Tor - Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Apart from ghosts, the Tor cosmos includes two main types of supernatural beings: those who were never human; and those who were but who have gone to Heaven without dying first. Among the former are personifications of the sun and moon, and Oetantifie, the omnipresent, omniscient originator of world order. In the view of the ethnographer Gottfried Oosterwal, he is the "power in the background" for the Tor, ever threatening to punish human beings, especially by causing floods and reducing the world to chaos. The other beings are culture heroes, usually localized by tribe, who live in the sky and are mainly friendly and benevolent, assisting people in fishing, hunting, and healing, though there are also malevolent demons.

Religious Practitioners. Apart from healers, the only practitioners are adult men who conduct ceremonies and, increasingly, bachelors who play major roles in organizing and carrying out feasts.

Ceremonies. Life-cycle ceremonies are held for females only at birth and death; for males, these two rituals are Supplemented by initiation into the men's cult and a "coming to manhood" rite. Male initiation occurs at about the age of 14, when youths are forcibly taken to a specially constructed house deep in the forest and secluded for several months. There they are taught the secret of the growth- and prosperity-inducing sacred flutes of the men's cult and instructed in the ways of the forest. Following this seclusion the boys move from their family houses into the bachelors' house to await coming to manhood and marriageability at age 18 to 23. The major ceremony for the community as a whole involves building and inaugurating a new cult house. Over a period of months, each stage in its construction is marked by feasting and dancing. Upon completion, the inauguration ceremony draws people from far and wide who feast together to consolidate and restore friendship bonds. At a special flute feast, the men's secret flutes are fed with pork from a pig especially killed for the occasion, and thus the strength, growing power, and good order of the community are renewed and reassured.

Arts. Rattan figures of fruit bats and the moon are hung in the community cult house, as are carved wooden phalluses intended to arouse women while they dance during associated ceremonies. Both sexes engage in tattooing through burning, and large repertoires of songs and dances are performed during feasts. Each tribe has its distinctive styles of decoration of arrows, sago spatulas, and sago forks.

Medicine. Malaria is endemic in most of the Tor, and pneumonia, filariasis, and yaws are common health problems. In response, bush medicines are used, and mothers Commonly rub their children with saliva as a treatment procedure. Most disease and all accidents are attributed ultimately to sorcery, which is a constant concern leading to fear of any nonkin. Healing specialists have some sex-specific methods: only men engage in bloodletting—and that only with male patients—while women healers suck out "bad blood" from people of both sexes.

Death and Afterlife. Except in cases involving the very old, sorcery is the first explanation offered for a death. Traditionally, the corpse was wrapped in sago leaves and either exposed on a scaffold or in a tree or buried under its house; after that procedure, all of the deceased's possessions were destroyed and the village abandoned. The shade remaining after decomposition of the physical remains is believed to float in space, with some body parts being luminous. Shades are believed to live together in villages in well-identified locations that are avoided by all people. Life after death is regarded as torture, with constant food scarcity (because sago cannot grow in their areas) driving the shades to prowl in human Villages seeking food.