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25 B O O K R E V I E W S

Makassar in the ethnographic literature and a description ot Bontolowe, the villasre

where he did his fieldwork . T his fir st par t ends w ith a summa ry of the process in

w hic h he obtained his data.

A ft er an int roduct ion to the social or ganiz ation w ith its bilater al kins mp groups,the second part deals with traditional religious beliefs and the adat in Bontolowe

and provides information about the history and characteristics of Islam in the village.

T he v illagers believe in A llah b ut also wors hip sacred places and their ancestors, and

the wor ship of the holy mountain Bawakaraeng takes up a central position in up

land Makassar belief.

T he third part is allotted to the analysis of 48 case studies. T he data presented by

the author show that there are traditional farming rites, protection rites, curing rites,

and rites of passage; magic and sorcery are ex cluded. T he author gives a brief de

scription of each case study, describing the background of all participants involved.

Numerous genealogical diagrams help to clear up the often difficult relations.

Rossler contex tualizes the rituals in several orders of meaning, t irst, he inter

prets the performances in the light of interpretations drawn from interviews with theparticipants. Second, he contex tualizes the rituals in the light of knowledge of Makas

sar society and history . It seems that the rites are a fo rum to calm dow n and to solve

social conflicts. Discussions about whether the ritual was carrie d out properly or not,

or about whether people deliberately did not accept an invitation, or had not received

an invitation at all, are very helpful. But solv ing conflict is the main concern of

Makassar society.

One theme is the expansion of traditional ritual performance in the face of change.

It seems that the people have intensified their ritual activities, and persons whose

wea lth and st anda rd of liv ing have ris en are especial ly keen to per for m ri tuals .

Ross ler5s dissert ation is well org anized, ful l of details, and suitable as an interes ting

study of the Makassar in South- Sulawesi.

Doris G r o p p e r

Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz

Berlin

W a t e r s o n , R o x a n a . The Living House: An Anthropology of Architecture in

South-East Asia. Singapore /Ox for d/New Y ork : Ox ford University Press,

1990. x ix + 26 3 pages. 200 illustrations (b/w photos and drawings ), 24

color plates, 2 maps, bibliogr aphy , index . Har dbound $90.00; IS B N

0-19- 588941- X .

W he n Clar k E. Cunn ing ha m, in his class ic paper on the A to ni house, used the ex

pression comparative sociology of the house, the idea o f such a field of study wasso new that he added a footnote crediting Godfrey Lienhardt with the suggestion

(C u n n in g h a m 1964, 67). This bespeaks the situation in the sixties when it was as

yet quit e unc om mo n for social anthropolog is ts to focus research on the house . How

ever, in the seventies and eighties anthropological studies dealing with the house stead

ily grew in number, so that by now even comparative and synthetic works are becoming

possible.

Rox ana Waters ons book belongs to the latter category. As the text on the jacket

rightly claims, it is the first of its kind to present a detailed picture of the house with

in the social and symbolic wor lds of South- East A sian peoples.T he main focus is on

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256 B O O K R E V I E W S

that also pays f ull atte ntion to spatial bipolarities mig ht eventually enable us to under

stand a contra diction such as is mentio ned on p . 192 (the center as boundary ) or not

mentioned on p. 97 (the terminal, or liminalspatial position of the navel tem ple s

in Bali). A nother point to consider in studies of house/cosmos relationships is not only

that houses and villages are known to be sometimes conceived as reflections of the

cosmos, but that architecture may occasionally both reflect and generate a cosmology

(S ha nk lin 1985, 146). It has even been suggested that we might have to assume a

process of projection and reflection, starting rather from concrete models of human

scale than f r om ideas about the structure of the big w orld (T opits ch 1958).

Wa terson chooses not to deal w it h bot h of these tw o sides of the coin in her dis cus

sion of cosmologies, but she does display pioneering spirit when she comes, in a later

chapter, to the subject of kins hip systems. Follow ing a new approach suggested by

Le v i- Str ausss concept o f house societies she claims t hat we can make more

sense of the apparent irregularities of these systems only if we reverse matters and

treat the house itself as the deter mining f eature of the sys tem. A ccor dingly , she

argues that the kinship systems of the archipelago, in all their variety, can best beunderstood only when the house is taken as their main organizing principle (138).

