Korowai
The Korowai (also: Kuruwai , Kolofaup or Kolufo ) are a Melanesian indigenous people of forest nomads in the province of Papua in the Indonesian , southeastern part of West Papua ( Indonesian : Irian Jaya ) of the island of New Guinea . The people have been little researched to this day.
Settlement area
Territory and Tribal Neighbors
As a rough guide, it can be said that the Korowai live in the eastern neighborhood of the Asmat tribe , north of the Dairam Kabur river in the Merauke province and limited to the north by the Kopkaka ( Maoke Mountains ).
Viewed in more detail, the settlement area is limited to the west by the Eilanden River (Bafé) and to the southeast by the Becking River (Nailop) when it is crossed in the northeastern part. In the east, the western headwaters of the Digul River delimit the habitat of the Korowai. The tribal area immediately to the east is divided into the neighborhoods of the Asmat tribal groups of the Yupmakcain in the southeast and the Bras in the northeast. These Asmat ethnic groups are also some of the least explored tribes in New Guinea.
The Korowai's western neighbors are the Ulakhin . The Sait and Tsawkwambo live in the north and northeast . In the southwest the Wanggom and in the south finally the Kombai . There are almost fifty different Korowai clans.
The clans are dominated by letél abül or khén mengg (a) abül (strong men or fearless people ). The men mostly derive their legitimation from experience of inheritance law.
Settlements
In the autochthonous culture of the Kolufo (the term Korowai does not appear in the Kolufos language) the complete absence of village-like settlements is striking. Rather, family clans live in established and marked territories on tree houses that are greater marching distances apart. Villages such as Yaniruma , Mabul am Siriat , Baigon or Yafufla are not indigenous habitats of the Kolufos, but settlements established by Dutch missionaries from 1980 onwards, which evangelized Korowais living on the Becking and Eilanden Rivers are supposed to serve as accommodation. They mostly house small churches and modest residential buildings. In Yaniruma the missionaries laid out a landing strip for mission planes and helicopters and built a school very early on. Villages such as Wayal and Nanagaton are located in the area of the so-called Steinkorowai (Indonesian: Korowai Batu or Korowai: iliokolufo or Ilol Kolufo aup ), who live east of the Pacification Line and are again much less known and unexplored than their western neighbors. The term Pacification Line was coined by the Dutch priest and missionary Gerrit van Enk, who drew an imaginary boundary between areas of the Korowai that were barely accessible and completely inaccessible. At the same time, the term has to be seen as outdated in the meantime due to the far advanced missionary work and the associated loss of the indigenous culture of the Kolufos.
Culture
Lifestyle and diet
The small people of the Korowai, which according to the last census consisted of at least 2,868 people, live as their ancestors lived thousands of years ago. Due to the isolation from the outside world, their material culture is still rooted in the Stone Age . The world became aware of the Korowai around the early 1980s. A large part of the Korowai are still considered uncontacted due to the inaccessible settlement area. This is mainly due to the fact that there are no mineral resources on their territory, so that economic interests in their area are lost.
The Korowai live very isolated, but perfectly adapted to their natural habitat. To this day, the largest contiguous primeval forest on earth lies over their tribal area. This forms a natural barrier for their accessibility. Much more radical than the neighboring Dani , who live in the mountains , the Korowai are arrested in their traditional way of life. Both iron and other metals are largely unknown to this day, as are the materials and useful objects made from them. Pottery and writing for communication are alien to them.
The traditional way of life is particularly evident in their homes. People live in tree houses up to 50 meters high, which protect them perfectly from their life-threatening environment, such as feuds, neighborhood wars and parasite plagues. As a result of daily practice, a Korowai man climbs with ease and without any aids a knotless giant jungle in order to search for food at a dizzying height; these include bird nests, tree rats, edible plants and mushrooms as well as the larvae of the capricorn weevil.
