ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I owe a debt of gratitude to the many people who helped me to write this book. Two years of doctoral research in 1979-1981 were supported by the Fulbright Commission, the Social Science Research Council, and the National Science Foundation, under the auspices of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences (LIPI) and Universitas Nusa Cendana, Kupang. Six months of additional fieldwork in 1984 and a three-month trip in 1985 were funded by the Anthropology Department of the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. In 1986 I returned to Kodi for three months with Laura Whitney to study ritual communication, using film and video, supported by the Faculty Research and Innovation Fund of the University of Southern California. In 1988 we continued this research project for six months with funding from NSF Grant No. BMS 8704498 and the Fulbright Consortium for Collaborative Research Abroad.
My first rethinking of the Kodi material after writing the dissertation took place in 1984-1985 at the Anthropology Department of the Research School of Pacific Studies, headed by Roger Keesing and James J. Fox, where I was fortunate to have been a member of the research group on gender, power, and production, led by Marilyn Strathern. The book was written in 1990-1991, when I was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and part of an interdisciplinary group focusing on the historical turn in the social sciences. I am particularly grateful to Clifford Geertz for offering me the opportunity to complete the manuscript and live with my family under such pleasant conditions. After I submitted the book, my husband and I were invited by Signe Howell to come as guest researchers in 1992 to the Institute for Social Anthropology at the Uni-
versity of Oslo, where we enjoyed generous hospitality and a chance to discuss our work with many new colleagues. People at each of these institutions provided both intellectual stimulation and friendship which helped me while finishing this work.
The final compilation of the manuscript was done at my home institution, the University of Southern California, with the gracious assistance of Debbie Williams and Mae Horie. The Center for Visual Anthropology, and the film-making example set by Tim and Patsy Asch, encouraged me to use forms of visual documentation as well as the more conventional notebook and tape-recorder, and inspired me to work with Laura Whitney to produce and write two 25-minute films on Sumbanese ritual, Feast in Dream Village and Horses of Life and Death (distributed by the University of California Extension Media Center, Berkeley). Other faculty and students at USC provided a congenial working environment and generous leaves to return to Indonesia and write up the results.
Many people read portions of this manuscript and offered valuable comments, only some of which I have been able to incorporate. I am especially indebted to Marie Jeanne Adams, Greg Acciaioli, Ann Geissman Canright, Lene Crosby, James Fernandez, Gregory Forth, James J. Fox, Rita Kipp, Joel Kuipers, Signe Howell, J. Stephen Lansing, Sheila Levine, Nancy Lutkehaus, David Maybury-Lewis, Stanley Tambiah, Laura Whitney, and three anonymous readers from the University of California Press. My most exacting critic has always been Valerio Valeri, who has however tempered his intellectual demands with gifts of love, companionship and caring. He accompanied me on return trips to Sumba in 1986 and 1988, and his thinking has influenced my own in countless ways over eight years of shared living and writing.
In Kodi, I enjoyed the hospitality of four different families: Hermanus Rangga Horo in Bondokodi, Gheru Wallu in Kory, Maru Daku (Martinus Mahemba Ana Ote) in Balaghar, and Markos Rangga Ede in Bukambero. My "teachers" in traditional lore are described in the first chapter, but I owe a great debt to all the Kodi people who took me into their homes and spent hours discussing their language and customs with me.
My parents, Herbert and Katharine Hoskins, taught me to love literature and oral narrative in many different cultural guises and have given me great encouragement and practical help. My sisters, Susan Hoskins and Judy Robinson, both visited me in the field, and Susan came a second time to take sound and edit the film project in 1988. I dedicate this book to my family, for all the emotional support they have given over the years, including its newest additions, my daughters Sylvana and Artemisia Valeri.