Yali (people)
The Yali are a Melanesian tribe in Papua , Indonesia . They live in the east of the Baliem Valley in the mountainous highlands of Papua. The Dani word for eastern neighbors is Yali, which is why the word has become common among the Yali, without being a self-name for their tribe.
The settlement area of the Yali lies between the eastern boundary by the Ubahak River and the western boundary by the Sibi , Yahuli and Podeng rivers . Most important places in the area known as Yalimo are Angguruk and Kosarek . The population was estimated at 15,000 in 1991. The main locations are only connected to the outside world by temporary small airfields. The villages can only be reached by walking for several hours on footpaths from the main towns. The area has not yet been developed for tourism. The Dani live nearby in the west and the Lani in the northwest, partly in the mountains . The Eipo and Mek live in the east and south .
Today the Yali are Christian, especially of the Protestant denomination. Cannibalism practices are reported up until the 1970s . The Christian missionaries stopped the earlier numerous village feuds, the old war rituals and the ancestor cult were forgotten. The Yali live in villages in round houses on stilts, with women's and men's houses separating the sexes. Drinking water, service water and wastewater are strictly separated from each other. Like many mountain papuas, the Yali are small in stature (sometimes less than 150 cm). Traditionally, men are only wearing a penis sheath (koteka) and a rattan ring around their hips. Her head is occasionally adorned with a head net soaked in shiny black tree sap with a shape that tapers at the neck. The women only wear a reed skirt. However, more and more T-shirts and trousers or skirts and blouses can be seen. The Yali live mainly from growing the sweet potato . On festive days such as weddings, pigs are ritually slaughtered, but they are only kept extensively. Fruit is not one of the common foods.
The Yali speak a language similar to the Dani language of the Ngalik-Nduga sublingual family.
literature
- Roland Garve , Irian Jaya, The Lost Stone Age , Kiepenheuer Verlag Leipzig and Weimar, ISBN 3-378-00456-8 .
- Don Richardson, Lords of the Earth , Liebenzeller Mission, ISBN 3-88002-493-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Roland Garve, Irian Jaya, p. 49 (see lit.)
- ↑ Yali, Angguruk. A language of Indonesia (Papua). Ethnologue