To this day, the men hunt with bows and arrows. The hunt is purely for men. They build pitfalls in the rainforest to catch game. Hunted crocodile meat is reserved for men. Wild boars, cassowaries , snakes, spiders, birds, frogs and small marsupials are a natural part of the diet, as are palm leaves, fern tips, bread and pandanus fruits . As part of shifting cultivation , the Korowai cultivate yams , sweet potatoes and bananas. Sago ( kho ) is an essential food . In order to win sago, which is known as a thickener in the European market , the palms ( Metroxylon sagu ) are felled, the trunks are opened with stone axes and these are gutted down to the core. The women then wash the extracts to obtain the pure sago. The rather starchy sago is wrapped in banana leaves and baked. The Papuan name Sago means bread, because the starch of the sago palm also provides the flour for pasta such as flat cakes. The crawling saga larvae of the weevils are also eaten. The Korowai, like all shifting field farmers with a strong hunting and gathering orientation, live from an appropriated form of economic activity ( subsistence farming ).
Stone axes, bone knives and digging sticks are indispensable items in everyday life. Nevertheless, there are occasional luxurious attributes such as jewelry utensils. Korowai women put the wingbones of the flying fox through the tip of their noses. They also make necklaces out of cowrie snails and dog teeth. Men wear nose sticks, pig- tooth chains, and rattan jewelry. They wrap the latter around the hips. Clothing items are rare. The women only use a skirt made of sago fibers. The men have a sheet wrapped around the penis as a pubic cover. Some groups have a nutshell half instead of a leaf. The penis cases (Koteka), which are otherwise common on the island among the Dani and Asmat , are not used by the Korowai. Women do not leave their treehouse without noken (carrying nets), men do not leave their tree houses without a bow and arrow.
Family groups of up to eight people live in the tree houses. They live strictly gender-separated in refuges within their tree houses. If a group gets too big, it splits up.
Similar to the in Papua New Guinea in the Sepik -based Iatmul the settlement area of Korowai primarily consists of swamp. To this day there are neither law enforcement officers nor administration within the territory; rather, traditional rules of jurisdiction still apply.
Architecture of the tree houses
To this day, the Korowai live in trees (therefore sometimes referred to as tree people) and sometimes in the treetop regions. The dwellings are built from wooden poles and palm fronds; the floor consists of tree bark. The dwellings are completely built without ropes or nails. Only lianas hold the structures together. Because of their size, they are supported by long wooden posts. The only access to the house is via a vertical, notched (retractable) post, or via a ladder-like gawil for high-altitude tree houses . Only the tips of your feet fit into the notches. The tree house protects against attacks by hostile clans, wild animals, diseases and floods. The clearing around the tree house provides additional protection as approaching enemies are quickly noticed. War or peace situations can be recognized by the height of the building above the ground. Usually in times of peace it is built between 10 and 25 meters high, in turbulent times it is built up to 50 meters high.
A typical Korowai house has three rooms, two fire pits, and two verandas. In addition to the resting places, there are also belongings and a fireplace under the protective sago palm roof. The fireplace is tied with rattan over a hole in the floor of the hut and consists of branches filled with leaves and clay. It represents the central place on the platform of the tree house. In the event of fire or danger of fire from the cooking area, the rattan cords are cut so that the fireplace falls through the hole onto the forest floor. A new tree house has to be built every three to five years, as this can quickly rot in the humid tropical climate and / or be eaten away by insects.
The highest concentration of tree houses can be found along the shorelines of the most important rivers in the interior of the tribe's settlement area, such as the Afiüm , Walop , Mabül , Nelaf and Fukh rivers . High bank edges are preferred to live in.
language
The Korowai language is classified as Trans-New Guinea . The language family describes itself as Ok-Awyu, Awyu-Dumut (also Awyu-Ndumut - southeastern Papuan language area). There are also dialects.
worldview
The Korowai's view of the world emerges from three concentric circles. The Korowai ascribe these worlds to the god "Ginol". In the center is the world of clan-dividing life ( bolüpbolüp ), of people, animals and plants and the ever-present spirits. Outwardly follow the worlds of death ( bolüplefupé ) and the endless ocean ( méan-maél ). In the imagination of the end of the world, the worlds of life and death plunge into great water. The fish "Ndewe" lives there. This devours all life from humanity and animal world. Part of this understanding of the world is that the Korowai believe that there is no natural death. Instead, witchcraft (khakhua) is always involved, even if someone dies of an illness.
