Culture of the Oan Isles: Difference between revisions
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Various body parts are assigned specific meaning. These include talons, tails, quills, scales, claws, paws, fur, markings, fins, flippers, Jaws, eyes, ears, horns and tusks. Thus, a chimera of various bodily features is formed to indicate a person or groups relation to other groups of people. Thus, these totem animals while being superficially based on some real animal are often never found in nature due to ascribing unique features for the purposes of identification.
A special certificate called a Certification of Totemage is issued by the Department of Home Affairs with a full description of the totem and the relevant relations it represents upon application by a person (or their legal guardians) and groups. Although the certificate is a relatively new contrivance designed to prevent repetition of totems, the totems are ancient and have increased in sophistication and complexity with time. Some families have the totem carved into wooden seal or a large statue outside their home.
==Funereal rites==
Funereal rites vary according to different groups, however Oan people have developed burial rites that combine their folk beliefs and Mauism. Mauism has a strong reverance for the ancestors and thus believes that the physical body should be handled with respect and care. To that end when a person dies, the body is washed and wrapped by the family in white linen or a similar fabric. The body is usually cremated and scattered in a sacred location. These locations are determined by decree of the Rangitanga-a-te-Moana and cannot be violated. They are legally protected cultural heritage sites and various rules exist about the kinds of ceremonies and activities that can be done there or in their vicinity. However, the head is removed from the body and mummified and preserved in a shrine. This allows the family members to continue commuting with the dead even long after they are gone. Modern methods of preservation such as through the use of plastic and modern dehydration have developed that have allowed shrunken heads to be preserved for hundreds of years.
A ceremony is usually held by which the family, friends and acquaintances commemorate the death and life of the deceased. Mauists do not believe that human beings have any say over the souls of people or the afterlife. Thus ceremonies are usually entirely structured for the benefit of the living. They usually consist of people retelling old memories with the deceased, relatives and loved ones sharing words of encouragement, prayers for those left behind and incense and prayers to Atea, Maui and the ancestors for the successful execution of the funereal rites as mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
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