Mentawaians

ETHNONYMS: Orang Mentawai, Mentaweier, Poggy-Islanders

Orientation

Identification and Location. The Mentawai archipelago forms part of a chain of nonvolcanic islands running parallel to Sumatra about 87 miles (140 kilometers) off that island's western coast. There are four large inhabited islands in the group—Siberut, Sipora, and North and South Pagai—with a total area of 2,604 square miles (6,746 square kilometers). The name Mentawai, which originally was not used by the inhabitants, probably derives from the word for "man," simanteu. On Siberut people identify themselves by the names of the rivers where they settle; Siberut comes from the name of a local group in the southern part of that island whose members call themselves Sabirut ("the rats"). The inhabitants of Sipora (from pora, "ground") call themselves Sakalelegat, from lelega,t, ("place"); those from the Pagai Islands call themselves Sakalagan, from laggai ("village"). The landscape is hilly and is interrupted by wide valleys. Until recently the islands were covered with dense tropical rain forest.

Demography. In 2000 63,732 people lived in the Mentawai islands. Population figures for each district are as follows: North Siberut, 15,161; South Siberut, 14,757; Sipora, 12,840; and North and South Pagai, 20,974.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Mentawaians on Siberut speak a number of substantially diverging dialects, whereas there is a close relationship between the dialect of the southern part of that island and those of Sipora and Pagai. All the dialects have a high degree of difference from the most closely related western Austronesian languages, such as those of the Toba Batak and the Niasans.

History and Cultural Relations

The Mentawaians have no common tradition about their origins. There is agreement that the people from Sipora and Pagai came from southern Siberut, which they left in the not too distant past. This fits with the linguistic evidence and with many cultural patterns. The settlements in the southern regions are culturally closely related although not uniform; on Siberut at least eleven cultural areas can be discerned, with Simalegi in the northwestern region being linguistically the most divergent one. 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. In the nineteenth century several reports by colonial civil servants indicate interest in these strategically important islands. At the beginning of the twentieth century Dutch colonial and Protestant (in later years also Catholic) missionary work began on Mentawai. Headhunting and lengthy traditional religious feasting were forbidden, and the payment of a modest poll tax was required; otherwise, there was little interference in the indigenous way of life. The pace of change increased after Indonesian independence, when the indigenous religion was banned and everyone had to embrace either Islam or Christianity. Four administrative districts (kecamatan) were established: two on Siberut and two on the southern islands. Today most Mentawaians 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-1980s this has been easier for them, partly because of their role in a newly emerging ethnotourism industry.

Settlements

On Siberut people with a traditional lifestyle are organized in local patrilineal groups (uma) of about five to ten families that jointly own a large communal house used for rituals and festive occasions, also called uma. These uma are situated along the rivers, which are the most important channel 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 north-western part of Siberut. Thus, each uma differs from its neighbors in descent yet is related to uma in other regions through common ancestors. For daily purposes, each family owns one or more field houses (sapou) where it stays while working in the gardens. On Sipora and Pagai the descendants of various clans (still tracing their origins from northwestern Siberut) traditionally used to unite into large ritual communities with a single huge communal uma. Sometimes these houses belonged to more than twenty families; some of those families also owned dwellings of their own (lalep) next to the uma. Often several urna were situated beside each other, forming a village (laggai).

The layout and use of an uma reflect the Mentawaian's strong sense of community. All houses stand on stilts; many are decorated with carved panels and wall paintings. One enters at the front through a notched tree trunk that serves as a stairway. The first room, an open airy veranda, is a common room for conversing and receiving guests; it is where most of the men sleep at night. Some of the men sleep in the first interior room, a large hall with a common hearth used for ceremonies and a wooden floor for the dances performed during ritual festivities. Sometimes the tuddukat, an ensemble of three or four slit drums used for signaling and making music, also is situated there. A door leads into the second interior room, where women and small children sleep; this is also 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. As a result of government prohibitions, on Sipora and Pagai most, if not all, of these longhouses have disappeared; a few are preserved in southern Siberut.

Economy

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

Industrial Arts. Metalworking, weaving, and pottery making are unknown. Mentawaians are skilled carpenters who use intricate mortise-and-tenon jointing in wooden constructions. In the past people made use of stone tools fashioned with neolithic techniques. Until the late twentieth century they produced bark cloth for traditional men's loincloth and skirts of leaves worn by women when working in the gardens. Occasionally they still use bamboo utensils for cooking.

Trade. For several generations there have been certain articles that 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 cloves and other newly introduced cash crops. In the modern villages, money is replacing exchange and demand includes everything available in West Sumatran rural markets.

Division of Labor. Economic specialization is based on gender and age. Children participate at an early age in their parents' activities, mostly on their own initiative. According to Mentawaian informants, the division of tasks between men and women is based on differences in physical strength. The use of the ax, for instance, is seen as particularly strenuous and is reserved for men. When building a house, men use axes to fell trees for timber, while women use bush knives to cut palm leaves for the roof. The division of labor has a spatial component as well. A man's sago and coconut trees are likely to be spread over an entire valley and may keep him away from the settlement for days at a time. In contrast, a woman's taro and (on Siberut) banana fields are typically close to home. Hunting takes men deep into the forest, whereas women usually fish in the vicinity of the settlement. This spatial division is in line with the fact that care for young children is the responsibility of the women.

