ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 provides a bridge from Part One, which explains the characteristics of būta worship and its role in people’s lives in a village society, to Part Two, which examines the dynamism of village society and of būta rituals in the face of social change. This examination requires an investigation of 1930s legal disputes over the trusteeship of the būta shrine in Perar. I then examine a series of disputes that occurred in the 2000s, between an influential family in Perar and a newly established management committee for the village shrine. Through this investigation, I explore how people have attempted to reorganise social relations around būta rituals, betwixt and between legal rulings from law courts and divine orders from deities.
