Mentawaians

By Reimar Schefold and John Beierle

Orang Mantawei, Mentaweir, Poggy-Islanders.

The Mentawai archipelago forms part of a chain of non-volcanic islands running parallel to Sumatra about 140 km off the west coast. There are four large inhabited islands in the group: Siberut, Sipora, and North and South Pagai, with a total area of 6,746 sq.km. The name "Mentawai" which was originally not used by the people themselves, is probably derived from the word for man: SIMANTEU (Crisp 1799). On Siberut, people identify themselves by the names of the rivers where they settle; "Siberut" stems from the name of a local group in the southern part of that island who call themselves "Sabirut", the rats. The inhabitants of Sipora (from PORA, ground), call themselves "Sakalelegat", from LELEGAT, place, those from the Pagai Islands "Sakalagan", from LAGGAI, village. Until recently the islands were covered with dense, tropical rainforest. The landscape is hilly and interrupted by wide valleys.

There are about 25,000 people living on Siberut and a similar number on the three southern islands.

According to Pampus (1989), the Mentawaians on Siberut speak a number of quite substantially diverging dialects, whereas there is a close relationship between the dialect of the southern part of that island and those from Sipora and Pagai. All dialects show a high degree of difference from the most closely related western Austronesian languages like those of the Toba Batak or the Niasans.

The Mentawaians have no tradition as to where they originally came from. There is common agreement, however, that the people from Sipora and Pagai stem from southern Siberut, where they left in a not too remote past. This fits well with the linguistic evidence and also with many cultural patterns. The settlements in the southern regions are culturally closely related although by no means uniform; on Siberut, at least eleven cultural areas can be discerned, Simalegi in the northwestern part being linguistically the most deviant one (Schefold 1988:237). The cultural heritage belongs to the tradition of the neolithic Austronesian immigrants in Indonesia, with only tangential metal age influences. The first substantial western account dates from the end of the eighteenth century (Crisp 1799). In the course of the nineteenth century several reports by colonial civil servants bear evidence of the interest in these strategically not unimportant islands (cited in Schefold 1988:43-48). At the beginning of the twentieth century Dutch colonial government and Protestant (in later years also Catholic) mission work began on Mentawai. Head-hunting and lengthy traditional religious feasting were forbidden, and the payment of a modest poll tax was required; otherwise there was little interference in their way of life. The pace of change speeded up after Indonesian independence, when the indigenous religion was banned altogether and everyone had to embrace either Islam or Christianity. Four administrative districts (KECAMATAN) were established, two on Siberut and two on the southern islands. Nowadays most Mentwaians are Christians and live in modern government controlled villages with schools and churches and simple single-family dwellings. Only some groups in the interior of Siberut successfully resisted these attempts at rapid modernization. Since the mid-eighties this has been made easier for them, partly because of their role in a newly emerging ethno-tourism.

On Siberut traditional people are organized in local patrilineal groups (UMA) of about five to ten families who together own a large communal house used for rituals and festive occasions, also called UMB. These UMA are dotted along the rivers, which are the most important channels of communication. Based on clan-traditions, every UMA traces itself back to a chain of patrilineally related groups in other valleys and finally to a particular UMA of origin in the northwestern part of Siberut. Thus each UMB differs from its neighbours in descent, yet is related to particular UMA in other regions through common ancestors. For daily puposes, each family owns one or more field houses (SAPOU) where they stay during work in the gardens. On Sipora and Pagai, by contrast, the descendants of various clans (still tracing their origins from northwest Siberut) traditionally used to unite into large ritual communities with one huge communal UMA. Sometimes these houses belonged to more than twenty families; some of these also owned dwellings of their own (LALEP) next to the UMA. Often, several UMA were situated beside each other, forming a village (LAGGAI).

