Sot. Sci. Med. Vol. 27, No. 8. pp. 819-828, 1988 Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0277-9536/88 $3.00 + 0.00 Copyright 0 1988 Pcrgamon Press plc THE DRUM IS THE GUIDES SHAMAN, THE SPEAR HIS VOICE JANET HOSKINS Department of Anthropology, University of Southern California, University Park, Los Angeles, CA 90089, U.S.A. Abstract-Kodi rituals of curing use anthropomorphized objects-the drum and the spear-as inter- mediaries to communicate with the spirits causing the affliction. The spear ‘cuts through’ to the cause of the illness at the divination, by guiding the arm and voice of the human diviner. The drum beaten during an all night ceremony has a more important role: a myth at the opening of the ceremony tells the drum’s personal story or biography, which is identified with the suffering patient. zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVU In the course of the ceremony it travels on a shamanistic journey to the upperworld to seek the blessings of health and well-being. The myth of the drum’s origin provides a narrative structure for the whole ritual, and defines the basis for its efficacy. The percussive sounds of the drum and gongs are said to make the patient feel better. A case study shows how ‘ordered sound’ is used to dissolve social tensions into a culturally structured pattern, so that consensus can be achieved in implicit accommodations in which neither party loses face. An older man’s illness awakens guilty feelings among his younger relatives, whose thieving is believed to be responsible. The healing ritual creates the context for them to express contrition without confessing. Thus, although the rite re-establishes communication between persons and between the human and spirit worlds, it involves deception and silences as well as revelations. Through an analytic comment on social tensions, artistic illusions are used to overcome the airing of social differences. The healing rite is intended to restore a social consensus, produced by a combination of music, speech and actions, which allow signs to triumph over substance. Key words-shamanism, mythology, curing rituals, Eastern Indonesia When Mbora Wonda, an important elder among the Kodi people of Sumba, eastern Indonesia, began to cough and spit blood, ritual assistance was immedi- ately sought from both human and nonhuman inter- mediaries. A diviner was summoned from a distant hamlet, and came bringing a special magical spear which he would use to ‘cut through’ the illness to its cause. His partner and ritual counterpart was a singer who followed him to this consultation, carrying a sacred drum. As members of the family gathered to watch, the diviner first held the spear outstretched in his right arm and lunged toward the main house pillar of the lineage cult house, calling out the names of various spirits and asking them if they were angry. The spear guided his voice to the right answers, striking the pillar only when the response was positive, and failing to reach it when the response was negative. The answers that he received confirmed the seriousness of the illness, and he told members of the household that a singing ceremony Quigho) would have to be held to effect a cure. “The sounds of drum and gong beats must echo throughout the village,” he said. “The spirits must be called down and fed.” His partner, the singer, nodded and began to consult with other family members about when such a ceremony could be held. The steps were complicated: first, a chicken would be offered to the spirit of the drum (marupu bendu), and its entrails examined to ascertain the willingness of the spirit to serve as an intermediary. Then, three human ritual specialists, the diviner, the singer, and a ritual orator would stage a full night of alternating prayers and music, sending their words up to the deities with the percussive rhythms of the musical instruments. Finally, a pig sacrifice would be held the following morning, with contributions from all the members of the sponsor’s lineage house, and those who had taken wives from there. Members of the sponsor’s party agreed to these conditions, thus opening the way for consecrated objects such as the drum and spear to begin the process of treatment. The objects themselves are considered ‘bitter’ @z&-taboo, set aside) and they can only be used in a ritual context. Before they become effective, the story of each object’s origins must be recited, as a kind of ‘biography’ which details its personal history, and establishes parallels with the personal history of the patient. About 50,000 Kodinese live at the western tip of the rather dry island of Sumba, subsisting on gardens of corn and rice, and raising pigs, chickens, horses and water buffalo. Three-fourths of the population adhere to the ancestral system of spirit worship (uguma marapu), while about 25% have converted to Christianity. In the more isolated hamlets, rituals are the main occasion for social gatherings of a dispersed population, and the focus of a prestige economy built around feasting, brideprice payments, and the con- struction of large stone tombs in ancestral villages. Ceremonies are led by diviners, singers and orators who address deities in formal ritual couplets, and could best be described as ‘priests’ because of their control of specialized religious knowledge. Shamans (persons claiming a direct experience of supernatural power, usually through past illness) are not im- portant in Kodi healing, but I will argue that the mythic narrative recited at the beginning of each 819