Photos Captions: Bathing Ritual bathing tube for sick child. Children Father and children, Teiw Waar. Crossbel Shamanic cross-belts, Teiw Waar. Father Father and son, Teiw Waar. Flute1 Daughter trying to play nose flute, Teiw Waar (pnsool). Flute2 Father playing nose flute, Teiw Waar. Hanging Hanging out, Teiw Waar. Kdiik1 Kdiik frames hung from the roof in storage - Teiw Waar. Kdiik2 Kdiik (center), blow pipe (still green) stored on rafters, Teiw Waar. Kwashior Reddish tinted hair may reflect Kwashiorkor. Zither1 Father, shaman, playing two-stringed male zither (Kruub), Teiw Waar. Zither2 Shaman demonstrates male KrUUb. Zither3 Shaman demonstrates male KrUUb. Zither4 Boy with male KrUUb. Zither5 Son holding two-stringed male zither (KrUUb). Zither6 Son holding two-stringed male zither (KrUUb). Rmpent Pent, Tkoy holding baby langur Fencing Pent fencing with lazkap (palm broomstraws) Seedlings Pent with lada ceep (bird pepper seedlings) Rat Pent with rat which the kids ate later. Mt. Traas Preparing to make a highway Destruction Durian plantation destroyed by highway equipment
These pictures come from Teiw Musaak on the upper Teiw Waar
and mostly show adults and children improvising on musical instruments
(the nose flute, pnsool, and the two stringed "male"
zither, kruub). Two pictures show frame-noose traps for small
game, kdiik, hanging from the roof. It is worth noting that the
men in these pictures are looking after the children, to the degree
that the kids need or want looking after. Semai child supervision
is mostly a matter of providing laps, and kids seem to get equal
comfort from the laps of either men or women.
The pronounciation of the "U" in KrUUb, the musical
instrument is pronounced more like the "e" in "perhaps"
than like the "ou" in "you". In the International
Phonetic Alphabet, you write that sound as an upside down e (a
"schwa"). This is to be distinguished from the "u"
pronounced "ou" in this dialect as well as a long and
short "a."
The kids ate the rat. Small mammal and bird snacks are a major source of protein for these children.
The area where the Semai live is slowly being destroyed by
highways and "modernization." See "A
Vision of Modernization" for Rmpent's (then a 9 year
old child) pictorial understanding of this.
All photos Copyright © 1992 Robert K. Dentan, All rights
reserved.
email: rkdentan
<rkdentan@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Last updated 26 October 2000