Lio's Animism

Ende Regency has 2 ethnicities, namely EL & Ende ethnic. The tribal chief & his deputy hold their respective roles by the duties mandated by them from generation to generation from their previous ancestors. This kind of community does not receive an inheritance from the tribe's ancestors, but if they provide services to the tribe, they will be given certain rewards.

For the Lio people, uwikaju / uwiai is a local food which is a staple food & has been around since the time of their ancestors, one of which is uwiai gau. In studying EL language & culture, we use the WDB text which has been translated into Indonesian. The Lio people also believe in supernatural powers and that the spirits of their ancestors and nature spirits are very influential in their lives.

The culture of the Lio people is still strongly influenced by belief values ​​which are a symbiosis of animism, dynamism & spiritualism. EL usually gives offerings to nature & its ancestors.

The aim of traditional rituals is to feed the ancestors and ward off pests and diseases so that the land cleared for farming is given fertility, security, and good results. Traditional taboos are carried out after the ka poo ceremony which lasts for 2 days. The aim of the taboo is for the cultivators to obey the mosalaki advice as a form of respect for the traditional heritage of their ancestors as well as the time to prepare all farming equipment.

There is no need to be surprised if the oldest community group around Mount Kelimutu believes in animism. Apart from that, the myth of Ine Pare, Tura Jaji, namely the traditional agreement of Lio & Sikka, the myth of Lake Kelimutu which is believed to be a place where the spirits of deceased people reside, and so on. They believe that the mountain is the residence of the spirits of people who have died, according to its meaning, keli which means mountain & quality which means dead person.

The Lio people believe that the spirits of the dead will go to Kelimutu. Kelimutu Lake consists of 3 craters called Tiwu or Polo, Tiwu or Bupu, and the crater where the spirits of young men and women reside. These are the people who have recently been called the group of young people who, when they die, will occupy the Tiwu Nua Muri Kooh Fai Lake.

Even so, people descended from the Lio tribe still believe that their spirits will haunt their respective homes forever, namely on Mount Kelimutu. Because this place was provided by their ancestors as a reward for their actions while living on earth. The image of respect is shown by giving offerings to tana watu, 2 duabapu no ata natural eyes & ancestors.

The word metonymy is derived from the Greek word meta which means showing change & onoma which means name. The expression of parallelism in the example shows the unified hope that the EL community has for their ancestors to protect their descendants. Therefore, being careful and praying that God and the ancestors will protect the person is something that must be prioritized to achieve success that will bring great fame to the family/ancestors.

The words tipo & pama have the meaning of guarding. In this case, EL believes that ancestors can look after their descendants wherever they are. This prayer directly asks the ancestors to always look after & protect living people and ward off bad things.

In this speech, apart from asking permission from nature, the speaker also asks permission from the ancestors in the EL community's imagination. Ancestors are ancestors/parents who have died and bequeathed rock land to their living descendants. Apart from that, ancestors also have a role in this case in protecting their surviving descendants. 

This expression is a prayer addressed to the stone land/ancestors to protect their plants. Ancestors are placed in second place by speakers for imaginary reasons, namely that ancestors also use the land to earn income to support their descendants. Apart from that, EL believes that a person's life & death depends on their ancestors. 

In EL culture, marriage is a mandate from God and the ancestors to have many children/offspring and bring benefits to everyone. Pragmatically, the meaning of the expression refers to marriage which is considered a good/right action taught by God/ancestors that must be followed by their descendants. This is an image of EL's belief that ancestors are in a high place/equal to God as in the previous example.

The speaker, in this case, living humans, asks the ancestors to look after, protect, and provide intelligence to humans, in this case, their children and grandchildren who will go to school. The word tipo pama in this case is that the EL community believes that their ancestors will look after their descendants who are studying in other people's lands. The DB is addressed to the ancestor whose name is listed on the first line of the DB.

The speaker pronounces the name of the ancestor of the family/descendant of the child who is going to school. The vowel sound O grammatically contains the meaning of calling the ancestor whose name is mentioned in the example. The expression of parallelism in the example shows the togetherness between living humans & their ancestors.

The phrase mai ka bau // mai pesa beli, is a form of invitation to eat together, while the phrase ka are // pesa nake is a dish that has been prepared to be eaten together, by both living people and ancestors. Even though their bodies no longer exist, ancestors are believed to eat together and be able to look after their living descendants. In this case, the EL community believes that even though their ancestors cannot see with the naked eye, they can see, look after them and even eat together with their descendants.

In the beliefs of the EL community, people who have recently died are not much different from ancestors who have long died, they are still close & able to hear what humans are saying, and even the spirit of the deceased can see, hear, and curse/cursed at people who are still alive when they are not. treated well at funerals & so on. EL's cultural image is reflected in the DB MRA discourse, namely that EL considers that working on a traditional house using human labor alone is not enough unless there is intervention from God and the ancestors. Apart from that, EL also considers that by building traditional houses the community will be protected from disease and other dangers, as well as obtain harvests/prosperity for all traditional communities in the Ngalukoja traditional village.

Similar to the vowel sound O which is found in the first sentence WDB PS & WDB OM, WDB PS is a form of calling ancestors whose names are mentioned 1 by 1. This shows that EL considers ancestors to be the same as God, in a higher place & able to provide help to living humans. Likewise, with the form of calling someone who has just died, EL believes that the person's spirit has gone to its origin so that the person who has just died can be called an ancestor.

Thus, the cultural image is reflected in the phonological form of the two WDBs, namely EL considers ancestors and deceased people to be in a higher place. In simple terms, the image contained in poetic sound is the image of beauty. The image appears based on the speaker's impulse & feelings so that what is asked for and hoped for will receive approval and be granted from both God and the ancestors, as in the speech in the example.

The speech in the example is an image of EL's belief in ancestors. This image is related to religious actions carried out by the Ngalukoja indigenous people, such as performing DB, traditional ceremonial rituals / ordinary ceremonies, as well as believing in supernatural things, such as God, ancestors & myths.