The layout and the use of an UMB reflect the Mentawaian's strong sense of community. All houses stand on stilts; many of them are beautifully decorated with carved panels and wall paintings. One enters at the front via a notched tree trunk which serves as a stairway. The first room, an open airy veranda, is a common room, a place to converse and to receive guests. It is here that most of the men sleep at night. Some of the men also bed down in the first interior room, a large hall with a common hearth, used for ceremonies, and with a wooden floor for the dances performed during ritual festivities. Sometimes the TUDDUKAT is also situated here, an ensemble of three or four slitdrums used for signalling and making music. A door leads into the second interior room, the place where the women and the small children sleep and the location of the main fetish of the UMA: a bundle of plants with magical properties called BAKKAT KATSAILA. During the day meals for the individual families are cooked here. Due to government prohibitions, on Sipora and Pagai most if not all of these beautiful longhouses have disappeared; a few are preserved in southern Siberut.

Despite the simplicity of inherited working techniques, each household can in principle produce everything needed for traditional daily life. The people live off the land, cultivating sago (main crop on Siberut, mainly men's work), taro on inundated fields (main crop on Sipora and Pagai; mainly a task of the women), yams, several kinds of vegetables, bananas, coconuts and various kinds of fruit trees. The way in which they prepare their fields differs from that of many other forest-dwelling people as they do not use fire after cutting down the trees. Gradually and without loss of soil fertility and erosion, they replace the original forest by one dominated by fruit trees. They also raise chickens and pigs. In daily life, pork and chicken are supplemented by river or seashore fish caught by the women. At the conclusion of communal festive rituals there is moreover meat from the hunt, above all monkeys and deer, which the men track with the aid of dogs and then kill with spears and bows with poisoned arrows. At ritual occasions communities close to the sea also catch turtles with harpoons and nets.

The working of metal, weaving and pottery are unknown. Mentawaians are skilled carpenters, who use intricate mortise-and-tenon jointing in their wooden constructions. In the past people made use of stone tools fashioned with neolithic techniques. Until today they produce barkcloth for the traditional men's loincloth and skirts of leaves worn by women when working in the gardens. Occasionally they also still use bamboo for cooking.

For several generations there have been certain articles the Mentawaians could not produce themselves - in the traditional situation these were mainly iron tools, tobacco, glass beads, and material for mosquito nets, skirts and loincloths, which were obtained from Sumatran merchants in exchange for rattan, coconuts, and more recently also cloves and other newly introduced cash crops. In the modern villages, money is replacing exchange and demand includes everything available in a West Sumatran rural market.

There is no economic specialization except as based on gender and age.

Clans own stretches of uncultivated land including water courses, which one of their descendants has 'found' in an until then unclaimed region. The land is worked by the branch that settled there and built an UMA; its members are called "the owners of the riverstones". Later immigrants have to ask their permission in order to obtain the right to cultivate a stretch of land. They are the individual owners of the crops they have planted and retain this property as long as it remains fertile even if they eventually move away; the land, however, returns to the original clan. Pieces of land can also be purchased, for instance using pigs for payment; such pieces remain the property of the buyer and his descendants (Schefold 1988:230).

The kinship system is of the Dakota-type. The terminology in central Siberut (Sarereiket) is as follows:

• PP, CC=TETEU

• F; FB=AMA

• MB; FZH=KAMAMAN

• FB; MZH (= 'old man')=BAJA'

• M; MZ, FBW=INA

• FZ; MBW=KAMEINAN

• M; MZ, FBW=BABAI

• MZ=KALABAI

• B; Sb, FBC, MZC (m.s.)=SARAINA

• Z; Sb, FBC, MZC, HB, HZ (unmarried) (w.s.)=SARAINA

• SARAINA older than s.=KEBBU'

• SARAINA younger than s.=BAGI

• Z; FBD, MZD (m.s.)=MANIU

• B; FBS, MZS (w.s.)=MANIU

• FZC, MBC=TALUBA

• W=SINANALEP,KOLUI

• H=SIMANTEU,UREI

• WB, ZH (m.s.); FBDH, MZDH, FZDH, MBDH=LAKUT

• WZ, WZH; WFBD=SAULU

• ZH (w.s.)=SAULU

There is no term for the clans - some 25 in number - nor do they have individual names; the main factor linking the members is a shared descent myth. In earlier times there was little contact between UMA in distant valleys. Men would go head-hunting in districts far away from their UMA. This could result in unwitting slaughter of a member of one's own clan, a regrettable eventuality that had to be accepted. The focal unit of Mentawai life is the local kin group, the UMA. On Siberut, an UMA consists of a few families (LALEP): married men stemming from a common patrilineal ancestor, their wives, their unmarried daughters, and widowed sisters who returned to their group of origin. In addition, an UMA can include single families that immigrated and were adopted (NAPPIT); as a consequence these are considered like blood-relations and have equal rights and duties in the community. On Sipora and Pagai, too, membership of the UMA is in principle organized patrilineally. Nevertheless, members of different clans are regularly found here to belong to one UMA.

