Types of Death, the Dead, and the Rituals

The relationships between humans and the dead depend primarily on the type of death and the performance of the rituals. In the period immediately after death, the relationship is ambivalent, even if the person has not died a bad death, since sorcerers can make themselves the masters of any duma during this phase, if they have the requisite means and knowledge. A “good” death is a death in one’s own house, or at least within the village boundaries. Individuals who have died in this way also drift through the village in the nights after their deaths and visit their houses, but they do not cause alarm or harm their families.^{[1] [2]} The living show the duma respect and acknowledge their social relationship to them by carrying out the rituals properly and providing the duma beer and rice. The duma then gradually withdraw.

In the event of a bad death, attacks by the duma are considered probable, and a peaceful withdrawal cannot initially be hoped for. People die badly, according to the Gadaba, who drown in the river, fall from a tree, hang themselves, die on the path (i.e., not in the village), or die in childbirth with the placenta and/or the child (“flower,” phul) still in the womb. They become vengeful duma of different kinds, according to the different categories of death.9⁶ The duma of individuals who die in the forest (bon duma) or are killed by tigers (bag duma) are considered especially dangerous for the living. They become permanently malicious beings drifting through the forest, and their jibon is not reincarnated. The expression duma daini designates these generally malicious categories of spirits of the dead, among other things. As part of the last phase of the mortuary rituals, when the village’s duma are reawakened for the purpose of their final transformation, these beings must simultaneously be banished from the village boundaries (cf. Padel 1995,122; Vitebsky 1993, 66 f).

These bad types of death make expensive rituals necessary in order to placate the enraged duma and enable a transformation into the community of the dead. According to the rule (niam), twelve animals (baro mundo, “twelve heads”) must be sacrificed for the deceased individual over the course of the mortuary rituals (not including gotr) in these cases. The mortuary rituals under these circumstances are no longer a matter for the village and the junior tsorubai alone, but require the participation of the “twelve brothers, thirteen seats” (baro bai tero gadi). The representatives of the Twelve Brothers sacrifice a head of cattle, feed the duma tsoru, and then share the sacrificial meal. If the deceased’s offspring do not fulfill their ritual obligations, he will take revenge as a sagbo duma. In this case, he attacks the necks of family members, so that they have to vomit blood (rokto banti) and their necks swell. The twelve sacrificial animals that are sacrificed for the duma include a variety of small animals, alongside cattle and pigs;^{[3] [4] [5]} however, the rule that twelve animals should be sacrificed is not always observed.9⁸ As in the case of the wedding ritual, so in the context of the mortuary rituals as well, there is a tendency among young Ga- daba to substitute goats for cattle, since many no longer eat beef; opinions vary as to the consequences of such deviations. In the case of a bad death, however, most people would assume that cattle sacrifices are necessary. A situation in which a duma took revenge for insufficient ritual attention from his family, among other grievances, will be described later.

If someone dies at a great distance, so that the body cannot be brought back to the village, the corpse is cremated (buried if necessary) by his companions there, and a stone is brought back as a substitute. This stone is wept over by the women in the deceased individual’s house, wrapped in his clothes, and brought to the cremation site by the tsorubai, who burn it on a small pyre, together with the clothes. The stone does not have the function of a memorial stone and is paid no further attention after the cremation.

Places of the Dead: mosani, bejorna, osona

Although the duma drift freely through the village and the surrounding area and are particularly to be found rustling in the trees, there are various places where food is offered for the dead and that are explicitly considered places of the duma.

The cremation site (mosani, rai’sang*) - located outside the village boundaries, as a matter of principle, and also occasionally called the house (gor) of the dead - is the place to which the duma is supposed to be banished with the cremation of the corpse (mor). This is where the spirits of the dead generally linger and where they receive food from the living on festival days and at funerals. In Gudapada, the Four Brothers and their affines use a single cremation site. They do not cremate their dead at exactly the same place, however, so that the remains do not mingle. The Dombo’s cremation site and burial site is next to but clearly separated from that of the Gadaba.99 The Goudo and the Kamar cremate their dead near their hamlet on the other side of the river.

Another place associated with the dead is the village’s ritual boundary (be- jorna). It crosses the village’s main street, which leads to the cremation site. The duma receive food here as well, and this location gets special attention in rituals addressed to the dead (mortuary rituals, exorcisms). Along with this special ritual village boundary, all paths that lead out of the village have a connection to the duma; the duma await the offerings of the living there as well. While mosani and bejorna act as collective places of assembly for the dead, it is only the duma of a kutum who gather at the place previously described under the eaves in front of the house (osona) and are provided with sacrificial offerings (bog) on designated occasions.

• [1] A duma who is harmless in principle but induced by a sorcerer to do harm in his house orfields is called betani duma. The duma of someone struck by lightning is sometimes called bythe same name.
• [2] For example, the hanged become utshki duma, individuals who die in the forest become bon(forest) duma, and those killed by tigers become bag (tiger) duma. Those who fall from treesbelong to the category of mursu duma, and women who die in childbirth in the way describedbecome sunguni duma.
• [3] Including lizards (tendkar), field mice (chutia), and cockroaches (jurda).
• [4] My informants had different views on the number of sacrificial animals required by niam.Some said twelve animals had to be sacrificed; others indicated that five were enough.
• [5] The Lower Dombo of Gudapada bury their dead today, but they are supposed to havepracticed cremation in the past also. As justification, they recount an incident that is said to