Die Megalithkultur im Susua-Gomo-Gebiet, Nias

This article is concerned with a main area of the Niassian culture: the frontier-area of the districts of Lahusa and Gomo, called the Susua-Gomo-district after the confluence of the main rivers Susua and Gomo. From here most of the Niassian clans pretend to originate, and here we find a lot of often deserted stone villages and - only here - the animal-shaped megaliths. The purpose of this article is to show the place of the diverse kinds of these megaliths in the life of the people. The Niassian in all his affairs feels himself imbedded in the community of his village, in duty bound vertically to his ancestors and horizontally to the living, but also supported by this community. Vilage life had his culminating points, especially the. Owasa feasts, "feasts of merits" as Schnitger writes, being the crystallization points of social life in the village. At these feasts megaliths were erected. Today there are no longer such feasts. What has remained are the stones which are the silent witnesses of the past.