• BW, WBW (m.s.); TALUBA-W: FZSW, MBS=WEIRA

• BW, HZ, HBW (w.s.)=EIRA

• CSp; SbCSp, PSbCCSp=TALIKU

• CSpP=KADDEI

• BC; PSbSC (m.s.)=MOMOI'

• ZC; PSbDC (w.s.)=MOMOI'

• ZC; PSbDC (m.s.)=BUA'

• BC; PSbSC (w.s.)=BUA'

On the southern island, the term for father is UKKUI, a word that on Siberut means ancestor spirit (Nooy-Palm 1968:203-207). - The kinship terminology reflects patrilineal ideology. However, when no precise individual relationship is at stake, consanguinity is recognized in presenting SARAINA/MANIU and TALUBA as being equally related and treating them like siblings; the question whether their children are to be termed MOMOI' or BUA' solely depends upon the gender relationship between Ego and the parent he or she refers to. A relationship in the more proper meaning of the term (in the list above before the semicolon) is stressed by placing PUNU in front of the term; PUNUKAMEINAN is the actual FZ. - The special position of a wife-taker is indicated by the asymmetry in the mutual terms between brothers-in-law: all classificatory brothers of Ego's wife are refered to by the same term by which they call the person of Ego alone. The specific term by which the husbands of two sisters are refered to - and not just by means of the term for brothers - points at the non-prescriptive character of the exogamy rules. This is confirmed by the use of this term by a female Ego: there it refers only to a (classificatory) sister's husband and not simultaneously to her husband's brother. In daily use, when conversing about a third person, relaxation is underlined by using kinship terms in a way that constructs the closest possible family relationship even between speakers without any actual kinship connection. Thus when mentioning his wife, a man would never say "my wife" but refer to her as "your sister-in-law", whereas his interlocutor would call her "my sister-in law"; speaking about the wife of a third person both would say "our common sister-in-law". A man's child would be refered to as his MOMOI' by a interlocutor of the same sex and as her BUA' when the speaking partner is a woman, etc.

Premarital relations are regarded as private affairs. Marriage is monogamous and divorces are rare. Theoretically, the entire mythically derived clan is exogamous, but in practice this requirement is strictly maintained only for the UMA. Moreover, MZD and both cross-cousins, including certain close classificatory relationships, are considered as being too intimately related by blood for marriage. There are no positive rules for the choice of a spouse; links are made with many different UMA in one generation. Both the brideprice - fruit trees, taro fields, young live pigs, purchased tools - and the return gift - the meat of big sows and castrated boars - are contributed by all sufficiently affluent men from each UMA. On the southern islands, the brideprice had already been abandoned in pre-colonial times (Kruyt 1923). For the duration of her marriage, a woman becomes a member of her husband's UMA. A husband is considered subordinate to his brothers-in-law and is obliged to help them at ritual occasions. This type of relationship does not extend to other male members of a husband's UMA, however. In the case of an "exchange of children", the original wifetaking community returns a sister and in this way becomes superordinate over the man in the other UMA, who will be the husband (Schefold 1986). In contrast to Siberut, on the southern islands with their composed UMA, UMA-endogamy is permitted, as long as it involves members of different patrilineages. Another difference between Siberut and the southern islands concerns the premarital bond between a young man and a girl in the latter regions, which received much attention in earlier literature (Nooy-Palm 1968). On Siberut there is a general taboo for men during the early periods of fatherhood on behalf of their young children: They are prohibited to perform acts that cause plants to wilt, including planting. On the southern islands this taboo has become extended to all married men. Since the work in the gardens of adult men remains necessary, however, people postpone the official date of marriage until between the ages of thirty and forty. Before that period, couples build themselves a hut (RUSUK) in the neighbourhood of the village where they spend the night together, separating towards dawn to return to their parents. This bond is publically acknowledged and expected to last. A boy who has a partner in his RUSUK is called MANDI. When a child is born, the father of the mother will assume the paternal role. The child will be brought up in his house, not exposed to the religious dangers of wilting plants, while in daily matters being taken care of by his own mother. Years later an official marriage will take place and the child will be included in the patrilineage of his physical father. Generally a child will also move into his patrilineal UMA should his father die before marriage. There are reports of alternative cases, however, of the child then remaining with his mother's father and becoming part of the latter's descent group (Schefold 1976). Domestic unit. There are two modalities of domestic life. In daily life, the nuclear families live on their own in their plantations and only occasionally gather with other families for company. During rituals, all members assemble in the UMA and re-organize themselves in the way mentioned above, in which the stress is more on the community than on the individual household. - Daughters leave home and UMA at marriage but return after a divorce or when widowed. In addition to the permanent adoption of immigrating adults by a community, children of neighbouring UMA are not infrequently temporarily adopted into a household, either because they do not prosper in their own family, or to enhance a bond of friendship between the families and their UMA. When a community grows too large - on Siberut on average more than ten to twenty families - the UMA will split up and one faction will move to another region. Adopted branches will be the ones to move away in the first place; close relatives will generally remain together.

