Lecture 9: A Lòlo Funeral: Building a Postmortem Identity

Mueggler 2018: study of deathways in the community of Júzò

• Lòlo ethnic group (Yi minority)

• Farmers (valley floor/hill terrace, mixed crops esp. rice, wheat & hemp) and goat herders

• Mueggler visited them 1993 to 2011

  • this kind of deep long-term involvement is not unusual in anthropological research

Mueggler 2018: Lòlo ethnic group (Yi minority)

Distinct linguistically (Tibeto-Burmese language) and culturally from Han Chinese

Mueggler 2018: Farmers (valley floor/hill terrace, mixed crops esp. rice, wheat & hemp) and goat herders

Remote location and linguistic differences contribute to history of economic disadvantage

Lòlo funerals and identity

Mueggler’s theoretical introduction discusses how the corpse is ‘made’ as a cultural object

• Lòlo practices (especially treatment of the body) reflect the community’s social structure (kinship), emphasize participants’ identity within it and creates an idealized identity for the deceased

Emerging from the courtyard: ritual held at night a few days after death

• Requires preparing the body in a socially acceptable way to become a “fully social dead body”

• Preparation and other parts of the ritual replicate, idealize and express the kinship relationships that lie at the base of this community

Care for the dying and the dead: before death, person is cared for as one does a living being

The right medicines and spiritual care, the opportunity to say goodbye to loved ones – reflect the person’s living identity & ties

Care for the dying and the dead: after death, a different process of care begins

• Starts with capturing the soul in body of an animal sacrifice

• Soul is seen very differently than in some faiths you may be familiar with

• Not the seat of individual consciousness and identity – instead, a kind of impersonal energy associated with a living body

Care for the dying and the dead: water is bought from water spirits

• One of several things deceased will need during the rituals ahead

• A number of actions confirm/stress the individual’s death

• Water is poured over the body’s head

• Sacrifice to goddess who brings children to the living (laying hen)

• Sacrifice to god who claims the soul at moment of death (chicken)

• Body is prepared and dressed in a way specific to the dead

Care for the dying and the dead: These actions redefine the relationship of the dead person to the natural and spiritual world around them

• Spirits of house and courtyard

• Spirits of water

• Sky and clouds (spirit of lightning)

• God of the underworld (passing into his realm)

• Relationships that a living person has with these entities is terminated and new set of relationships is built

• This begins the creation of a new postmortem identity

Care for the dying and the dead: At dusk on 2nd or 3rd day the body is placed in coffin for the start of the Entering the Courtyard ritual

The body is wrapped in hemp cloth and quilts – demonstrating the care of sisters, daughters & nieces

• Mueggler describes this process as ‘wrapping’ the deceased in expressions of kinship

• Mueggler also describes the following stages (expressing kin relationships, offering sacrifices, sitting, moving and dancing around the body) as a symbolic ‘wrapping’ in kinship ties

Before the ritual starts (maybe years before) three key sets of duties are defined:

• Hosts (vɛdù)

• Married daughters (zòmæ)

• Guests (avə, brothers-in-law)

Hosts (vɛdù)

deceased’s household, ideally rep. by youngest son

• This is the person who will inherit the house – so the ceremony is also formalizing/structuring inheritance of property

Married daughters (zòmæ)

do most of the work and offerings

• Ideally represented by married-out daughter who’s financially secure

Guests (avə, brothers-in-law)

honored guests and ritual minders

• Ideally represented by brothers of dead woman, wife’s brothers of dead man

Hosts, daughters, brothers in law: These participants represent three important kin categories active in a Lòlo person’s life

Your heirs (household lineage), and who they can & can’t marry

The married corpse: If kin don’t exist in the correct groups, substitutes are selected and recruited

This creates an idealized kin network for the deceased – part of their postmortem identity

• in life, someone may not have those symbolic connections, but they might in death

The married corpse: for all of this to work properly, you need to be married

• If the deceased was not married they are married after death

• This for example is what would happen to a child, this is why the article talks about “unmarried girl or woman”

Halves and wholes: Living give the dead a goat and a rice cake

A symbolic/spirit ‘whole’ goat/cake goes to the world of the dead

Halves and wholes: However the gifts are also symbolically cut in half

• The dead keep half but then give the other back

• This is the final meal they all share; giving it back means that no further gift exchange is needed – this ‘cuts’ the living relationship

• The exception is the host, who inherits the house and provides descendants – the relationship with the dead must persist

A circling, ‘wrapping’ dance

Three ‘thieves’ are chosen to dance around the body

• Old widowers, each representing one of the groups

• They help the dead on their journey by protecting them from hostile ghosts

• Brothers-in-law group joins in dance

• Dancing is another way to ‘wrap’ body

• At dawn the coffin is taken to the cemetery for burial

Emerging from the courtyard: Planning, negotiating and conducting the ritual reminds all present of the kin relationships of the deceased

Also of how things are ‘supposed to be’, and of their own kin relationships

Emerging from the courtyard: The same process creates a new postmortem identity for the deceased

This identity draws on their living identity, but is idealized or ‘completed’ in ways that show us what an ‘ideal’ Lòlo life is

Emerging from the courtyard: Mueggler argues that in this way, Lòlo funerals help to bring the Lòlo world into being and perpetuate it

• Creating an idealized identity for the deceased also helps to confirm and perpetuate the ongoing relationships of the living

Identity in Igbo funerals (Smith 2018): The Igbo funerals we’ll discuss on Friday also express living and postmortem identity in several ways including:

• The importance attached to being brought home to be mourned by one’s kin and birth community, and buried there

• The idea of “wealth in people” as a measure of a good life, and the way that a traditional funeral emphasizes broad social ties to show respect for the deceased

• The way in which funeral orations help to create an idealized postmortem identity by emphasizing the deceased person’s generosity and sense of duty to their family