Weapons are used in the Mentawi culture to accomplish many tasks such as killing the pig or gathering fern's. They are used in everyday life weapons help the Mentawi people survive and take care of them selfs.



In the Mentawi culture the machete is a recently used weapon it is used on a day to day basis. The machete is used to kill pigs and bore, cut down coconuts to eat and also to gather ferns for dinner.




When the Mentawi people go hunting with the Bow and Arrow they put a special poison on the arrow. In the picture on the left we can see the man making the poison. He gathers all of the ingredients from his own backyard. After he finished grinding all of the ingredients, he put them all in a tiny flexible cup, and then into a special tool to squeeze it all together and before he did this he looked at us all and said "Watch now Black Magic." As he squeezed it all it turned to liquid and then he dipped the arrow heads in this poison and he told us that he will uses it for hunting. Later we were told that the poison was only deadly if it enters the blood stream, so we were allowed to taste it, I tasted it and it was only like a Thai chilli taste when you eat Thai food.