SUMBA

1. What features animism define the believes of Sumba?

The spirits of the ancestors are around them and are close to them. These spirits, which can be also found in every other thing in nature, are living within the  people of the village.
 Anismism believes that everything in nature has its onw essence.

2. Who is the Ratu for the village? 

Is a priests that listens to the spirits. He has to guess when the new year starts by looking at the Niali, a seaworm.

3. Which are the examples of dualism that appear in the video?

In dualism, everything has two different sides. For examples, there are two entrances for the temple, one for men and one for women. There are also two columns that sustain the Earth, which represent day and night, Sun and Moon, men and women, evil and good... We can also find it in the sheath (masculine), and the nut (feminine).

4. Explain the universal symbols that appear in the video and how they adapt to the believings of the village

For example, when a person died, they use stone to keep that spirit around them, as stones represents what is everlasting. Trees also represent something special. In this case, they are axes that connect the Gods in the sky with the humans on Earth. There is an important tree which is the centre of the city. Moreover, there are engraved symbols in columns that represent fertility.

These symbols are connected to the animism because they have a close relation with the animist view of everything having an essence. We can see this, as an example, in the rocks. To keep the spirits of their ancestors around them and to live within them, the people of the village uses rocks to make that everlasting.

5. Explain the symbols of the house, what parts and how they decorate

The house is divided in three floors. The bottom part is for animals, the middle for persons and the top is for Marapu, or Gods. The hens life with the humans in the middle part of the house. The house is decorated with buffallo skulls, animals that they had previously sacrified to the gods. Inside the house, there are two columns that sustain the Earth, and represent men and women, evil and good, Sun and Moon, etc. and other opposite nature things found in the dualist believes.

6. Who is Marapu?

The Marapu are the spirits who are around the people in the village. They are mainly the ones of their fathers and grandfathers who died.
7. Explain the symbolism of the Loom and explain the drawing of Ikats 

The drawings of the Ikats tell the past of their land and village. We can see in some of them representations of the portuguese conquerors, when they arrived at the island. There are also representations of spirits and horses, sacred animals which were carried from Arabia to Indonesia.

8. How do the Sumbe anounce the new year?

The Ratu listens to the spirits and observates the Niali, a seaworm. When the time of the year in which the Niali goes to the shoars to reproduce, the new year is about to come, because they indicate the new anual moon. After the Ratu has received this information, he preaches this to all the village.

9. Explain the symbolsim of Pasola

Pasola is an event where the villagers ride horses (sacred animals) with spears, handkerchiefs and hats on their heads. The horseriders fight inside of a circle limited by spectetators. In this event, there has to be blood for the Pasola to be good, as the blood spoiled gives fertility. Also, the Pasola calms the spirits.

10. How the ratu tell the future of the village?

He listen to spirits by praying and singing. This way, he communicates with the Gods and the spirits which are around him, and these tell the Ratu the future of the village. When he had recopilated all this information, the Ratu preaches the destiny of the village to his fellow.