SUMBA

1.What features animism define the believes of Sumba?

The features that define the believes of Sumba are the ones that are situated in their houses. All their houses (made by Straw) have three floors; humans live in the middle floor, under them, the animals and on the top of the house live the spirits wich are called Marapu. If we talk about the decorations of the houses, we know that they used animal bones like craniums.
The people from the tribu also think that everything in nature has its own essence. There is a tree in the centre of the village, from which hang several skulls of their enemies.
2- Who is Ratu for the village?
Ratu is a wiseman, in contact with the people and also with the spirits, he also predicts if the year will be good or bad.

3-Which are the examples of dualism that appear on the video?

In the video we can see that men and women are divided but not only in their houses, they also have two entrances to the temple; one for male and aonther one for female. The day and the night is also a very good example of dualism. Another way they have to represent dualism having the nut in order to represent women and a sheath to represent men.

4-Explain the universal symbols that appear in the video and how they adapt to the believings of the village.

They have a lot of symbols, for explample, they considerate the moon as a symbol because it reprents the cycle of days and nights. Another symbol could be that when someone died, they use a stone in order to keep him or her´s spirit with them. They also considerate the sun and the sky important symbols in their lives. But this aren´t the only ones, they also had a tree in the center of the village that represented the way that conected the Earth with heaven and also represents their enemies and the war.

5-Explain the symbols of the house, what parts they have and how they decorated them.

Each house have three floors: the first for the animals, the second for men and women and the third for the marapu (the spirits) so they can be near the sky. They decorate the houses with craneums of animals they have hunted and drawings of cockatoos and horses, which are considered spiritual animals by the inhabitants of Sumba.

6. Who is marapu?

Marapu are the spirits that walk next to the people of Sumba in everyday-life

7. Explain the symbolism of the loom and explain the drawings of icats.

Ikkats are a special cloth that inhabitants of Sumba wear. There are horses painted in them because they are consider spiritual animals. Although, there are also many drawings of the city history.

8. How do the Sumba announce the New Year?

They have a calendar which is made by 12 different cards, and each one represent one month of the year, and as soon as they see the seaworm, also called Nyale, appearing in the beach, everyone goes there to pick as many seaworms as they can. The more worms they pick, the better the year and the ground will be.

9. Explain the symbolism of Pasola.

Is the celebration of the New Year, where the villagers ride horses with spears, handkerchiefs and hats on their heads. The horseriders fight inside of a circle limited by spectetators.

10. How does Ratu tell the future of the village?

He can tells the village its future by listening to the Marapu and also with the seaworms, that were previously fished during the Nyale ritual.