Gogodala - Settlements



Until the 1950s, a Gogodala village consisted of a single communal longhouse, elevated about 2 meters above the ground and surrounded by gardens made on the sloping sides of the chosen hillock, usually well inland from the river banks. These multistory fortresses were up to 200 meters long, each having a central chamber that extended the length of the building and served as a general social area. Men entered the house from either end and slept on an elevated platform above the chamber. Women entered the house from underneath, where pigs were kept and objects stored, and occupied cubicles along the sides, cooking on a lower floor and sleeping in an upper story. Since the 1960s all Gogodala villages have consisted of rectangular family dwellings made of split palm with sago-thatch roofs or, increasingly, galvanized iron sheeting.

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