Indonesian New Guinea Adventure Guide. David Pickell
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long, wide swamps of the South Coast support the Mimikans of the coastal area south of Puncak Jaya, the Asmat of the broad coastal plain centered around Agats, the Jaqai inland of Kimaam Island around Kepi, and the Marind-Anim around Merauke in the far southeast. Along the North Coast, the Waropen groups of the coastal swamps around the edge of Cenderawasih Bay and the mouth of the great Mamberamo River, live a similar lifestyle.
Of all these coastal people, the Asmat are the best known. Their fierce head-hunting culture, powerful art, and the unfortunate disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in the region in 1961 have succeeded in making them infamous. (See "The Asmat" page 146.)
Many of these coastal peoples were at least semi-nomadic, and their cultures revolved around a ritual cycle of headhunting. Nomadism and headhunting are, of course, high on the list of established governments' most loathed practices, and both have been banned and discouraged in West Papua.
The Mimikans, the Asmat and the Marind-Anim have all suffered from the loss of spiritual life that came about with the ban on headhunting. None of these groups is particularly suited culturally to organized education, business or any of the other limited opportunities that have come to them with modernization.
The Austronesians
Some of West Papua's coastal areas have been settled by Austronesians, and here garden and tree crops replace sago as staple foods. Particularly on the North Coast and the neighboring islands, many ethnic groups speak Austronesian languages that are very different from the Papuan languages found throughout the rest of the island.
The Austronesians have historically been involved in trade with the sultanate of Tidore, the Chinese, the Bugis and other groups from islands to the west. Bird of paradise skins and slaves were the principal exports, along with whatever nutmeg could be taken from the Fakfak area.
Austronesian influences can be seen in the raja leadership system practiced among these groups, perhaps adopted from the sultanates of Ternate, Tidore and Jailolo. With their political power cemented by control of trade, some rajas ruled wide areas embracing several ethnic groups, from seats of power in the Raja Empat Islands, in the Sorong area, around Fakfak or in the Kaimana region.
A somewhat different system was found in the Austronesian areas around Biak, Yapen, Wandaman Bay and east of Manokwari. Here some villagers practiced a system of hereditary rule, and others were ruled by self-made, charismatic leaders or great war heroes.
The inland groups
Inland from the coastal areas, in the foothills and valleys of West Papua, scattered groups live in small communities that subsist on small farms, pig raising and hunting and gathering. They usually grow taro and yams, with sweet potatoes being of secondary importance. Since they were intermediaries between the highland groups and the coastal people, some groups in this zone were important intermediaries in the trade in pigs and cowrie shells, both, until fairly recently, serving as "money" in the highlands.
In the interior of the Bird's Head, the Maibrat (or Ayamaru) and surrounding groups carried on a complex ritual trade involving kain timur—antique cloths from eastern Indonesia—which were obtained from the coastal Austronesian traders in exchange for pigs and food from the interior.
Every two years the Maibrat "Big Men" (shorthand for a kind of charismatic leader) organized a huge feast involving payments to relatives and economic transactions between groups. The Maibrat believed that death and illness were the work of ancestral spirits. Good relations among the living, achieved through gift-giving, were essential lest the ancestral spirits be angered.
A Dani woman, dressed in marriage finery. The Dani, like most of West Papua's highlanders, are Papuans.
The people living in West Papua's lowland forests between the coastal swamps and the highlands are the least known. Nowhere is there a very high population density, and many of these people are nomadic.
The Kombai, Korowai and scattered other groups living between the Asmat area in the south, and the southern ranges of the Central Highlands in the north, have proved to be among the most resistant people on the island to the entreaties of missionaries and others who would have them join the so-called modern world. One group has for years systematically rejected, with spears and arrows on occasion, missionaries, government workers, and even gifts of steel axes, nylon fish nets, and steel fishhooks.
Cannibalism is frequently reported and surely still practiced here. These unregenerate forest dwellers—inhabiting the area in the upper reaches of the Digul River watershed and scattered other locations in the foothill forests south of the central cordillera—live in tall tree houses, perhaps to escape the mosquitos, and the men wear leaf penis wrappers.
An Asmat man from Biwar Laut, on the south coast.
Highland West Papuans
People have been living in West Papua's highlands for 25,000 years, and farming the relatively rich soils here for perhaps 9,000 years. The altitude of the rugged mountain chain produces a more temperate climate than the south, and perhaps more important, is outside the worst of the range of the malarial Anopheles mosquito.
Highlanders practice pig husbandry and sweet potato farming. Sweet potato cultivation, featuring crop rotation, short fallow periods, raised mounds and irrigation canals, attains a peak of sophistication in the Baliem Valley. West Papua's first highlanders relied on taro and yams, adapting to the subsequent introduction of sugar cane, bananas, and much later, the sweet potato.
One sartorial trait distinguishes all of West Papua's highlanders: they all wear "phallocrypts" (penis coverings). Or at least all did, until this striking wardrobe caught the attention of some puritanical missionaries. However, there is less pressure on the highlanders to wear clothes today than there has been in the past, as both the Christians and the government have toned down their campaigns.
The well-known Dani are but one of many highland groups living in West Papua's highlands. (See "The Dani," page 110.) West of the Dani are the Amung, Damal and Uhundini group, numbering about 14,000 and sharing a language family. West of the Damal are the Moni, numbering about 25,000. (See "Growing up Moni," page 118). Further west, in the vicinity of the Paniai Lakes, the westernmost extent of the central mountains, are the Ekari, numbering about 100,000.
East and south of the Dani, living in some very rugged terrain, are the 30,000 Yali, speaking several dialects. Three related groups live east of the Yali: the Kimyal, some 20,000 of whom live around Korupun, the 9,000 Hmanggona who live around Nalca, and the 3,000 Mek or Eipomek who live around the village of Eipomek.
The Western Dani
The Western Dani, sometimes called Lani, live in the highlands from east of Ilaga to the edge of the Grand Baliem Valley. The introduction of the Irish potato, which can withstand frost and cold, has allowed the Western Dani to plant up to 3,000 meters.
The Western Dani have been responsive to the efforts of missionaries and the government, and have historically been far less warlike than their neighbors in the Baliem, as they farm far less fertile soil and consequently have less excess population and time to expend on warfare. The Baliem Dani's proclivity for warfare is considered to be a product of the spare time resulting from good soil and sophisticated agricultural techniques. (For more on the Baliem Valley Dani, see "The Dani," page 110.)
The Yali
The Yali live in the area west of the Baliem Valley, from Pass Valley in the north to Ninia in the south. There are at least three dialects of the Yali language, with speakers centered around Pass Valley, Angguruk and Ninia. The language is related to Dani, and their name comes from the Dani word "yali-mo," which means: "the lands to the east"
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