Social media use to perpetuate "house society" kinship & expand family networks in the migration era

What is it about?

While various scholars have documented the ways in which remittances from Toraja migrants or the presence of international tourists have transformed Toraja funerals in recent decades, this article focuses on the role of social media in navigating global familial relationships and rituals. Indonesia has the largest number of Facebook subscribers in the world, and this study offers the first exploration of the ways in which Facebook interweaves far-flung familial relationships. This study also examines house-society orientations in the Toraja highlands and discusses the use of Facebook by Torajans in the homeland to cultivate continued allegiances to ancestral houses (around which extended Toraja families are oriented). Finally, this article chronicles a large-scale 2012 Toraja funeral in order to spotlight the contours of the Toraja family in the current era of neoliberalism and cyber-technologies. The article offers insights into the ways in which various Torajans navigate social media and non-local corporations to the image, reimagine and negotiate familial identities for various audiences (local, national and transnational).

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Why is it important?

1) This study demonstrates how classic "house societies" are reproduced and perpetuated in our era of global migration via social media. 2) While scholars have documented how remittances from Toraja (Indonesia) migrants have inflated Toraja rituals, this study is the first to examine how Torajans in the homeland use Facebook to cultivate migrants' continued allegiances to ancestral houses (around which extended Toraja families are oriented) and contributions to funerals.