Kaluli - Settlements

The Kaluli live in about twenty autonomous longhouse Communities of approximately sixty individuals (or fifteen Families) each. The longhouse is an elevated structure, about 18 meters by 9 meters, with a veranda at front and rear, and built roughly at the center of the community's garden lands. Inside, the longhouse is divided lengthwise down the center by a long hall, along either side of which are found the married men's sleeping platforms alternating with cooking hearths and, above the hearths, meat-smoking racks. Partitioned off from the men's platforms, and running the length of the structure along the outside walls, the married women's sleeping platforms follow the same pattern as the men's, and a wife will occupy the platform directly on the other side of her husband's partition. Very young children sleep with their mothers. Older male children and bachelors sleep together at the back of the longhouse, while marriageable women sleep communally at the front. The hallway, and the space just before the front and back doors of the longhouse are public areas. The area immediately surrounding the longhouse is cleared of forest growth, and here there are likely to be found a few small outbuildings to house visitors, and some of the land is planted in bananas, pitpit, and sugarcane. Other small shelters are built near the individual gardens that are scattered throughout the longhouse territory.