Lendawi: The Multifunction Chants and their Metaphorical Expressions among the Lany Tribe in Papua Reimundus Raymond Fatubun
Universitas Cenderawasih, Jayapura
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The Lany is a tribe in the mountains inhabiting the area, close to Wamena, formerly called West Dani. This tribe has a type of chants called lendawi that is chanted for a number of occasions. The lendawi may be carried out anywhere depending on certain purposes: for lamenting a dead person, for thanking people contributing something in an event, for remembering a family member who is already dead or in a foreign land, for releasing a newly wed girl to follow her husband or a family member to go to a foreign land, when meeting a person who resembles a family member already dead or far away, when visiting a sick relative or friend, for welcoming a relative or family member from overseas, etc. In the lendawi there are metaphorical expressions used related to their geography, daily existence, ancestors, belief, cosmology, etc. This article presents elaborations of some examples of the lendawi with some specific purposes mentioned above, and elaborates the meanings of the metaphorical expressions in the lendawi. The expressions may be both literal and metaphorical. For example, the expression, ^grass has grown rampant in your place^, is a recurring metaphor indicating that a person has died or gone to a foreign land and ^nobody to take care of his or her dwelling place or garden.^
