12:10:39Z Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco Cavallaro, Francesco School of Humanities and Social Sciences Alor DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics Abui This paper recounts a parallel story of the Lamòling myth. The original analysis of the legend addressed the relationship between two gods, Lamòling and Lahatàla, from the Abui traditional religion. The myth evolved from ancestral times to the arrival of Christianity in Alor, with the resultant association of the ‘bad’ god as a demon and, finally, as the devil. This paper completes the myth as handed down from traditional ‘owners’ of the narrative and storytellers by telling a parallel version centered around an Abui ‘prophet’, Fanny, who was the only person able to travel to Lamòling Bèaka, ‘the land of the Lamòling gods/servants’. We also focus on a number of sacred objects and rituals associated with this religious myth and on their symbolic meaning for the Abui. This account tells a different version of the killing and eating of an Abui child by these gods/supernatural entities and of how Fanny came upon the gruesome feast. The paradoxical absence of Lamòling in this version of the myth depicts him as an immanent being, pervading and sustaining all that is real and created in nature, existing anywhere and nowhere at the same time. Published version 2018-08-29T06:59:43Z 2019-12-06T17:02:11Z 2018-08-29T06:59:43Z 2019-12-06T17:02:11Z 2018 Journal Article Perono Cacciafoco, F., & Cavallaro, F. (2018). Lamòling Bèaka: Immanence, Rituals, and Sacred Objects in an Unwritten Legend in Alor. Religions, 9(7), 211-. doi:10.3390/rel9070211 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88388 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45731 10.3390/rel9070211 en Religions © 2018 by The Author(s). Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 15 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Alor
DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics
Abui
spellingShingle Alor
DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics
Abui
Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco
Cavallaro, Francesco
Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor
description This paper recounts a parallel story of the Lamòling myth. The original analysis of the legend addressed the relationship between two gods, Lamòling and Lahatàla, from the Abui traditional religion. The myth evolved from ancestral times to the arrival of Christianity in Alor, with the resultant association of the ‘bad’ god as a demon and, finally, as the devil. This paper completes the myth as handed down from traditional ‘owners’ of the narrative and storytellers by telling a parallel version centered around an Abui ‘prophet’, Fanny, who was the only person able to travel to Lamòling Bèaka, ‘the land of the Lamòling gods/servants’. We also focus on a number of sacred objects and rituals associated with this religious myth and on their symbolic meaning for the Abui. This account tells a different version of the killing and eating of an Abui child by these gods/supernatural entities and of how Fanny came upon the gruesome feast. The paradoxical absence of Lamòling in this version of the myth depicts him as an immanent being, pervading and sustaining all that is real and created in nature, existing anywhere and nowhere at the same time.
author2 School of Humanities and Social Sciences
author_facet School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco
Cavallaro, Francesco
format Article
author Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco
Cavallaro, Francesco
author_sort Perono Cacciafoco, Francesco
title Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor
title_short Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor
title_full Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor
title_fullStr Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor
title_full_unstemmed Lamòling Bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in Alor
title_sort lamòling bèaka: immanence, rituals, and sacred objects in an unwritten legend in alor
publishDate 2018
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88388
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45731
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