Kadazan Culture

Culture and Taboos

Injury
"peace offerings" for any hurt or injury
caused by one person to another.
The peace offering is called"Sogit"which is
something given to the injured party.
Thesogitgiven is either a pig, or a chicken,
and a certain amount of money depending
on the seriousness of the offense.

Harvest festival
Rice farming background steeped in
animistic belief.
Giving thanks to the rice
spirit"Bambaazon"after the end of the rice
harvesting season.
A spirit looks after the livelihood of the
Kadazan farmers by giving them abundant
rice harvest each passing year.

Marriage

Engagement (miatod) - boy (12) and girl (11).

Boy - formal visit to the girl's house
accompanied by relatives and close friends.
Time : agreed upon beforehand.
Girl - seven rice-balls as a special dish for her future
husband.
Sent to the near house of one of her relations
Dowry : a large gong, a small gong, a (small) cannon, a
buffalo, some bronze, land, and so forth.
Meal : of rice and buffalo meat, pork, chicken and
similar dishes, ricewine and the juice of the coconut
blossom.
Special rice is fed to boy by an old lady from the girl's
side. This is done in front of all present.

Groom-to-be and his close friends stay behind in the girl's

house.
Girl returns and meet her future husband
Serve him with more food and drink
Engaged couple stay with their own parents.
Boy help in his future mother-in-law's house,
Collecting the firewood, ploughing the soil, putting up
temporary sheds
Girl help her future mother-in-law
Plant the rice, cook and so on
Boy may visit the girl's house whenever he likes on his own.
Girl must be accompanied by her mother, an aunt or an
elder sister.
If either one of them breaks the rules, a penalty will be
executed.
Marriage (16-17yo) : wedding date fixed by mutual
agreement.

Betrothal: A man who (bridegroom's) is chosen

to carry out the betrothal rites,
reading a short couplet set to a Kadazan
melody.
Then a huge feast: buffaloes, pigs and
chickens, wine and bamboo stems of coconut
blossom juice

Illness
(Cause) Supernatural beings: ghosts & devils
Falls ill, call for a medicine-woman.
Casts spells & explains the necessary taboos to be followed
Provides medicines: inter alia, the tail and skin of a python, the
tail and fat of an ant-eater, cockroaches, bees, rats, rattan
roots, nibung-palm roots, betelnut roots, langsat (a fruit) skin
and wild bananas.
The medicine-woman brings a chicken, a pig and some yellow
rice to a fig-tree or a large boulder which she believes to be the
abode of a resident spirit.
At the boulder/beneath the fig-tree the woman softly chants her
spells in the language of the spirits.
Put the yellow rice in a bamboo stem, added the chicken and
pig's blood & their hearts and lungs.
Bamboo stem placed on the boulder/below the tree in the
ordained manner to the accompaniment of certain words.

Funerals

Death : Everyone informed.

Body is washed & dressed in fine clothes and sprinkled with rosewater.
Cigarette/cheroot smoker, a cigarette or cheroot is placed in his
mouth
The body kept in the house (3-7 days) before it is buried.
All the occupants must keep awake (sleep) doused with water,
To watch out for the devil or genie which in the guise of a large bird
will try to fly away with the body.
This bird is known as the pendaatan bird.
(Atmosphere) Complete calm and silence in the house
Prevent a cat from jumping over the outstretched corpse the dead
(transformed) a dangerous and terrifying giant.
Coffin/burial jar based on rank & wealth.
Wrapped up in cloth and tied to a pole.
When the body is ready, it is carried in procession to the grave to the
accompaniment of gongs and drums, firecrackers and gunfire.

Taboos

Transcript of Taboo During Pregnancy

Hornet fruit trees during pregnancy
Pregnant women are prohibited to hornet fruit trees. The kadazandusun people believe that, when a pregnant woman hornet a fruit
tree, the baby will have physical disturbance in his/her lips, nose or
tongue. The lips, nose or tongue will split into two.
Cannot sew cloths
Pregnant woman cannot sew any cloths during pregnancy. It is
believed that during labor, it will be difficult for that woman to give
birth.

Kill animal flea

Pregnant women cannot kill animal flea. This is because, the born
baby will become like the flea in terms of color and the physical
appearance. For example, dog flea. When the pregnant women kill
the dog flea, the baby will have many body hair and dark in colour.