Mejbrat - Settlements

Kampong formation was intended to introduce nucleated settlements of several Mejbrat households each, with dwellings facing one another across a central road or path and, in some cases, associated with a local church-school, but today these artificial villages are generally uninhabited or sparsely populated. Mejbrat traditional settlements consist of scattered homesteads, each located close to its associated swidden Gardens and all loosely centered on a regional "spirit house," the location where the founding spirit was thought to have emerged from beneath the ground. Mejbrat dwellings are wood-framed, pandanus-thatched, and built on stilts. Mejbrat do not build separate men's houses.