On Siberut, inheritance passes principally equally down the male line. There are, however, certain kinds of movables of which the daughters initially receive shares equal to the sons'. These are either objects acquired by the parents during their marriage or utensils fabricated by the mother. However, when the daughter dies, this inheritance passes not to her own children but to her brother, thus returning to the patrilineage. North- and South Pagai represent an apparent exception to this. The staple food there is not the male produced sago, like on Siberut, but taro which is produced by the women. Hansen (1914:215) makes a remark in this connection that is also to be found in Loeb (1928:426), according to which the taro fields are inherited exclusively in the female line. However, the ultimate destination of the fields is less exclusive. As soon as a brother marries, his sister will give her new sister- in- law part of the taro fields she inherited, which thus indirectly return to the patrilineage.

There is no planned education. Children follow their parent's example which generally is representative of the whole community, due to the lack of specialization in work. There are various ceremonies accompanying the growth of a child but no concluding initiation ritual. Toward the end of puberty the incisor teeth are chiseled to a point and the body is tattooed in several successive stages, with various patterns dependent on gender and region. From then on, with the help of their parents, especially boys start to lay out their own fields and to raise animals. In the case of girls, most of their production will be left behind after marriage; they will acquire their own domain of work with their own tools in their husband's UMA.

There is no organized leadership within the UMA. In principle, unqualified solidarity prevails. Anyone in need can call on the support of the whole group and during festivals everyone has equal rights, regardless of their individual contributions. Problems arise from the conflicts between private interests and the demands of the community. Such conflicts are resolved through general discussions in which all adult members take part. If an important problem cannot be solved in this way, the only alternative is the break-up of the community. In public discussions, women are also present but their voices are much less heard than the men's. In family affairs their opinion has more weight, although final decisions remain with the men.

The Mentawaians recognize no political organization above the UMA. It is each group's own responsibility to regulate its relations with its neighbours. The Mentawian's explicit ideal is one of peaceful coexistence in which no one is a bother to anyone else. However, this ideal contradicts another desire, which continually leads to tensions and sometimes open hostilities: each group wants to outdo the others in prestige. Exogamous marriage, practical and ritual forms of inter-UMA cooperation, and ceremonial bonds of friendship between individuals of the same sex of different communities (PASIRIPOKAT) form mitigating counterwights.

Since an UMA does not have any organized political leadership, deviant individuals cannot be forced to conform. They are generally avoided, however, which makes their life difficult. Moreover, there is a strong belief in religious sanctions on antisocial behaviour.

