One day, a man was up in a treetop picking fruit. Another man happened to be hunting in the same area. Mistaking the first man for a monkey, the hunter shot him, and the man fell to the ground. Horrified by his error, the hunter carried the man to the hospital and paid for his treatment. The victim survived his injuries. Upon returning to his village, the hunter performed the appropriate cleansing sacrifices to apologize and call back the victim’s soul.
This is a short example of how justice plays out in Pnong culture. For the Pnong, justice is defined as solving a conflict through mediation, negotiation, arbitration and compensation. Mediation is usually done through village elders. The goal of justice is to restore harmony and not cause offense to the spirits.
When one person wrongs another, the offender will usually be represented by an elder in their family who negotiates compensation with the victim or an elder representing the victim. Once compensation is determined and the offender has paid it, then everything is okay again.
Major crimes such as murder, theft, or domestic violence may be referred to the Khmer authorities for punitive action. However, the Pnong prefer to resolve their own problems whenever possible.
Here are two more examples of how Pnong justice is carried out.
Example One
A man from a nearby village came to Boan village one day and asked to see the gasoline seller at his shop. The owner was not there, but his assistant demanded that the man tell him why he needed to see the owner. The verbal dispute escalated into threats of violence, and the men’s relatives went to the village elders for help. Two village elders talked to the men and convinced them to sacrifice a chicken together and have a jar of wine to mark the end of the dispute and symbolize reconciliation.
Example Two
One day a man came across a water buffalo that belonged to a man from another village. The buffalo chased the man and injured him severely. The man demanded that the buffalo’s owner perform a cleansing ceremony for him, but the owner refused, saying the water buffalo didn’t belong to him. Finally, the injured man brought friends and relatives, and they shot and killed the water buffalo. They then sold the meat and used the money to pay for the cleansing ceremony and medical treatment. The owner of the buffalo had nothing to say, because he had denied owning the animal.
To understand Pnong justice, we must first understand the Pnong concept of sin, which can be summed up as anything that offends the spirits, from minor to major. They see sin as something like a smear of mud. It doesn’t matter how the mud got there or who is responsible. The important thing is to clean it off. When a minor sin is committed, it’s like a small spot of mud, and only a few people need to be involved. But when a major sin is committed, the entire village is muddied, and everyone must take part in helping the offender and the victim make it right.
The only remedy for sins and taboos is to performing the right sacrifice. So whenever someone commits a sin, as long as they can pay for the sacrifice, all is well. If the offender cannot pay for the sacrifice, other people or even the whole village is at risk of getting sick (see sidebar in magazine).
Every sin or taboo has its own type of reconciliation. Sometimes it involves giving money to the offended, but most often it requires the correct sacrifice. For smaller sins, sacrificing a chicken is often sufficient. If a larger sin is committed, the elders gather and discuss the appropriate action to take.
As we seek to understand this worldview that is very different from our own, please pray that we will have wisdom and insight to reach people’s hearts.
This month, we are starting the 10- to 12-month government application process for opening an Adventist school. We are hiring a local Adventist worker to help us through this. By God’s grace, we will open the school in the fall of 2014. Please keep this in your prayers.
