ABSTRACT
The Aoheng offer an opportunity to look into the concept of death and the funerary rites in a historical, cross-cultural perspective, and to review, in their relationship to systems of social organisation, the main views held by the peoples of Borneo on funerals and the after life. The Aoheng are a 3000-person-strong Dayak group living in the centre of Borneo. Their historical territory is the Long-Apari district on the uppermost reaches of the Mahakam River, where they are distributed in five settlements. A major feature of Aoheng social organisation is stratification, showing three categories: aristocrats, commoners and slaves. The Barito groups generally store their dead in collective mausoleums located in the middle of their villages. Such a mausoleum entails social prestige, and is a visible symbol of the bond linking a genealogical group. Some Aoheng families have been known to follow Muslims in celebrating the 40th- and 100th-day anniversaries of death.
