I present you the Marapu.
This project was shot using 35mm film with a Olympus 35 RC rangefinder camera.
If you are interested in this tribe, you can find information about it on wikipedia, i checked it and it's pretty accurate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marapu
On the sweet island of Sumba, Indonesia, civilisation is not just old, but frozen.
People live in adat houses, have their own belief and can still deal with the future.
Megaliths are build for each passed away relative and ceremonies are made. The stone megaliths can sometimes have up to 60 tons, the record being around 100 tons and it's about the size of a bus.
During the day, only small children and some old people are home, the rest are out working different things.
One of these buildings hosts usually 5 families, that is around 70-100 people.
The adat building is around 15m tall and has an amprend of around 150sq/m.
Life is lazy for the Marapu people. Out in the sun lay the betel nut to dry and the dog waiting for the ceremony.
This is one of the biggest villages, with 23 adat houses and a huge ceremony area in center. They still use old traditions to celebrate every day of a construction being built.
The building of a house takes 2 months and costs almost 50.000$. Ofcourse 95% of the expenses are the sacrificed animals every day of the construction.
The architecture of the structures is based on a 4 pylon base, the rest folding around these 4. The pylons used are taken from house to house among generations. This after the pylon is cut from a very thick tree, using only the middle of the wood, which already has some hundreds of years. In the end this wood is called Iron wood, mainly because it cannot be destroyed.
The old traditions mingle with pop magazines as young and old live together. Magazines were from the 90', the 2 meter heads probably older.
Notice how they smartly use cheap, plastic containers. They do have do feed some hundreds.
Generations grow between each other, proximity is relative. This brings me to think of new dynamics between generations, families, groups, etc.
Women make ikat and try to sell it as it is the best out of all Indonesia. And Indonesia is full of it. One square meter of ikat takes around one week to be made, while being sold values around 20$ in Sumba.
Ikat can get to be very thick fabric used to guard from wind and cold, as traditional outfits and most important to cover the dead in 1m thick layers of ikat.
The old are quite active in the comunity, working most of ther lives.
The senior generation reaches easily 90 years old. the record as they know it belongs to a recently passed away grandpa, 124 years old. Their secret? I have no clue.
The young generation struggles between farming, selling in the market and some even have jobs in administration. The young go to school, get educated in a christian way but after graduation they return to marapu beliefs. "Marapu is like any other religion, why should we change what we already have"
Roles in the family are pretty much split when it comes to taking care of the children and old...yours or others.
Very pitoresque...
Women waiting for the ceremony to start, wearing "sunday clothes".
Mothers in action. Cooking for about 300 people coming at the ceremony.
The kids are everywhere, wearing the "clean clothes".
The tribe heads with their wives. Very important people.
Boys getting to be men.
Men start to gather for the ceremony, talking, drinking tea, smoking and of course, chewing the betel nut.
The tribe chiefs probably tlking some business. Last conflict they had ended up with 30 people being killed and chopped, thrown into the ricefields. When the police came, there were no traces of the group's dissapearence nor anyone knew anything about it.
Other tribes come, uninvited bringing animals for scarification depending on the relationship with the tribe guesting the ceremony.
The buffalo is carried by the son of the chieftain, which would be the next to be "crowned". Problem is that they live a very long life.
Buffalos waiting for machete.
The greeting gesture is old. It bizarrely resembles a teenagers love gesture, rubbing their noses but without touching their lips. Men and women do it alike but only the chief's family and the important people salute themselves officially.
Pigs are brought by every family that joins the ceremony along with the family flag. Some families bring 1 hog, some 3 or more.
Yes, it's the same..but this time you can see how happy it is.
Here we have a very crazy picture, one of my favourites. notice the expression of the characters and the left/right mad composition. what happened there?
Oh, we are about to start, so the idea is...
...now that everyone on the "list" came, they start killing innocent pigs.
But first they put them on some bamboo poles so they don't run away...funny is that they practically "jump" the animal and tie him up. Of course for this operation there are between 5 and 15 people for one pig, depending on size.
All the animals get to be aligned and showed to the guests and of course, the host. Each family comes not only with the pig but with the sacrifice squad.
The creature is stabbed in the armpit, going directly to the heart. Very clean and fast death.
Burned in a rustic way...
No, he is not giving him first aid.
They first take out the internals.
curious
This burning, choping and organisint the meat of 9 pigs took less than 30 minutes. I have to admit that I was amazed of the speed they were working with.
Each family that brings a pig or two can see their luck in the future by browsing through the liver with the consultation of the witch doctor.
I want to end this loooooong series with a child and a thanks for the marapu that had me for a week in their home.
