The mandu coffin: a boat symbol of ancestral spirits among the Enrekang people of South Sulawesi

Comparative study of Indo-Malaysian societies has pointed to watercraft as an important symbol for social organisation. Many Indo-Malaysian communities live on coasts or small islands, where watercraft are a visible feature of daily life. When communities are located inland and lack specialist watercraft, yet boat symbolism plays an important role in their lore and mortuary practices, this leads to the supposition that the watercraft symbolism reflects inherited ancestral beliefs. This contribution documents an example of this kind from Enrekang in the rugged hinterland of South Sulawesi. During a survey of boat-shaped coffins in disused cemeteries in caves and cliff niches, reports were collected on the traditional role of these coffins in transporting the deceased to the spirit world. Radiocarbon dates from the coffins (after calibration) predominantly date to between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries AD, although the antiquity of the coffins themselves may be focused on the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, after allowing for the 'inbuilt age' in timber from long-lived trees. The use of these coffins ceased with the conversion of the populace to Islam, but the boat remains as an important metaphor for the expression of social relations in Enrekang.