Strange Perception

Hi everyone! :)
My first post...
I'd just like to explain a bit about what sort of things I will be posting. As I mentioned in my intro I am very interested in bizarre events and strange things that make you question life and how we perceive it... anything that's not considered "normal" lol. So what I am trying to say is that I think curiosity is an important thing to have because it adds mystery to our everyday lives :D I hope that makes sense..

I am going to start by telling a story that I was given last year in my sociology class.
Some of you may know this story already..

Stopover in Tacal Scenario

You are all passengers on a flight to the Middle East, when your plane develops engine trouble and is forced to land in the extremely small and virtually unheard nation of Tacal. No-one on the aircraft has ever been to Tacal or has any knowledge of Tacalese history or customs.

Upon landing, you are ushered into a long hut that sits adjacent to the terminal building. The floor is dirt, the walls are bamboo and there are no windows. There is a circle of lit candles on the floor, and an Old Man in colourful robes with thick sandals is seated cross-legged on a raised platform in the middle of the candles. Set back about 3 metres outside the candles are a number of raised pedestals about a metre high.

On either side of the Old Man’s pedestal is a young girl, dressed in knee-length loose fitting robes with bare feet. The girls are bowing very low to the ground, with their foreheads, arms, hands touching the dirt.

Without speaking, the Old Man gestures that you should all sit on the ground. The two Tacalese girls rise and gesture, in turn, for each of the males of your group to follow them to the pedestals surrounding the candles and to sit on top of them with your legs crossed. The two Tacalese girls then return to the women in the group and motion for them to remove their footwear. After placing the removed shoes on a shelf the women are then motioned to sit on the ground and to spread out in a loose ring in front of the pedestals that all the men are now sitting on.

This done, the two girls return to their positions by the pedestal of the Old Man and resume their low bow. The Old Man now gestures to the women visitors on the ground, to bow too. Very reluctantly the women obey.

After about a minute the two Tacalese girls rise from their bow and the women are motioned to sit up again as well. The two girls stand up and carry bowls of greenish liquid and proceed to go from pedestal to pedestal, bowing at each man, gently washing the soles of their shoes and bowing again before proceeding to the next man. When this is done, the girls approach each woman in turn, gesture them to stand. The girls then kneel before each woman and clean their feet. With this done, the two girls return to the pedestal and again go into their deep bow. The Old Man gestures and the women bow too.

This time the bow lasts for almost two minutes before the two Tacalese girls again sit up, motioning for the other women to sit up also. The girls then stand and each take a bowl of water in one hand and bowl of some kind of food in the other. They hold the bowl of water up to the Old Man who dips his fingers into it twice and then sprinkles the water from his fingertips on the ground. Next he takes a piece of the food from the other bowl, holds it out at arms length for the moment, and then puts it in his mouth, letting our a low moaning sound as he chewed it. He then gestures for the girls to offer the water to the men, followed by the bowl of food. And each in turn the men are heard to utter a low moaning sound as they chew.

This done the Old Man gestures for the two young girls to offer the food to the women. The women are not offered the water, and are silenced when any of them attempt to make the moaning sound or any other sounds. After feeding the last woman, the two Tacalese girls return to the pedestal and assume their low bow on the ground.

The bow lasted nearly three minutes this time before the girls sat up, motioning to the women to sit up also, then the girls stood, picked up two decorated cups of liquids and offered the cups to the Old Man who drank from each one. Obeying his gestures, the girls offered the drink to the men, wiping the rim of the cup between each drinker. After the men, the Old Man motioned that the women were to be offered – however the rim was no longer cleaned between each person. When all had drunk, and the cups put away, the girls once again resumed their low bow. All of the women soon bowed also.

After five minutes, the two girls sit upright again. They stand and walk around the circle of candles and light sticks of incense, filling the already warm hut with a thick flowery scent. The girls then proceed to unroll a long fibre mat from the Old Man’s pedestal to the door of the hut. When the mat was in place the girls help the Old Man down from his pedestal and followed him out of the hut. They return after five minutes or so and assist all of the men off their pedestals and lead them down the fibre mat and out of the hut. They then return to their original positions and once again assume the bowing position.

After only a minute or so the two girls get up and proceed to roll up the fibre mat. They then gesture for the women to stand and led them out of the hut, handing them their shoes as they leave.

After being reunited in the lobby of the small airport terminal, you are soon on the plane that has now been repaired. You are now ‘in flight’ towards your original destination and start to discuss with each other your two-hour strange experience in Tacal.

What was the dominant sex of Tacal?
What did the Tacalese hold to be most sacred?
Why were the women made to take their shoes off?
What kind of ritual did you just experience?

Answers

Tacal is a very small country, dominated by the capital city, Tacal.
Many years ago Tacal was a bustling city with tall buildings, sophisticated technology and many modes of private and public transport. It was a city that was run and managed exclusively by men.
Over time though, the Tacalese men became greedy – always trying to expand their city and their personal wealth – and they took risks with their environment and made dangerous decisions.
Over a decade ago, one such decision resulted in a massive explosion in Tacal, which destroyed or damaged almost all the buildings in Tacal city, and effectively crippled the transport systems. The ‘accident’ killed well over half all of the Tacalese men.
This was a turning point in Tacalese history. The women of Tacal came to power and in doing so they decreed:

1. That men were the source of all evil because men thought they were better than nature and thought they could control it, without respecting it.
2. That Tacal needed to respect the earth and nature and that Tacalese rituals needed to reflect this.

The dominant sex of Tacal is female
The Tacalese hold the earth most sacred
The women take their shoes off to have direct contact with the earth while the men wear sandals to avoid contaminating the earth
The ritual is a sacrifice of the old man