Sacrifice: The Hierarchical Division of the Head

The deities who receive sacrifice are for the most part those who are the tutelary deities of one or another of Bhaktapur's nested components—phuki, guthi , mandalic^[*] segment, city as a whole—and thus the sacrifice represents the members of the unit. The sacrifice, above all those done in the course of Tantric worship, are done in contexts emphasizing the "equality"—which for Bhaktapur means the collapsing of hierarchical distinctions-of the participating group^[*] . In the feast that follows phuki sacrifices large family groups are assembled. At the core is the patrilineal phuki group, but hatanata —the out-married daughters and their spouses and children and more distantly related kin—as well as family friends may also be invited. They all share in the sacrificial meal as guests of the phuki or household. However, within this communal egalitarian feast there is an important ceremonial fragment that recalls the male hierarchy of the phuki . This is the orderly distribution of segments of the head of the sacrificial animal.

The distribution of parts of the head is one of the customs that people in Bhaktapur consider to be specifically Newar, or at least specially important to the Newars.^[41] The parts of the head of the sacrificed animal are presented just before the fruit course (the arrangement of

courses in such feasts is always conventionally organized in detail), that is, toward the end of the feast. They are given and received in a non-solemn, informal, often joking manner, characteristic of the feast itself.

These hierarchically arranged portions are called siu (in Kathmandu Newari, si ). The particular parts of the head made use of and their hierarchical value varies in various communities and groups. For Bhaktapur, for most upper-level groups at least, the sequence of distribution from highest to lowest is as follows: right eye, left eye, right ear, left ear, nose, tongue, right mandible, and left mandible. Toffin gives for the predominantly Jyapu Newar village of Pyangaon the following sequence: right "muzzle," left "muzzle," right eye, left eye, right ear, left ear, right mandible, left mandible (1976, pp. 329-338; 1984, p. 104). Manandhar in his dictionary of Kathmandu Newari (1976) gives the sequence: right eye, left eye, right ear, left ear, nose (or muzzle), tongue (1976, p. 593). Reportedly, this sequence is not used in Bhaktapur. There are variations in the lowest parts of the status system in Bhaktapur. The Po(n)s, who usually eat pigs during their phuki feasts divide the pig up in the sequence snout, right eye, left eye, right ear, left ear, right mandible, left mandible—to which they add the tail, which in contrast to upper-level restriction of siu to males, is given to a woman, the ranking woman in the family.^[42] In some circumstances, particularly among lower levels, a chicken or a duck is used for a feast. Thus at the initiation of a member of the Jugi thar s in the learning of the thar 's traditional musical instrument, a chicken is divided. On this occasion the head is given to the guru , the right wing to the student's father, and the left wing to the student. Manandhar (1976, 593) gives the sequential order of distribution for a duck or a chicken as head, right wing, left wing, right leg, and left leg. All these sequences have some tendency to go from top down, or front to back, and always from right to left in the ranking of symmetrical parts. Upper-status Bhaktapur and Pyangaon, at least, divide their mammals into eight parts.

In the middle and upper levels in Bhaktapur the siu is presented in order to the eight highest members of the phuki group that is holding the feast. For upper-level and middle-level thar s, at least, the system of ranking among the phuki as symbolized by the siu division is arranged by age within a generation, rather than only by relative age. In other words, even if a member of an older generation is younger than a male in a descending generation, he has more status in the siu distribution system. If there has been an Acaju assisting the phuki at the sacrifice, he may be presented the fifth-ranked piece, the nose. The recipients of the

siu eat a mouthful of their portion. Sometimes one small piece of any of the portions of siu is taken and presented to a representation of the main deity to whom the sacrifice was presented. The remnants of the siu as well as other residues of the feast are brought, as we have noted, to the chwasa at the twa: crossroads after the feast by one of the household women.