Kewa - Settlements



The parishes and villages that now exist have grown up around traditional dance grounds, as well as mission and Government stations. People live in dispersed homesteads according to patrilineal lines. Several clan groups may reside in the same ceremonial dance ground territory with their respective men's and women's houses. More recently, nuclear Family houses have become the rule. Homesteads are surrounded by fenced gardens, casuarina trees, cordyline leaves, and ditches to mark boundaries. There are often coffee groves as well. Every five to ten years a particular clan sponsors a pig kill and long (100-150 meters) low houses are built by the participants. The men's house is a low (2-3 meters at the peak, 1 meter at the sides), rectangular structure with grass roof, bark sides, and an open porchlike dwelling where food is communally cooked and eaten by the men. An entrance from the communal section of the house leads to individual sleeping platforms, slightly raised, each with a sunken fireplace.

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