Gebusi Photo Gallery: Chapter 3

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1. Eileen holds a baby. Many Gebusi infants died.

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2. A woman mourns the death of her younger brother.

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3. Daguwa, sitting on the longhouse porch shortly before he committed suicide.

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4. Saliam, Daguwa’s wife

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5. Armed visitors march into Yibihilu to see Daguwa’s body

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6. An angry visiting man

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7. Wahi in mourning, prepared for a funeral fight

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8. Wahi in mourning for a second death

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9. A fight breaks out at a funeral in Yibihilu for the death of a senior woman. Peacekeepers intervene between the two sides

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10. Corpse of a young man (Halia) is carried out of the house for burial at Yibihilu.

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11. A Gebusi man starts to construct a platform of poles and bark in the grave above a corpse. (Part of the corpse, shiny with cadaveric fluid,  is visible in the lower left of the frame.)

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12. A woman mourns on top of a completed grave. Her legs are coated with dried cadaveric fluid from the corpse.

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13. A woman whose husband has just died is consoled.

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14. A memorial constructed atop Daguwa’s grave, including coconuts and other food for his spirit to eat and new bags that his female kin had recently made to give to him..

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15. Armed visitors listen to the account of Daguwa’s death at his funeral.

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16. Bruce in the midst of armed men discussing Daguwa’s death.

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17. Saliam sits forlorn as Daguwa’s death is discussed.

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18. Hosts run into the longhouse at Yibihilu with plates of food to appease the visitors.

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19. Kava root (gowi), a mild intoxicant, is chewed and mixed with water before serving to visitors.

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20. Sasaga ladles kava into a drinking bowl made of a palm spathe.

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21. A costumed man drinks a bowl of intoxicating kava.

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22. Two funeral antagonists make peace by sharing a pipeful of tobacco smoke over the grave of the deceased.

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23. Swiman, the spirit medium who married Saliam — and who had previously killed her mother.  Swiman was the main spirit medium of the Yibihilu community.  He communed with the spirits regularly during public séances and in his dreams.

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