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Harmony Disturbed: Modernization Disrupts the Rain Forest Culture of the Mentawaians
| Article
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11163 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1993 |
3,393 Words |
| Author
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Bryan Alexander
Bryan Alexander is a freelance photojournalist based in the
United Kingdom. |
Aman Baoi had a dream: Visitors would soon arrive at his home. For over a month, he and his wife Bai Baoi, and other relatives had been living across the river from the village of Matotonan on Indonesia's Siberut Island.
The following morning Bai Baoi set off, following the muddy trail along the Rereiket River, to prepare for their visitors. Aman Baoi and his brother went hunting, planning to return home later that day. Bai Baoi arrived at the longhouse just after midday. She barely had time to fetch water and light a fire before her guests, myself and Sibakkat, my guide, arrived.
Just before dusk Aman Baoi returned, dressed in a torn sports shirt and an ill-fitting pair of trousers. He strode up the notched log that acted as a ladder to the veranda of his home. He was followed by his brother and a young nephew, who proudly carried the evidence of a successful hunt, a dead monkey, in a basket on his back. Monkey is a delicacy for the Mentawai.
Aman Baoi put down the bow and poisoned arrows that he was carrying. He greeted us warmly then went inside the longhouse. A few minutes later he reemerged, dressed only in a traditional loincloth made from bark. I wondered if this change was for my benefit, but Aman Baoi apparently had thought his visitors might be Indonesian government officials, who actively discourage the wearing of traditional dress.
Bai Baoi and her sister quickly set to boiling the monkey in a cauldron and baking sago in the ashes of the fire. While the women prepared the meal, Aman Baoi left the longhouse and collected his tuddukat, a traditional drum made from hollowed logs. The sound of the drum filled the river valley, its rhythmic beat informing neighboring Mentawai who had returned from hunting and what had been caught. Neighbors then knew to observe the taboos: Only members of Aman Baoi's family could visit the longhouse, and Aman Baoi's guests should not leave until they had eaten.
An hour later the meat was placed on banana leaves to cool, and the whole family gathered to eat. After the meal the men lounged on the veranda's benches, smoked tobacco wrapped in dried banana leaves, and talked. It was hot and humid, with not a breath of wind. As darkness fell, the sounds of frogs and insects filled the night air, fireflies hovered outside the longhouse, and mosquitoes searched for their prey. It was time to take refuge under a mosquito net and sleep.
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