Like spirit houses elsewhere in the Sepik, the Kaningara haus tambaran is located at the physical center and highest point of the village. Because of its location, the Spirit House is the focus of the social and ceremonial lives of its adult male members. It is here in the Spirit House that men (and only men) spend part of almost every day of their lives either sitting quietly chewing betel-nut, dozing after a hard day’s work, or in conversation with other men; it is also the building in which men publicly debate matters of clan and village concern and in which, formerly, they prepared for war. Moreover, it is within the spirit house that groups of men perform the rituals and rite of passage ceremonies that are believed to be of vital importance for the economic, political, and ancestral well-being of the community in which it is located.