THE ORANG ASLI FOOD TABOOS: SEMAI

Purpose•The spiritual well-being

of individuals

•Resourse partitioning considered to be

unclean

•Small animals;lizards and leeches

•will be regarded as contaminated and thrown away

•Poisonous and harmful animals

considered to possess

spirits

•All animals

•weaned children of more than 4 years of age on small animals

•child gets a bit older, the animals can be added to the list of edible species.

human spirit

•deemed to be strong at 20 years of age

•Compete with the spiris of bigger animals

•no longer remain taboo.

Women

•Pregnant - restrict to small animals and trought strong to possess "weak" spirits

•rodents may be eaten only if caught by the pregnant woman's husband or a near relative and she must eat the whole rodent by herself

•After childbirth-motherreats gruel for a week and special 6-day food taboos may be "prescribed" by a medicine man for any sick person that seeks his advice.

PREGNANT

1. Restrict to small animals

2. Caught by the

pregnant

pregnant woman's

husband

3. Eat the

whole rodent

by herself

AFTER CHILDBIRTH

1- Eats gruel

2. Her husband observed the

same food restrictions

3. Special 6-day food taboos

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2711054

http://asiaharvest.org/pages/profile/nonChina/Malaysia/sem

ai.pdf

REFERENCES