Making guests, making ‘liveliness’: the transformative substances and sounds of Manggarai hospitality

This paper analyses two key aspects of Manggarai hospitality: the making of ‘liveliness’ and the making of guests. Liveliness is an affect produced at crowded and noisy events where stimulants and food are consumed. However, being lively is also an interpersonal quality demonstrated in everyday visiting. Having outlined the significance of liveliness, I examine the transformative role of hospitality substances and sounds in three key event-types: those for affines, for wage labourers, and for spirits. I show how ‘making guests’ involves the entanglement of food, bodily substance, money, and speech, and allows important but potentially difficult exchanges to take place.