After cooking, every piece of organ, meat and fat is sorted onto large wooden platters and then divided equally, according to the number of people in each lalep, the organized family subgroups within the clan. ..Food sharing is always egalitarian, even newborn babies receive an equal share. Parents won?t touch the infant?s food on that day. It will be stored inside bamboo tubes. Later, family members enjoying the food will acknowledge they are eating the baby?s share..The Mentawai people live...
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After cooking, every piece of organ, meat and fat is sorted onto large wooden platters and then divided equally, according to the number of people in each lalep, the organized family subgroups within the clan. ..Food sharing is always egalitarian, even newborn babies receive an equal share. Parents won?t touch the infant?s food on that day. It will be stored inside bamboo tubes. Later, family members enjoying the food will acknowledge they are eating the baby?s share..The Mentawai people live in the densest remote rainforest of Siberut Island, off the coast of Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia. Traditional clans on this remote tropical island have long resisted cultural assimilation; their lifestyle has been unchanged for generations. The tattoo-covered sikeireis, or traditional shamans, are knowledgeable herbalists and lead the tribe in the practice of Jarayak, a form of animism: medicine men, rituals, ceremonies and taboos still define the Mentawai lifestyle...The endangered indigenous lifestyle of these Mentawai is one of the best preserved and most fascinating, yet one of the least known and protected. ..For more information on the Mentawai, visit Native Planet (www.nativeplanet.org), an NGO that we support.
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