Continuity of Neolithic Textile Traditions in Marapu Mortuary Rituals: The Social and Cultural Roles of Hinggi and Lau in Sumba

Amelistya Putri Pratama* and Anindya Azmi Putri Shafira

In East Sumba, traditional ikat-woven textiles are an important part of material culture, deeply embedded in social and ritual life. These textiles are made using the ikat technique, reflecting long-standing weaving traditions in Southeast Asia, often associated with the Neolithic Austronesian expansion. The continued use of plant-based dyes shows that knowledge of plants and dyeing techniques has been preserved across generations. Two of the most significant textiles are the hinggi (men’s shawls) and lau (women’s skirts), which play central roles in ceremonial exchanges and funerary practices within the Marapu tradition. This study utilizes the ikat textile collections at Universitas Airlangga’s Museum of Ethnography to conduct an ethnoarchaeological study and iconographic analysis of textile motifs, examining how these textiles convey symbolic meanings, shape social identity, and maintain cultural knowledge across generations. The findings suggest that Marapu mortuary rituals help preserve weaving knowledge, as ritual obligations encourage the maintenance of specific motifs, dyeing techniques, and textile forms. In creating patterns, weavers carefully weave the narrative into the warp and weft, as this process is also regarded as a spiritual journey for the weavers. These textiles thus act as material media through which ritual values as grave goods and representations of the presence of spirits, social relationships, and cultural knowledge are expressed, highlighting the importance of perishable material culture in understanding long-term cultural continuity.