Page 339 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

Timorese people believe that when the time is right—during the sacrificing of an
animal or other special ritual events—everything profane can be changed to something
that is more: the usual and simple become something special, the unimportant thing
becomes something significant, and a common thing becomes the main and principal
thing (Schmidt, 1939). Thus, symbols and signs are no longer considered profane although
they are made of something non-special. They become something different, something
sacred, something that needs more respect and admiration than they deserve.
Besides that, common people tend to connect everything with something bad and
critical (misery, adversity, challenge, and anything that are the opposite of harmonized
things) and carry out a ritual as soon as they can. People’s minds are always limited but
tend to go to the belief of the role of rituals to keep their life balanced. Rituals have become
a potent way to keep harmony in macrocosmic (outer circle) and microcosmic levels (inner
circle), which cover the outside part of a human life: God, nature (ecology), and ancestors
(the unseen ones), other than living humans (the visible ones) and anything else.
People always judge every reality behind what happens quickly. That is why it needs
some effort to understand their mindset so we can understand every ritual practice,
especially the ones in remote areas. Observers tend to group any ritual activity as a
practice to worship statues, faith in nothing, or giving hope to something impossible.
Those actions are seen as something humans rely on uncertain and negative things either
in the past, present, or future. There should be actions to return to reflecting the role of
ecology in connection with people’s mindset and how far the ritual practices relate to
people’s religious capital. The roles and functions of ecology in the ritual frame always give
strength to people to understand the varieties of symbols and signs to build every meeting
(humans with humans, ecology, and even something unseen.)
Symbols and myths attract the imagination and also intellectual understanding and
guide people to understand social reality better. In a meta-psychological formula, symbols
and myths attract humans in their entirety, which mean people with all their ability,
emotion, intention, and even all the aspects of personality that subconsciously agree on
new realities that surface as a result of their meetings with others. That way, Timorese
people are certain about a change of perspective that all normal views will change to
sacred ones.

Respect for Nature
The key words that need to be concluded are that Timorese people actually really

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