Before open hostilities break out between UMA, a kind of institutionalized rivalries (PAKO) give the parties time to calm down. These consist of extraordinary prestations that are announced publicly in the valley; they are destined to humiliate the rival but in the long run often prove tiresome. Hostilities never entail open combat, rather, they linger on for long periods with occasional assaults from ambush. When the parties consent to make peace - sometimes on the instigation of a third, mediating group - mutual losses are brought into balance by ritualized forms of exchange. Until the beginning of the colonial period, a ritualized form of armed conflict existed on Siberut in the form of headhunting (MULAKKEU), directed at particular regions outside one's own valley. The custom was sacrificial in character and had the consecration of a new UMA as its main motif. On the southern islands, the custom had already been abandoned some generations earlier.

There are no dominant gods, but various categories of spirits (SAUKKUI, SANITU, SABULUNGAN) dwell everywhere - in the forests, in the sky, in the rivers, in the sea, and 'in the interior' - i.e. under the earth. Several of these are evil and have to be avoided; others are favourably disposed to humans. Because they are invisible, man's activities can unwittingly disturb them - for example, a tree that is cut might fall on a forest spirit's dwelling. Then the BAJOU of this spirit - a kind of radiation emanating from everything that has a soul - will concentrate on the culprit and make him or her ill. Before beginning any major activity, therefore, ceremonies are held to please and placate the spirits. Certain spirits have a special relationship with the UMA. The mythic origin of the first longhouse is traced back to an orphan boy who gained his knowledge from a water spirit in the shape of a crocodile. Because of his companion's envy, the boy later moved underneath the earth where he joined the spirits of the interior. There he lives on as the spirit of the earthquakes and fruit trees; he is still offered sacrifices during each great ritual. The crocodile spirit continues to watch over the UMA. If someone behaves antisocially, for example by eating meat behind the other's back, he insults the spirit of the crocodile who will then come into the UMA and cause the guilty one to fall sick. - Everything that exists has its own, personal soul (SIMAGERE; cf. Malay SEMANGAT, or, especially after death, KETSAT), not only human beings but also animals, plants, and things. Things are not objects that can be used according to one's liking, but rather are subjects that must agree with their use. Before a pig is killed, for example, Mentawaians explain and excuse what they are about to do. Such conciliatory efforts also include sacrifices to the things in question. Moreover, things expect people to take their nature into account when they are using them, and to refrain from other actions that are inconsistent with an activity. This is why there are specific taboos in Mentawai for each important undertaking. For example, a husband may not make a dugout canoe while his wife is pregnant: the hollowing out of a tree trunk is not compatible with a period that is oriented toward avoiding premature "hollowness", i.e. carrying a child to full term. If he does not bear this in mind, he will bring down the wrath of the trunk upon himself and the canoe will not be a success. Its anger may also be directed at the man himself and cause him to fall ill, or even, in dialogue with the disappointed soul of the growing child, result in a miscarriage. It is this fear of negative consequences of daily activities that has given rise to the general taboo on planting on the southern islands mentioned above. - Another source of danger is the human soul itself. The soul can roam freely; its experiences provide the material for dreams. But if life is not pleasing to the soul, it will not want to return and tends to settle with the ancestors. To counter this risk, Mentawaians try to live in a way that is literally attractive, with bountiful meals, not to much stress and a beautiful outward appearance visible in tattoos, ornaments and decorations.

On ritual occasions an experienced elderly man functions as master of ceremonies (RIMATA). In certain ceremonies he represents the other adult men; in other ceremonies, however, all adults perform corresponding tasks collectively. Shamans (KEREI) have certain ritual functions as well, besides their healing responsibilities.

