Abstract
The main aim of this paper is to describe the agricultural cycle and related ritual activities among the Endenese in central Flores, eastern Indonesia.
In the first three sections, the semantic field which surrounds agricultural activities is discussed. Section One deals with the typology of dry fields in relation to the wider framework of the topography of Ende. Section Two deals with the typology of crops and foods, with emphasis on the special significance attached to maize and paddy. In section Three, the annual climatic cycle is described both emically and in terms of an etic model. Section Four is devoted to a brief description of the agricultural cycle.
Section Five presents a structural and functional analysis of Ka: Uwi, one of the rituals of the agricultural cycle. Sociologically, the ritual expresses the consciousness of people who belong together and constitute a distinct group, a ritual domain (tana). Cosmologically, the ritual, which marks the boundary between two agricultural cycles, emphasizes liminality at various levels of classification (discussed in the preceeding sections).
Finally, the problem of the structural transformation of corresponding rituals among a number of ritual domains is raised, as a subject for further analysis.