In modern times, the "ancients" warn their "descendants" of invading alien civilizations that bring disaster.
cannibalism
Paul Raffaele, an Australian journalist, has been investigating the question of whether cannibalism still exists among the Korowai today since the mid-2000s. To do this, he traveled to the tribe's settlement area in 2006. As a result, he was credibly assured that ritual cannibalism still exists today. However, as far as settlement areas near the border are already under the influence of public authority (police), a clear suppression of the cannibalism phenomenon can be observed. On the other hand, this would not be the case for the settlement areas in the depths of the jungle, which are still completely unexplored today. Although serious pathogens such as bacteria and poisoning caused by poisonous spiders and snakes regularly form the real cause of death for many residents, in ignorance of these medical causes the responsibility is sought and found with the khakhua (people addicted to witchcraft). Khakhua can be their own family members. The demonic power of the khakhuas is countered by killing them. With a targeted shot from the heart (bow and arrow) they are killed, then eviscerated, cut up and made ready to eat in banana leaves. The representations of Raffaele have been contradicted several times because they strongly recorded, although it is certain, that isolated cannibalistic rituals took place at least in the past within the framework of the khakhua belief.
Above all, diseases such as tropical malaria , tuberculosis , anemia , wound infections or elephantiasis regularly lead to the death of people among the clans.
Points of contact with the outside world
First contacts (1978–1983)
The first systematic attempts at contact with the Korowai go back to 1978. Previously, only one mission was set up that claims to have had any contact with the Korowai at Waliburu and Firiwagé between 1959 and 1978 . Dutch missionaries - namely Jaap Groen and Johannes Veldhuizen - set out in March this year via the south-west route, starting from Citak . The company was preceded by 18 months of in-depth territory exploration. This was accomplished by means of boats, dugout canoes and also by air with helicopters. In March 1979, with the help of clan members of the Kombai, a permit was obtained to build a mission station near Yaniruma . This was on the border with the territory of the Korowai in the territory of the Kombai, south of the Nailop river . In the early 1980s, the mission station was able to add a school where Indonesian could be learned and a small hospital was expanded. At the same time, the first Korowai on the north bank of the river ( Nailop ) were contacted . In the following years (from 1983) it was possible to win individual Korowai for the mission and to let them work on infrastructural projects. The curiosity of these people in the small village shop of Yaniruma, the fish knives, iron instead of stone axes and for the preservation of meat, salt for sale, aroused counter-interest.
At the same time, the first campaign formations developed between 1978 and 1983 . These represent a mixture of traditional clan and Indonesian culture. The mixture of cultures was expressed through newly built villages in the Indonesian style, in which different clans of the Korowai - as well as clans of other tribes - lived together and integrated themselves into the Indonesian administrative system. The stilt buildings were abandoned for the first time in favor of elegant row houses. Initially, these kampongs were built outside of the Korowai settlement area. Penis leaves and nutshells (Korowai) and kotekas (other tribes) were exchanged for Indonesian folk clothing. The extent of this cultural change to the Korowai as a whole is extremely small (compiled from Van Enk / De Vries).
Follow-up contacts
In 1985 the first Korowai village in the kampong style was built on the settlement area of the Korowai clan of the Manianggatun . More followed in 1987 and 1988. Further expeditions into the depths of the area were carried out.
In 1986 the first documentary film was shot for a social science foundation from Indonesia and completed in 1987. The director Dea Sudarman highlighted the culture of tree houses and sago festivals. With this film project a first time testimony about the way of life of the Korowai was created for the world public.