The major religious feast of the UMA is called PULIAIJAT on Siberut and PUNEN on the southern islands. It can last several weeks and is sometimes held more than once a year, depending on the occurrence of important extra-ordinary events such as a wedding, the building of a new longhouse, or the observation of bad omens. Casual contacts with neighbours, daily work, and even sexual intercourse are taboo during such a ritual. The main officiant is the RIMATA, supported by his wife. Central is the offering of a chicken called LIA which is invoked to attract good forces and to ward of evil; after being sacrificed to the spirits, divination of the intestines indicates whether the result is favourable. This double function lasts throughout the whole ritual where it matches a symbolic re-ordering of social relationships within the group and towards the outside world. On Siberut, in a first phase, with the help of some neighbouring shamans, the main goal is the aversion of evil; in the second, with religious support of the spirits, the accent is on attracting positive forces, and especially on reassembling the souls of the united members of the UMA. Finally, the entire comunity withdraws to a hunting camp in the jungle for several days. With this move the participants quite explicitly enter the domain of the forest spirits. The monkeys they shoot are considered to be the lifestock of these spirits, which by granting them guarantee their blessings to the world of the humans. The precise scenario and length of a ritual vary according to its direct motivation. In literature about the southern islands fantastic , probably mission-based allegations have been made, such as Loeb's (1928:416) "at least nine years" for the completion of a new UMA. The general tenet of a traditional PUNEN resembles that of a PULIAIJAT, but the focus of the ceremonies before the hunting camp is more directly related to daily activities which are consecrated anew in successive stages (Börger 1932).

The Mentawaians have no specialized artists but praise companions who are expert in woodcarving and in this way make objects which are "matching their essence" (MATEU) (Schefold 1991). Other domains of art include singing - always in unison - and the playing of music instruments such as flutes, drums, and jews harps.

Thoughts of illness and premature death are central to Mentawai life. This preoccupation is associated with very high rates of mortality; an average of only two children from each marriage survive to adulthood. The common factor in the perceived causes of illnesses is that man has set phenomena in the environment against himself by acting recklessly. There is also a common factor in the manner of healing: the offended entities have to be placated and their BAJOU has to be cooled off. The intermediary in contacts with the spirit realm is the shaman or medicine-man, the KEREI. This is a man, in some rare instances a woman, who by means of a special and sumptuous initiation ritual, under the guidance of an experienced teacher, has received the capacity to see and communicate with spirits. Most UMA have at least one, and sometimes many more, KEREI. KEREI have a special outfit and garb. Extraordinary performances like trances and dancing in fire underline their religious credibility. They have a special knowledge of the magical mediating objects (GAUT), who are used in ceremonies, mostly plants with particular forms that are associated with a specific capacity that can be adressed to carry out certain beneficial tasks. Performers of black magic (PANANAE) use the same kind of mediators, but with evil intentions.

When the soul has eaten and adorned itself with the ancestors (Siberut: UKKUI; southern islands: KALIMEU), its owner must die. On Siberut, this entails a division of the individual into two separate entities: The soul transforms into an ancestral spirit; what remains from the rotting body and the bones becomes personified by a ghostlike creature called PITTO'. The UKKUI, the direct genealogical forebears, live in the ancestral settlement, the LAGGAI SABEU, in a way similar to humans, but more beautiful and of course without death. They are a community's closest spiritual agents and are invoked at every occasion to give their blessings; they play a focal part especially in the second phase of the PULIAIJAT ritual and are sometimes solemnly invited into the longhouse for a prolonged visit (Schefold 1980). The PITTO' lingers in the neighbourhood of the burial grounds which are always situated far away from human settlements. Out of jealousy he wants to nest in the UMA where he causes the living to fall ill; he has regularly to be expelled on ritual occasions. On the southern island the attitude towards the death seems to have shifted somewhat. Like on Siberut, a difference seems to have been made there between ancestral souls living in the LAGGAI SABEU and body-ghosts from the burial grounds. However, on Sipora and Pagai the former have become transformed into a source of fear rather than one of trust and support; consequently, the difference between the two was much less pronounced. In ritual, it was not the ancestors who were were called upon but rather the other categories of spirits; offerings made to the former had the aim of enticing them to leave the living in peace.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Mentawaians file consists of 14 documents, 13 in English and one in German.These works deal with the ethnography of the inhabitants of the North and South Pagai Islands (probably the Poggy or Nassau Islands mentioned by Crisp)-- the Sakalagan or "people of the village", as well as the Sakalelegan or Sakoban of Sipora, and the Sakkudei (Sakuddei) people of Siberut. Loeb, Nooy-Palm, Wallace, and Crisp all focus their ethnographic works on the Pagai Islands and Sipora, while Schefold concentrates his studies on Siberut Island and the Sakkudei (Sakuddei) people. Although there is no single comprehensive work to cover all of the Mentawei Islands in this file, the documents by Crisp (1799, no. 1), Nooy-Palm (1968 reprint, no. 3), and Loeb (1929, 1928, nos. 2 and 5), do provide some general ethnographic coverage for the Pagai Islands and Sipora, comparably matched by Schefold's studies on Siberut Island (Schefold, 1982, 1988, 1980, 1986, nos. 6, 10, 14, and 15). Various aspects of Mentawaian religion forms a predominant theme in many of the works in this file, and are given particular attention in Loeb (1929, 1929, nos. 4 and 9), and Schefold (1982, 1988, 1976, 1980, nos. 6, 10, 12, and 13). Schefold's major work (Schefold, 1988, no. 10), in German, presents a highly detailed account of the PULIAIJAT ceremony of the Sakkkudei people. This document, although not translated into English, has been indexed for the appropriate OCM codes according to subject matter. The study by Crisp is also of particular interest since it is one of the earliest records of contact between European and traditional Mentawaian cultures observed at the end of the eighteenth century.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The Mentawaian culture summary was written by Reimar Schefold in September 1999. Reimar Schefold also provided many of the bibliographic suggestions used in compiling this file. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in May 2000.

