Construction sacrifice in Eastern Indonesia

Rumours of headhunting and kidnapping for sacrifice in modern building construction were widespread in Indonesia during the 20th century. Europeans also featured in such rumours, especially in the eastern Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) and in the context of church construction, several decades after independence. This article discusses previous research on the construction sacrifice rumours and various construction sacrifice traditions which are viewed as local expressions of one ancient tradition. It harnesses oral history as its methodology with crucial eyewitness data from fieldwork in eastern Indonesia and recordings are available in a digital repository (Kaipuleohone). The data affirms that headhunting and kidnapping for construction sacrifice was practised on Flores during the mid to late 1900s. Strong evidence is presented of collaboration between one missionary and his local assistants, particularly a notorious witch doctor-cum-kidnapper-headhunter'. The author concludes that the rumour is not merely folklore.