Palu'e - Settlements

There are approximately 40 villages ( nata ) on Palu'e, varying in size from 30 to 500 people. Villages are connected to the administrative center by a network of footpaths. Because of interdomain warfare, slave raids, and piracy, villages were traditionally fortified and positioned on easily defensible ridges at higher locations. In successive stages of settlement, they have generally been moved from higher to lower locations. Coastal villages have been built only by more recently settled population groups. There are two types of village: main villages, where houses are typically oriented around a central ritual courtyard, and subsidiary villages, where mainly topographic and demographic factors dictate the settlement pattern. Traditional houses consist of rectangular wooden structures elevated on pillars. The interior sleeping and cooking chamber and the surrounding bamboo sitting platforms are covered by a high conical elephant-grass thatched roof reaching to the ground. The high roof also serves as storage space for harvest goods. Modern houses, termed rumah sehat (healthy houses) are rectangular bamboo structures built on the bare ground and covered by a pitched coconut-palmfrond thatched roof. Increasingly, cemented stone and brick houses with corrugated iron roofs are being built.