More Christmas in Limol

It is the 27th and everyone is still in full Christmas spirit! Yesterday I had the chance to observe an “uncle celebration” and today was the Christmas feast with a special speech by masar Kidarga. 

I’ve been told that, in general, Ende people don’t consider their mother’s relatives as their family as their clan extends from their fathers side of the family. But one of their mother’s relatives is very important and that’s your mother’s brother or pope. Traditionally, Ende people marry through a practice of sister exchange, in which two men exchange sisters in order to marry. In this way, an Ende person’s mother’s brother is responsible for their mother’s marriage and thus their existence. A payment must be paid to one’s pope uncle when one comes of a certain age, and in general, one has to be careful to respect them and keep them happy.

Yesterday, three elders in the community, Yugui, Warani, and Giniya, welcomed their pope uncle, Sipiki, who came to visit Limol for Christmas from his village of Kinkin. It had been a few years since Sipiki visited and thus a culmination of (1) the importance of pope, (2) the respect due to visitors, and (3) his long absence, resulted in a festive presentation of gifts and games. A large group of people led by the three elders sang and danced across the village. They were dressed finely, decorated in clay, and playing drums. As they sang and danced, members of the eagle clan, which Sipiki belongs to, soared through the crowd waving their arms, and members of the dog clan, another important clan in the family, barked at them. I had never seen the clan totems acted out in this way before. When the dancing group arrived at the other end of the village, they congregated at Matthew Bodog’s house which was beautifully decorated. Family members presented gifts of money and clothes off their body. Yugui and Warani both wailed during their presentation. Then the group was told that underneath their feet, many money notes were hidden and family members had to find them. As the search began, music came on and dancers flooded into the yard, making the search more interesting. Once the money had been found and the game finished. The group carried Sipiki back to Giniya’s house where more dancing took place. At one point, Giniya approached Sipiki wearing two hats, six shirts, and two pairs of pants. Each of the layers was also laced with money. As he took each layer off, Sipiki had to find the money and was also gifted each article of clothing. After the celebration, I took some family photos and interviewed some of the main participants. 

Today was the Christmas feast. As usual, the women went to the yam houses and the men went for meat. The men had bad luck though both in fishing and hunting. Only one wallaby was shot by Jeff. The rice and noodles I brought were cooked and served in the center of the community hall. People shared food amongst themselves and there was an announcement that Christmas is about giving. I lent my new Kathmandu chair to Sipiki since he seemed the most important person in the gathering. At one point, Kidarga came in dressed with a young coconut shoot sticking over his head and a bag of food. I stuck a recorder on him and he presented the bag to me with a little speech. In it he complained about the weight of the bag, and the fact that his people have had to struggle so hard to survive. He asked me if change will come for him and his people before he dies? He gave me the bag as a symbol that I will take up this burden (I didn’t know it at the time). As he emptied the bag on some banana leaves, the community cried out for a song. He sang the crocodile song (as he is crocodile clan) and said, “I don’t have many crocodile eggs, but here this is for you.” He gave me two watermelon and some bananas. Second time in two days with an interesting clan metaphor. Because I was receiving the gift/burden I wasn’t monitoring the recorder and the microphone was too hot (Kidarga was speaking very loudly) so unfortunately the recording isn’t optimal. But I’ll try and get someone to respeak his short speech for the archive.

Well this has turned out to be a long post, a nice symbol of the past two very long days. I’ve been running/hiking every day except Tuesday since I arrived :)

Kate