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>> When I first heard the words primal religion,

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I thought in terms of scattered remnants in small numbers.

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It's a shock to discover that this label covers the way

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of life of 200 million of the world's inhabitants,

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among them are the Torajas.

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>> Now, I didn't speak Torajanese.

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The Torajas don't speak English.

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Our link was Eric Crystal from the Center for South

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and Southeast Asian Studies in the University of California

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at Berkeley and one of the three or four outsiders

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who speaks the language.

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>> There's no way around the fact that the Torajas I came

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to know about are Torajas reflected

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through an American anthropologist.

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>> I think I could fairly say I've become more a part

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than a detached observer.

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>> When I asked other Indonesians what they knew

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about the Torajas, they listed ancestors in star ships coming

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from the sky, black magic, head hunting,

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and great elaborate funerals.