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A unique tradition; measuring pigs in Nias Island

Published March 27, 2008 Nias for Dummies Leave a Comment

Author: Firman Zebua, SH

This Video is taken at BANUA SIBOHOU III-ALASA TALUMUZŐI, Hosted by: Youtube.com

Afore is a measuring system unique to Nias, used only for pigs. It is still in use in many areas. It is forerunner to modern time standardization and always mentioned in traditional laws. It is an app. 1, 5 m long stick of nibongwood with 15 marks. The Ketua Adat (head of tradition) in very village (except in Muslim village where there are no pigs), has one stick and all sticks in nias are almost identical. The original master stick is since long gone. To measure a pig, only a certain palm leaf can be used (some village they use a rope of plastic with two bottles: see the video above).

The chest measurement of the pig is taken with the leaf and the length is read against the afore. The whole length of the stick is one Batu. A batu is divided into 16 Rufia. One Rufia is divided in 2 Gufa. If the leaf is longer than one batu, the leave is folded and the additional length is measure backwards on the stick. The distance between the marks differs and for example the first three Rufia on the stick are much longer than the last three Rufia.

In Gunungsitoli, people starting to use scale to measure a pig, it is influence of modernization and more simple. But still many people use Afore as a standard of measuring a pig in Nias.

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