Toraja Ancestral Origin Houses (tongkonan)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The focal point of Toraja kinship organization and social life is the ancestral origin house. These houses are pile-built structures, with characteristically curved and extended roofs, so cantilevered that the eaves must be supported on special freestanding posts at the front and the rear.
Toraja Textiles
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
For at least six hundred years, the Toraja highlands were an end destination in the long networks of trade that stretched from India and China across Island Southeast Asia. Indian textiles were very highly sought after all over the archipelago and were used as a currency in the spice trade. Their superior workmanship and bright, fast colors were as much admired here as they were in Europe and the Middle East.
Classic Veracruz
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The state of Veracruz forms an arc along Mexico's Gulf coast some 500 miles long and 30 to 100 miles wide. Basically tropical and often mountainous, this region was a geographical and cultural link between Teotihuacán in the highlands of central Mexico and cities in the Maya Lowlands to the southeast. It was also part of the principal sea-level route that led north along the Gulf to what is now the southeastern United States.
Bacchantes or Maenads
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In Greek mythology, Dionysus is the god of wine and wine-making. The Roman counterpart is Bacchus. The cult of Bacchus seems to have held a particular attraction for women. A Bacchante is a female follower of Bacchus; Maenads refers to the women devotees to Dionysus.
Aztec
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The last indigenous state of Mesoamerica, the Aztec Empire was founded by nomads in the Valley of Mexico in 1325 CE. Before the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 CE, Aztec authority spread by conquest from their capital at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) through most of present-day Mexico. Aztec power ended with Spanish conquest. According to the ancient Mexican calendar, the wind and storm god Quetzalcoatl was born in Year 1 Reed.
Mixtec
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Mixtec people lived for centuries in the mountainous region of what is today southern Mexico, in the western part of the state of Oaxaca and in adjacent areas of the states of Guerrero and Puebla.
Zapotec (Monte Albán)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Some of the earliest examples of writing in Mesoamerica can be found in the Zapotec area in the fertile area of the Valley of Oaxaca. Around 600 BCE the Zapotecs erected some of the earliest permanent architecture dedicated to public ritual at the site of San José Mogote. Beginning in 300 BCE, residents eventually settled at the hilltop site of Monte Albán, which dominated the Valley of Oaxaca and its surrounding areas for hundreds of years.
Architecture and Village Layout on Nias
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Nias can be subdivided into three general regions based on cultural differences in language, mythology, political organization, village layout, house architecture, art, and social rules (called böwö here, but otherwise known as adat throughout Indonesia).
Palepai
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Lampung shipcloths are habitually divided into two main categories, tampan and palepai, based on shape and use. A palepai has an elongated shape, usually they are about ten feet long, with an average width of around twenty inches.
Lampung Shipcloths
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Extravagantly decorated ship cloths from Lampung have been of great interest to the outside world since the early 20th century, but many of their motifs remain a mystery. The designs—often depicting numerous animals—sometimes resemble a veritable melting pot of Asian traditions.