Finally , a note on the all- important idea implied in the books well- chosen title,

w hic h is also the hea ding of one of the central chapters . T he liv ing house is the

house as an animate entity, and it is animate due to a pervasive life- force, often

called semangatwhich in diffe ring concentrat ionsmay attach to it (115). T he

reasons for the presence of semangat in the house are various; the main sources men

tioned by Waters on are: the life- force of the trees used for timber, the process of con

struction, the attendant building rituals, the association of the house with the idea of

a living body (either human or animal), and, of course, also the fact that the house has

people living in it (136). W ith reg ard to the architectonic aspect I find particularly in

teresting the native idea that the semangat of a house comes automatically into ex

istence as the various parts o f the walls and r oof are fitted tog ether ,J (quotat ion onp . 118). If seen in combination with the Malay an principle of one house, one tree

(118) and the A ustronesian theme of tr unk and t ip (or to p 124-25)this idea seems to belong to a symbolism that interprets the house as a re- integrated

living tree. A nd the house/tree metaphor not only calls to min d the old India n idea,

expressed in Purana literature, that the first houses had been conceived by reflecting

on the structure of a primeval k ind of house- like trees prov ided by nature for the

benefit of mank ind (D um o nt 1973, 438); it also reminds us that true architecture is to

transform the mere shelter into a living house.

Rox ana Wa ter so ns book should be read by all w ho are interes ted in an anthr opol

ogical view of architecture.

R E F E R E N C E S C IT E D :

C u n n i n g h a m , C l a r k E .

1964 Orde r in the A toni house. Bijdragen tot de Taal- La nd- en V olkenkunde

120: 34-68.

D u m o n t , P .- E .

1973 Pr imitiv ism in India n literature. Supplement in Primitivism and related ideas

in antiquity, by Ar thur O. Lovejoy and George Boas. Reprint 1973, 433-46.

New Yor k: Octagon Books. (Original edition 1935, Baltimore : J ohn

Hopkins Press)

S h a n k l i n , E u g e n i a

1985 T he path to L aik om : K om royal court architecture. Paideuma 31:111- 50.

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B O O K R E V IE W S 257

T o p i t s c h, Ernst

1958 V om Mythos zur Phiiosophie [From myth to philosophy] . Studium Generate

11:12-29.

Gaudenz D o m e n i g

Zurich, Switzerland

T I B E T

H is H o l in e s s t h e F o u r t e e n t h D a l a i L a m a o f T i b e t. M y Tibet Photo

graphs and Introduction by Galen R o w e l l . A Mountain Light Press

Book. Berkeley: University of California Press, 19 9 0 .1 6 1 pages,

maps, color photographs, chronology of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama,

index. Cloth US$35.00; IS B N 0-520- 07109- 3.

One may think that My Tibet is a farf etched choice for a rev iew in this jour nal. It is,no doubt, neither a treatise on Buddhis m nor a report of T ibetan folklore, it is a very

personal document of T ibetan culture produced throug h the cooperation of one of

the cultures most eminent representatives with a most sympathetic outside observer.

T his c ooperation gives the book its character because many of the captions to the pho

tographs are spontaneous comments by the Dalai Lama: memories and reflections

elicited during a slideshow by Rowell.

T he comments cover an astonishing array o f aspects o f T ibetan life, not just of

the monks but also of the common people. In f act, they become a direct illustration

of an idea expressed in one of the essays, viz .y that Buddhism is not the only philosophy

to shape T ibetan culture, and that it itself is deeply s haped by the particular T ibetan

envir onment. T hese comments are naturally short but their ideas are more extensively

argued in the six essays. T here the Dalai L ama ex plains in simple language the basictenets of his thoug ht, such as compass ion, peace of mind , and happiness. He speaks

of these states of mi nd as being the source f or an all- embracing peace that also i n

cludes the env ironme nt. T he essays rev eal not only the author s gentle assuredness

concerning his own culture but also a great amount of tolerance.

I hasten to say that the photographs are as essential to this book as the comments

and that the combination of both is a most happy one. Rowe ll describes his own work

as participatory photography, saying that he wants to be part of the events he por

trays and not simply their spectator (17). Whethe r his subjects are individuals, scenes

fr om T ibetan life, or landscapes and wildlife, they all bespeak his ow n personal involve

ment without imposing his interpretation on the viewer. Quite to the contrary , they

invite the viewer to make his own discoveries under the guidance of the comments

and so they come alive wi thin a wide r cultural context. Suc h discoveries become

richer and richer as the viewer or reader grows familiar with the books style and

message.

T he message is peace and so it is quite fit ting that it starts with the citation of the

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Dalai L ama in 1989. How this peace is to grow out

of compassion for all sentient beings and of a sense of responsibility for the whole

envir onment is the topic of the essays. Com ing f rom a leader very much concerned

for the culture of his people, this books message is sometning like a comment to the

concerns treated in this issue of A s ian Folklore Studies. Seen from this angle, My Tibet

is a document of how one can be deeply rooted in a culture, be confident and secure in

this attitude, without becoming exclusive or judgmental towards other and different