The society jino

They adore the ancestors, and to a good number of present gods in all the phenomena of the nature. As "Aponapo" that governs the nature, "Pomoniangniang" that regulates the births, and gods of the Cultivation, Rivers and Mountains. Him numerous ceremonies devote themselves to the last one, since he is the person in charge of the hunting and the harvest, and his discomfort can cause misfortunes to the man. Earlier there him were sacrificing themselves pigs, chickens, and even dogs, which according to his legends possess many yang, and his death favors the growth of the plants, belonging to the yin.

The shamans intervene when there is drought or other disasters, presiding at the sacrifices to the sky. Also they treat the illnesses with help of herbs.

They have very much respect to the spirits of the ancestors, who do not die with the body, and can bother again to the people. That's why they bury the dead persons in cemeteries a little removed from the village, with his personal objects, constructing him a cabañita on the grave where his relatives offer him meal. On having returned to the village, they erase his traces so that the spirit could not follow them.

In every room inside the wife's house cult yields to his hearth. This one is formed by three stones. One represents the family, other one to the chief of the wife's house, and the third one to the community of the village. Zhu Baotian (1) thinks that it is a reflex of three types of property of the ground: relative, of the wife's house, and of the village. Since both the ground and the fire of the hearth are the base of the feeding of the Jino. Also, it describes a cult in which the direction towards which the steam of the first rice rises, there indicates the group who will be lucky in the hunting during this year.

(1) TO PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF JI-NUO LONG-HOUSES. - By Zhu Bao-tian Th-YN newsl 6-1989

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