Small Sacrifices: Religious Change and Cultural Identity Among the Ngaju of Indonesia

This is an ethnographic study of the Ngaju Dyaks, rain forest dwellers of the remote interior region of Central Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Like many indigenous peoples, the Ngaju have lately been affected by exposure to world religions, technological advances, and myriad external factors involving their growing incorporation into the rapidly expanding state system. Schiller demonstrates that their responses to these pressures are most clearly seen in the religious sphere and involve the recasting and reinterpreting of their indigenous religion. She focuses particularly on the changing form and content of "tiwah," an elaborate ritual of secondary burial with multiple and diverse meanings for Hindu Kaharingan Ngaju as well as for those who have converted to Islam or Christianity.