Gebusi - Settlements



From the air, Gebusi settlements appear as isolated footprints of clearing amid sprawling rain forest. In 1980-1982 there were seventeen principal residence sites with an average population of 26.5 persons and a range of 6 to 54 Persons. Although widely spaced, smaller settlements tend to orient socially around larger ones, at which initiations and larger feasts and dances are held. Larger settlements have a communal longhouse 20 meters or more in length, roofed with sago palm leaves. The common cooking/socializing area of the longhouse is on ground level, with elevated rear portions sex-segregated into collective male and female sleeping and socializing areas. Longhouses are supplemented by numerous small garden houses and shelters occupied temporarily during extended gardening and foraging activities. Gebusi life-style is extremely mobile. On an average night 45 percent of the village's permanent residents have left the village for a garden house, a foraging shelter, or another longhouse settlement.

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