• ABAK -- a dugout canoe -- category 501

• BADJOU -- a type of radiation emitted by everything that has a soul -- category 774

• BAGUNANS -- boasting stakes -- category 211

• KERE -- supernatural power -- category 778

• KETSAT (SANITU) -- souls of the dead -- category 775

• KINA -- spirits of animate and inanimate objects (e.g., sacred objects) -- category 774

• KUDDUAT PUNEN -- sacred knowledge -- category 778

• LAGGAI (LANGGAI) -- the village -- category 621

• LALEP -- family house -- category 342

• LIA -- a family festival of short duration ending with a chicken sacrifice -- categories 782, 796, sometimes 852

• MAGIRI -- the act of washing one's hair before a PUNEN ceremony -- category 783, 302

• MUNTOGAT -- 25 exogamous patrilineal clans, divided into smaller units or households forming part of the UMA -- category 614

• PANANAE -- a sorcerer -- category 754

• PITTO -- a spirit that arises from the body of the dead -- category 775

• PULIAIJAT -- the major religious ritual on Siberut -- category 796

• PUMANDIAT -- a preliminary or trial form of marriage -- category 583

• PUNEN -- a major religious festival in the Pagai Islands -- category 796

• PUNEN PUENEGETAT -- the initiation of a new member of the UMA -- categories 621, 796, 592

• RIMATA -- the priest of the UMA -- category 793

• RUSUK -- a house used by single men and women -- category 342

• SABULUNGAN -- the personal guardian spirits of shamans -- category 776

• SAMUNTOGAT -- principal clans -- category 614

• SIBAKKAT LAGGAI -- descendants of the founders of the village; also landholders -- categories 614, 621

• SIKAUTE LULAK -- a substitute for a RIMATA in a ceremony -- category 793

• SIKEREI -- the shaman -- category 756

• SILIMEN -- a sacral meal made of cooked liver and taro -- categories 264, 778

• SIMAGERE -- souls of the living -- category 774

• SIPANANAE -- a witch -- category 754

• TADROAT -- fetish sticks or omens -- category 787

• TAITOI (sing. SITOI) -- newcomers to a village -- category 621

• TEETEE -- tattooing -- category 304

• UKUI -- the house father or head of the household -- category 592

• UMA -- as a physical structure, categories 342, 345, 346; as a social unit, categories 621, 614, 596

Börger, F. Vom Punen der Mentaweier: Wie ein Punen bei den Mentaweiern verläuft. Berichte der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft, Vol. 89 (1932): 18-28, 44-54.

Crisp, J. An Account of the Inhabitants of the Poggy Islands Lying off Sumatra. IN Asiatic Researches, Vol. 6 (1799): 77-91.

Hansen, J. F. K. De groep Noord- en Zuid-Pageh van de Mentawei-eilanden. IN Tijdschrift voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde , Vol. 70 (1914): 113-220.

Kruyt, Alb. C. De Mentaweiers. IN Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Vol. 62 (1923): 1-188.

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