Land Tenure. Clans own stretches of uncultivated land, including watercourses, claimed by their ancestors. 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 to obtain the right to cultivate a stretch of land. They are the individual owners of the crops they have planted and retain the property as long as it remains fertile even if they eventually move away; at that time the land returns to the original clan. Pieces of land can be purchased, sometimes by using pigs for payment; such pieces remain the property of the buyer and his descendants.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. There is no specific term for the twenty-five clans, which also do not have individual names; the main factor linking a clan's members is a shared descent myth. In earlier times there was little contact between uma in distant valleys. Men would go headhunting in districts far away from their uma. This could result in the unintentional slaughter of a member of one's own clan. 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 or divorced sisters who returned to their group of origin. In addition, an uma can include single families that immigrated and were adopted (nappit); these people are treated like blood relations and have equal rights and duties in the community. On Sipora and Pagai membership in the uma is in principle organized patrilineally. Nevertheless, members of different clans commonly belong to one uma.

Kinship Terminology. The kinship system is of the Dakota type.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Premarital relations are regarded as private affairs. Marriage is monogamous, and divorce is rare. Theoretically, the entire mythically derived clan is exogamous, but in practice, this requirement is strictly maintained only within the uma. All cousins are considered 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. Affluent men from each uma contribute the bride-price—fruit trees, taro fields, young live pigs, purchased tools—and the return gift—the meat of large sows and castrated boars. On the southern islands the bride-price was abandoned in precolonial times. 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.

In contrast to Siberut, uma endogamy is permitted on the southern islands 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. On Siberut there is a general taboo that prohibits new fathers on behalf of their young children from performing any acts that might cause plants to wilt, including planting. On the southern islands this taboo includes all married men. Since the work of adult men in the gardens remains necessary, people postpone the official date of marriage until the ages of thirty to forty. Before that period couples build a hut (rusuk) where they spend the night together, separating at dawn to return to their parents. This bond is publicly acknowledged and expected to last. When a child is born, the father of the mother assumes the paternal role. The child is brought up in his house and not exposed to the religious dangers of wilting plants, and in daily matters is taken care of by his own mother. Years later an official marriage takes place, and the child is included in the patrilineage of his birth father.

Domestic Unit. In daily life nuclear families live on their own on their plantations and only occasionally gather with other families for company. During rituals all members assemble in the uma and reorganize themselves in a way that stresses more the community than the individual household. In addition to the permanent adoption of immigrating adults by a community, children from a neighboring uma can be 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 more than ten to twenty families—the uma will split up and one group will move to another region.

Inheritance. On Siberut inheritance principally passes equally down the male line. There are, however, certain kinds of movables of which the daughters initially receive shares equal to those of the sons. These are 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 are exceptions to this practice. The staple food there is not the male-produced sago but taro, which is produced by women. The taro fields are inherited exclusively in the female line. However, as soon as a brother marries, his sister will give her new sister-in-law part of the taro fields she inherited, and those fields indirectly return to the patrilineage.

Socialization. There is no formal education. Children follow the example of their parents. Ceremonies accompany the growth of a child, but there is 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 the patterns being dependent on gender and region. After that time, with the help of their parents, boys and girls start to lay out their own fields and 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 the husband's uma.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. There is no organized leadership within the uma; in principle, unqualified solidarity prevails. Anyone in need can call on the whole group, and during festivals everyone has equal rights regardless of his or her individual contribution. Problems arise from conflict 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 breakup of the community. In public discussions women are also present, but their voices are heard much less than the men's are. In family affairs their opinion has more weight, although final decisions lie with the men.

Political Organization. Mentawaians do not recognize political organization above the uma. It is each group's responsibility to regulate its relations with its neighbors. The explicit ideal is peaceful coexistence in which no one is a bother to anyone else. However, this ideal contradicts a desire that leads to tension and sometimes open hostilities: Each group wants to outdo the others in prestige. Exogamous marriage, practical and ritual forms of interuma cooperation, and ceremonial bonds of friendship between individuals of the same sex from different communities (pasiripokat) are mitigating counterweights.

Social Control. Since an uma does not have organized political leadership, individuals who violate the norms cannot be forced to conform. They are generally avoided, and this makes their life difficult. Moreover, there is a strong belief in religious sanctions on antisocial behavior.

