The Naruerinaki People

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The Naruerinaki people (from rina - to speak) live on several island chains east of namjog

Overview

The Naruerinaki are a neolithic people living on island chains in the Great Ocean. Their technology is primative using stone tools made form flint, obsidian and bone. If metals are available they have yet to discover any past gold found in rivers and do not show any interest in adapting their tools as of yet.

They Live in small villages in up to 50-100 people with everyone taking an active part in leading and providing food for the tribe. The best hunters and fishers take primary roles in expeditions should a leader be need. The most prominate role is that of Nayuneyänaki or shaman. He leads the tribe in all spiritual matters and healing.

Geography

Their culture is centred on two island chains for the meantime. One called Naweayisongi or the Gifted Daughters named after the belief that the islands are the daughters of Songinahrongitsi given to the tribes living there and the Nasetenchu the Stone fish, after the legend that the god Kuoyenrìmata fished the islands from the sea, giving the islands the nickname of Nanchu Kuoyenrìmatapom (kuoyenrìmata's fish)

Climate

The Islands built upon volcanic activity extends from the south and bends north then west into the deep ocean. Being near to the equator the climate ranges from Mediterranean to subtropical. Many Island have volcanos and covered in lush forests with thousands of species of birds.

People

The Naruerinaki have straight hair almost always black with dark coloured eyes. Their skin being medium to dark tanned, and their build slim and lithe; a product of their active lifestyle of hunting, fishing and sailing. Males practice fasting and is seen as a preferred masculine quality. Women are allowed a little clemency with weight as a slight girth is seen as healthy and show they are able to bear strong children, women’s work in the gardens, forage when not weaving or attending to children.

Clothing

Living in a tropical climate there is little need of clothes. Mostly they wear loin cloths, both for men and for women. Women’s breasts are usually left bare but can be decorated with large woven necklaces. Often they wear bands of leaves around their lower legs and around the upper arm for more formal occasions. Feathers can be woven into these for added effect. This is accompanied with frond of feathers attached to the loin cloth and headdress of woven fibres with feathers for colour. The Face is often pierced through the nose and ears, women’s breasts can be pierced with bone as can the penis. It is customary for the shaman to have a row of three or four labrets through the nape of their neck as is it believed the spirits communicate through the base of the skull and into the head, these bones will keep a little of the power left behind.

Diet

Their diet primarily consists of various fishes, some foods remain taboo when caught from the ocean such as shark which can eat human, eating this meat means to the Naruerinaki that they could be eating other members of their trib. Whales are seen as the most holy animal found so their consumption is only eaten on the most important of occasions, turtles are eaten for various rituals. On the beach children search the rockpools for shelfish and on land they forage for various fruits with women. Women are also in charge of primitive gardening and plant roots such as yam, sweet potatoe and manioc, the latter must be before eating processed as the juice is poisoness. Pepper and chilli is also grown to add spice to their diet. Hunting on land usually involves catching birds, there are no terrestrial mammals on any of the Islands the Naruerinaki inhabit.

Crafts and Art

The Naruerinaki are adept in weaving. The tribe is comapred to tightly woven textiles. Women are in charge of weaving. Sacred baskets can be made with baleen from whales jaws by shamans, incorporated are sharks teeth.

They make tools from bone, flint and obsidian

Dancing is seen as the apogee of culture along with music. The Naruerinaki group there dances into catergories. Nayunewuki are the dances dedicated to the great spirits and stories of creation and great actions performed by the spirits themselves, included also in this catergory are the dances on Atama, the Nakwesmiwuki dances. Naamongwuki are the dances performed after a hunt, they are used to calm the spirits of hunted animals and thank them for their flesh. Finally there are Navachawuki, teaching dances, as the name suggests these dances teach people various skills and arts. There are dances to teach how to hunt, how to grind manioc, how to sweep the village to keep it clean. To these dances are repetoires of songs.

Music is performed with dances, often drums are employed. Some dances whave there own drums sacred in nature and only ever played for that dance and sometimes only by a certain lineage. For example the Swäkuaneo tribe on Tetekuti have a dance to yänaransi for the manioc harvest, the men of the village bring out the drum called Amongtuuntawintoy, the calming drum. The men ask yanaransi for a safe harvest and that the manioc will not poison any of their tribe. A great War drum called kuopom wintoy is used when they fight the Yenrìmata tribe. The drum is carved into the face of Kuoyenrìmata and painted red and inset with sharks teeth. The war chef leads the warriors with the dance and builds them up into a frenzy before the Yenrîmata tribe after which they engage in battle.