Repeated attempts at the economic development of oil reserves ( Conoco / United States ) and gold (Gold Allied International Limited / Hong Kong ) followed. The effort turned out to be disproportionate.
In the early 1990s, the first tourists visited northern tribal areas near the border near Mabül . At Yafufla there were violent confrontations with death consequences. Police patrols felt compelled to move into an unsettled Korowai region for the first time.
A second - Japanese - film project, also directed by Dea Sudarman, dealt with tribal regions along the Nailop in September 1990 and penetrated deep into the center of the settlement area. In 1993 an American ensemble filmed the Dajo Korowai clan . This anthropological documentation also dealt with the delicate khakhua topic (ritual cannibalism). In 1995, Alexander Smoltczyk and Georg Steinmetz realized a unique journey through pictures for the German Geo and the American NG to the previously uncontacted clans of the Sayakh and Lén Bainggatum .
In 2018, the British documentary filmmaker Will Millard accompanied a group of Korowai for the BBC over a period of one year and documented in the documentary My Year With The Tribe that within a few years most of the Korowai, who still traditionally live in the jungle, were moving to villages built with government support Riverbanks had moved and were now living with many modern cultural assets such as clothing and cell phones. But he also managed to establish contact with some people who still traditionally live in tree houses. He also learned how previous western film expeditions had deliberately staged the image of contemporary Korowai culture by paying locals, for example, to build particularly tall tree houses for filming.
In summary, one can say that to this day - exceptions are listed - there are few contacts with the Korowai as an ethnic group (compiled from Van Enk / De Vries).
literature
- Van Enk, De Vries: The Korowai of Irian Jaya, Their Language in its Cultural Context. Oxford University Press, New York 1997, ISBN 0-19-510551-6 .
- Roland Garve : From the life of the Asmat, Kombai and Korowoi in Irian Jaya. In: Rudolstadt natural history writings. Supplement volume 3, Rudolstadt 1999, ISBN 3-910013-30-9 .
- Steffen Keulig: Nightmare Civilization - Back to the Stone Age. A journey to the forest people of New Guinea. Meridian, Rostock 2002. ISBN 3-934121-04-7
Web links and media
- Harald Melcher: Die Baumhausmenschen Korowai: the rulers of the forests , series of publications: Living-planet-Film, video document (Melcher), Gernsbach 2000, ISBN 3-00-008511-4 .
- Narendra S. Bisht, TS Bankoti, Encyclopaedia of the South East Asian Ethnography
Remarks
- ^ Peoples of Papua
- ↑ Korowai (item 220)
- ↑ Gerrit J. Van Enk & Lourens de Vries: Maps 1,2 + 3 / page xii, xiii, xiv
- ↑ a b c d Paul Raffaele: Sleeping with Cannibals. In: Smithsonian. September 2006, p. 1 ff.
- ↑ Natives officially recognized: Tree people counted for the first time. In: n-tv .de. June 25, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2010 .
- ^ Papua - Places of Interest. In: lestariweb.com. Retrieved June 27, 2010 .
- ↑ Joseph Tschiggerl: 1996 Kuruwai. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 15, 2008 ; Retrieved June 27, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Irian Jaya - "Back to the Stone Age".
- ^ Papua - Tribe Expedition - back to Stone Age.
- ↑ Papua Explorer Tours & Expeditions 2010: KURUWAI / PAPUA. On: papua-explorer.de
- ↑ a b c The Korowai and Asmat in the lowlands. On: freewestpapua.de , November 30, 2008.
- ↑ a b The Korowai. On: korowai.com
- ↑ a b tree houses. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 7.8 MB) On: lehrer.schule.at , p. 32.
- ↑ Korowai
- ^ Linguistic Relationships pp. 9/10
- ↑ Narendra S. Bisht, TS Bankoti, Encyclopaedia of the South East Asian Ethnography
- ^ Paul Raffaele: Journalist and Contributor on: smithsonianmag.com , November 2009.
- ↑ Tom Hawker | 23 May 2018: Will Millard :. Accessed August 18, 2020 .