Conflict. Before open hostilities break out between uma, institutionalized rivalries (pako ) give the parties time to calm down. These conflicts consist of extraordinary prestations that are announced publicly in the valley; they are destined to humiliate the rival but often prove tiresome. Hostilities never entail open combat, instead, they linger on for long periods with occasional assaults from ambush. When the parties agree to make peace, sometimes on the instigation of a third, mediating group, mutual losses are brought into balance through 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 practice was abandoned generations before colonial rule.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. There are no supreme gods, but there are various categories of spirits (saukhui, sanitu, sabulungan) that dwell everywhere: in the forests, in the sky, in the rivers, in the sea, and 'in the interior' (under the earth). Several of these spirits are evil and have to be avoided; others are favorably disposed toward humans. Because they are invisible, man's activities can unwittingly disturb them; for example, a tree that is cut may fall on a forest spirit's dwelling. Then the bajou of the spirit—a kind of radiation emanating from everything that has a soul—will concentrate on the culprit and make him or her ill. Before any major activity begins, 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 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 earthquakes and fruit trees; he is 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 another person's back, he insults the spirit of the crocodile, who will come into the uma and cause the guilty one to become sick.

Everything that exists has its own personal soul (simagere or, especially after death, ketsat), including animals, plants, and things. Things are not objects that can be used as a person wishes but subjects that must agree to their use. Before a pig is killed, 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 used and to refrain from other actions that are inconsistent with an activity. This is why there are specific taboos for each important undertaking. For example, a husband may not make a dugout canoe while his wife is pregnant because the hollowing out of a tree trunk is not compatible with carrying a child to full term. If he does not bear this in mind, he will bring down the wrath of the trunk and the canoe will not be a success. The trunk's anger also may be directed at the man himself and cause him to fall ill or result in a miscarriage. Another source of danger is the human soul. The soul can roam freely; its experiences provide the material for dreams. 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, minimal stress, and a beautiful outward appearance that is manifest in tattoos, ornaments, and decorations.

Religious Practitioners. On ritual occasions an experienced elderly man functions as the master of ceremonies (rimata ). In certain ceremonies he represents the other adult men; in others all the adults perform collectively. Shamans (kerei) have certain ritual functions in addition to their healing responsibilities.

Ceremonies. The major religious feast in the uma is called puliaijat on Siberut and punen the southern islands. It can last several weeks and sometimes is held more than once a year, depending on the occurrence of important extraordinary events such as a wedding, the building of a new long-house, and the observation of bad omens. Casual contact with neighbors, daily work, and sexual intercourse are taboo during this ritual. The main official is the rimata, supported by his wife. The central event is the offering of a chicken called lia, which is invoked to attract good forces and ward of evil; after it is sacrificed to the spirits, divination of the intestines indicates whether the result is favorable. This double function lasts throughout the ritual, in which it matches a symbolic reordering of social relationships within the group and toward the outside world. On Siberut, in a first phase, with the help of neighboring shamans, the main goal is the aversion of evil; in the second phase, with religious support from the ancestor spirits, the emphasis is on attracting posirive forces and especially on reassembling the souls of the united members of the uma. Finally, the entire community withdraws to a hunting camp in the jungle for several days. With this move the participants explicitly enter the domain of the forest spirits. The monkeys they shoot are considered to be the livestock of these spirits, which by granting them guarantee their blessings to the world of humans. The scenario and length of a ritual vary according to its motivation.

Arts. Mentawaians have no specialized artists but praise companions who are expert in woodcarving and make objects that "match their essence" (mateu). Other arts include singing—always in unison—and the playing of instruments such as flutes, drums, and Jew's harps.

Medicine. Thoughts about illness and premature death are central to Mentawaian life. This preoccupation is associated with very high rates of mortality. The common factor in the perceived causes of illnesses is that people have turned phenomena in the environment against themselves 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 kerei is the intermediary in contacts with the spirit realm. The kerei is usually a man 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 kerei. Kerei have a special outfit and garb. Extraordinary performances such as trances and dancing in fire enhance their religious credibility. They have a special knowledge of the magical mediating objects (gaut) that are used in ceremonies: mostly plants with particular forms that are associated with a specific capacity that can be addressed to carry out beneficial tasks. Performers of black magic (pananae) use the same kinds of mediators, but with evil intentions.

Death and Afterlife. 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 is transformed into an ancestral spirit; what remains of 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 that of humans but more beautiful and without death. They are a community's closest spiritual agents and are invoked at every occasion to give their blessings; they play a focal role, especially in the second phase of the puliaijat ritual, and sometimes are solemnly invited into the longhouse for a prolonged visit. The pitto' lingers in the neighborhood of the burial grounds, which are always situated far from human settlements. Out of jealousy the pitto' wants to nest in the uma, where he causes the living to fall ill; he has to be expelled regularly through ritual. On the southern islands of Sipora and Pagai the attitude towards the death seems to have shifted. As on Siberut, a distinction seems to have been made there between ancestral souls living in the laggai sabeu and body-ghosts from the burial grounds. However, the former have been transformed into a source of fear rather than one of trust and support; consequently, the differences between the two are much less pronounced. In rituals it was not the ancestors who were called on but the other categories of spirits; offerings made to the former had the aim of enticing them to leave the living in peace.

For the original article on the Mentawaians, see Volume 5, East and Southeast Asia.

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REIMAR SCHEFOLD