They were authorized to install office holders and hand out their corresponding seats on the stuccoed benches in the longhouse structures.
Then there is that group of cases who may have been identified by their longhouse community as ill but who have never sought medical treatment.
Assessments were carried out over a 6-month period by travelling to each individual's longhouse and, in remote locations, staying with the family overnight.
In cases of divorce, the woman returns to her parents' longhouse, while the children remain with their father and are integrated into his community.
A typical longhouse would often hold an extended family in two apartments, which clearly contrasts with the facilities now demanded in contemporary contexts.
The longhouse first appears on record in an 1851 census survey.
Bilik are private family spaces that are clearly demarcated from the more public open space (ruai) that runs the length of the longhouse.
This is especially so for longhouse dwellers who commonly relate experiences of encounters with the dead and with spirits, usually in dreams and to a lesser extent in waking life.
