The Many Ways of Being Human

6.7

The Toraja

In a highland house in Sulawesi, a woman sets rice, fried fish, and sweet coffee beside her father's bed and tells him when she will be back. He has lain there for two rainy seasons, and the family calls him sick until it can afford the funeral. The chapter explains the buffalo, the ledgers of Toraja feasts, and why death sits at the center.