The Mentawai people value every person's life deeply and take it very seriously when a person leaves them. One of the most interesting facts that I find is that after all of the ceremonial activities and once the dead body is put away, they will never mention that person's name again. Rituals is also regarded as high importance. While we were living in the 'Uma' of one family, they had a big ceremony that included animal sacrifices and chanting (audio recording here) which I found very interesting. Their commitment to these things is very remarkable and worth admiring.

Upon entering the 'Uma', you will immediately see signs of their commitment to death and rituals as you will spot animal skulls hung up on top of the entrance area. In recent years, death has been taken with a different approach then it has been a few centuries back. Before, according to legends, the Mentawai that died would be put into a sack and hung up on a tree and you will obviously end up with a tree with dead people hanging off of it. Now, those deceased would be taken much more care of. Their hand and foot would be traced out in sago bark and either stuck onto a wall in the 'Uma' or on a tree in the forest nearby to honor their memory. On top of that, the person will never be mentioned again, as mentioned above, and their body will be buried in the jungle.

Rituals is also a big deal in Mentawai tradition. When we visited them, we offered them a gong, a simple gong that you can buy at probably an antique store, and they had to make a whole ceremony just to accept in into the 'Uma'. The Mentawai have very interesting beliefs and they even believe that the chicken's gut can be used to tell the future about the well-being of the families living in the 'Uma'. The sacrifice of the pig is done at the entrance, and the whole ceremony, chanting and dancing is done in the cooking and eating area. The ceremony usually starts off with the gathering of the 'Sikeri', the medicine men, those who normally would be the leader of the 'Uma' and the ceremony would gradually go on from that, to the apologies to the animals, the killing (after the animals are killed, chanting would normally start) and then the final part is of course the corpse exploiting and the eating. After having the ceremonial dinner, dancing, chanting and singing would normally take place. They normally chant until the very early the next day until finally going to sleep. Examples of music can be found here, on the Music page.

The 'Sikeri' will then hang up the cleaned out pigs skull at the entrance of the 'Uma' and this will be done after each sacrifice, giving us a whole role of animal skulls. Monkey and deer skulls are more valued, due to the fact that they are considered closer relatives to the Mentawai and are therefore placed in the sleeping quarters of the 'Uma'. The Mentawai have a special relationship with the birds, as they seem to engage in a conversation with them when they are about to kill them. Before they kill the chickens, they will take the sacrificial bird, and gently brush the surroundings with their feathers and ask it not to bring harm to the household. After that step, they will pronounce in Mentawai: "I'm sorry now I kill you", and kill the bird. When we were there though, they gave the bird to a kid and he did the sacrifice which is quite fascinating.

Taboo is also considered of high importance in Mentawai culture and death taboos do exist. For example, they kill the chickens by breaking their neck, not by slitting its throat as that would be considered as a barbaric act because of the bird's high value to the household. Mentioning a dead person's name can also be considered a taboo and the Mentawai believe that it may cause bad luck to the family. I find it very interesting the way the Mentawai show their gratitude to the animals that they are going to kill, and their ceremonies and rituals are just as fascinating. This culture of their is very rich in detail and I think they truly value that.