ABSTRACT
This chapter draws attention to the fact that in Sumba, Eastern Indonesia, ancestors still play an important role. Sumba village consists of a circle of houses built around a central square on which rise large gravestones. The front side and the main doors of the dwellings face the tombs, so that the living members of each house live opposite their buried ancestors. Dewa is for a large part reintegrated into the social realm when it is called by its name and requested to live among the other ancestral dewa of the house. The protective powers of the ancestors are contained not only in the attic of a house. The space between house and tomb reminds the living of the eternal bond that must exist between the buried forefathers of repute with their wives and their descendants. Funerals are an occasion for all the chief participants to increase their prestige, their ‘name’ and to contribute to the renown of their Uma.
