The Ritual of Death in Acèh: An Ethnographic Study in Blangporoh Village, West Labuhan Haji, South Acèh, Indonesia

This article is dedicated to my PhD Supervisor, Prof. Dr. J. D. M. Platenkamp, since his interests lie in on rituals, exchange and personhood. “Ritual pertains to the very relationships that structure society both in its social morphology and in its overall order” (Barraud and Platenkamp, 1990: 121). Living in this world is only temporary for human beings. Both happiness and sadness are always present in life. In Acèh province, when a person dies, men and women bathe and enshroud the body. It is then prayed for and chanted to before being buried; the dead person’s debts must also be settled. All this work, alongside near-continuous hosting, cooking, and cleaning, is morally incumbent, emotionally draining, and physically exhausting. But all this work has a moral purpose and is considered to be the best thing for the bereaved family. This article1 describes the different phases of the death rituals in Blangporoh village reflecting both Islamic and Aneuk Jamee adat rules and ideas. It is concerned with the ritual treatment of the deceased, the actual burial ceremony, and the rituals conducted in the months afterward