Introduction / Henri Chambert-Loir and Anthony Reid -- 1. Castrated dead: the making of un-ancestors among the Aoheng, and some considerations on death and ancestors in Borneo / Bernard Sellato -- 2. How to hold a tiwah: the potency of the dead and deathways among Ngaju Dayaks / Anne Schiller -- 3. Witnessing the creation of ancestors in Laboya (West Sumba, Eastern Indonesia) / Danielle C. Geirnaert -- 4. Reciprocity, death and the regeneration of life and plants in Nusa Penida (Bali) / Rodolfo A. Giambelli -- 5. Remembering our dead: the care of the ancestors in Tana Toraja / Elizabeth Coville -- 6. Island of the Dead. Why do Bataks erect tugu? / Anthony Reid
Summary
Assesses the indigenous systems of belief in the spirits of ancestors and examines the continuing interactions of the spirit world with formal religion. Often the potent dead coexist as a private dimension of everyday religious practice