Chapter 8. Tapping A Blessing in The House of A Young Sufi

Anthropologists, who have studied the concept of ‘precedence’ in Austronesia argue that the appearance of genealogies among common descent groups can be traced to particular ‘cognate’ metaphors that rely on ‘botanic’ icons and spatial arrangements. (Bellwod 1996; Fox 1997:8) Along the same lines, Parmentier (1987), who uses Peircean semiotics, illustrates the ‘schematic’ features of similar metaphoric icons in the Belauan Islands. Canberran anthropologists, as well as Pelras and Parmentier, draw attention to the function of metaphors in social action. Various ‘iconic metaphors’ linked to the concept of ‘precedence’ and to the implication of spatial arrangements and other materialised symbols, were found orchestrated in the Austronesian societies that they study.

In Pamijahan, instead of a botanic icon, a cognate concept is employed, which represents iconically the four ‘sides’ of the tomb and also the four imagined cultural spaces, or pongpok (see Chapters 5 and 9). The process of ‘remembering origins’ through metaphor is also found not only in the eastern parts of Indonesia but also in the western Indonesia, as suggested by Sakai in her study on Gumai People of Sumatera where Muslim influence is strong. (Sakai 1997) The Gumai point of origin within social hierarchy is represented by a ritual space.

Drawing on these studies, I examine here the use of genealogy in the process of a ‘refurbishment’ of the Sufi order in Pamijahan and its location in the village culture from the perspective of traditional narratives. This examination focuses on two crucial points in the village: the first is the personal narratives recited by the leader of the Order; the second is the narrative of the ‘keepers of the key’ or kuncen. I attempt to argue that the blessing of the Wali is negotiated through various ‘doors’ of the narratives. Furthermore, the availability of materials from the past and of memory of the past,^[1] manuscripts and oral accounts in the hands of the Sufis may be used for contestation of precedence through the authority of meaning.(see also Fox 1996:131)