POCKETS FULL OF MISTAKES: THE PERSONAL CONSEQUENCES OF RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN A TORAJA VILLAGE

This paper analyses the personal consequences of religious change in a Toraja village, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. It describes how Toraja villagers traditionally define and respond to wrongdoing and then examines their ambivalent reactions to alternatives suggested by Christianity. The paper argues that studies which attempt to evaluate the relative costs and benefits of religious change should specify the subjectively perceived ‘fit’ between old and new religious conceptions and should examine the manner in which individuals use cultural symbols and institutions to order and make sense of their everyday experience.