MADEN OG GIFTEN: TO SIDER AF SAMME SAG: Et eksempel fra Nias, Indonesien

Abstract

Bente Wolff: Food and Poison - a Twosided

Coin: An Indonesian Example

By using examples from food distribution at

everyday occasions and feasts in a tourist

area on South Nias Island, food is described

as a life substance flowing to the individual

from the social relations. This practice

among others is both structured by and

structuring for the experience of the

fundamental principles of life as nourishi.ng

substance given to the person by others.

Life’s opposite, sickness and death, is then

understood within the same logic as mortal

substance coming from others, i.e. poison.

These two categories are viewed as cultural

expressions of the local economic system,

but this system is not static. It is argued that

poison today is understood as a more

depersonalized force than previously, which

is itself a result of an increase in

commercialized exchange relations.