Wovan - Settlements



Despite government and mission pressure to relocate into convenient hamlets, the majority of the people still reside in the scattered homesteads that formed their traditional Residence pattern. The small hamlets (Aradip, Fitako, and Funkafunk) developed in the postcontact period. Homesteads were constructed on ridge spurs, giving residents control of the valleys below. Ideally, a homestead consisted of a set of married male siblings, their in-married wives, their married sons and their wives, and all their unmarried children. Homestead populations ranged in size from a single nuclear family of three persons to a large extended family of thirty-seven. Each house is internally divided into a male and female side with married couples residing in rooms located at each end of the main structure.

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