Description
This book on the Yali, Mek and Ok cultures is the last one in our series covering the major Ethno-linguistic groups in the highlands of West New Guinea (WNG). Some members of one of these inhabitants of the interior of WNG, the Mek group, were the first to have had any contacts with the outside world. A journal article published in a Dutch in 1912 gives the first account to the world about the mountainous interior of New Guinea along with an overview of the lives of the area’s inhabitants. The Mek territory also made news in 1960 when a French expedition was the first to cross WNG from south to north, through the near-incredible rugged mountainous territory. The Mek were also the last Papuans to have attracted the sustained missionary attention. Then, a large German multi-disciplinary scientific team spent two years, 1974 to 1976, among the Mek, with a plethora of publications resulting from their work.
The easternmost area of WNG’s central mountains, running from the Baliem Valley to the international border with Papua New Guinea, holds the three language groups covered in this book. The geography of the area is considerably more rugged than the western section that stretches from the Baliem Valley to the Paniai Lakes, covered in a previous volume in this series.
Just east of the central Baliem Valley, the Yali culture shows a degree of resemblance with the Mek but less so with the Ok that live in the borderlands with Papua New Guinea (PNG). Indeed, a major portion of the Ok Papuans live in PNG. A large Dutch expedition in 1959 was The Netherlands New Guinea’s last before Holland was forced to leave, before allowing Indonesia to claim this territory.
Much of our knowledge about the eastern WNG highlands comes from the pioneer missionaries’ publications. These men, along with their families, spent years, mostly in isolation from their fellow Europeans. They learned the local languages and wrote the texts that form the basis of this book.
About the author
Dr Muller spent 22 years working and living with two Papuan groups, allowing him access to excellent relations with not just the people but also prominent academics and scientists and their resources.
Table of Contents
1. Populations and geography ………………………………………… 7
2. Early contacts with the outside world ……………………….. 11
• Wilson and Protestant missionary philosophy
• Reverend Stanley Dale killed
3. Myths and religion ……………………………………………………. 21
• The Yeli tree and the Primeval Pig
• Various verb forms: different pasts
and two distinctive futures
• Different forms of tradition: dealing with the past
• The spirits
• World view
4. Social organization: lineages, clans, wards,
moieties, and villages ………………………………………………… 29
• Moieties: incest prohibition and cooperation
• Kinship
• Residence
• Childhood and adolescence
• Marriage and women
5. Conflicts and lack of resolution mechanism:
the leadership gap …………………………………………………….. 39
• Leadership as recorded by Boissière
• Conflict resolution: from avoidance to warfare
• Conflicts and relationships
6. Warfare …………………………………………………………………….. 47
• Two different types of war
• Cannibalism
• Funerary rituals
• Tribal warfare in context
CONTENTS
7. Initiation …………………………………………………………………..55
• First stage
• Second stage
• Transition ritual for girls
• Initiation of shaman and their work
8. Agriculture, wild plants, and pigs ………………………………69
• ‘Yabuk’: the cultivated space
• Use of forest plants
• Social organization and cultivation cycles
• The importance of pigs
9. Sacred objects ……………………………………………………………79
10. Christianity and the traditional religion ……………………85
• Information from the 1990s on Yali religion
BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………..93
MEK
Introduction 99
1. Languages and history …………………………………………103
2. General facts about the Mek ………………………………..111
• The environment; houses, villages, clans;
initiation; marriages; trade; agriculture,
hunting, and gathering; adzes; warfare;
importance of the spirits.
3. Mission influence at Sela ……………………………………..123
4. The German research team: the Eipo ……………………129
• Physical environment; migrations, myths, and
languages; livelihood; initiation; marriages;
security circle; infanticide; warfare; leadership
5. The Ketengban …………………………………………………….141
• Cosmology; kinship and gender relations;
initiation; important spirits.
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………… 155
OK/MUYU
Preface 163
THE OK CULTURE
Introduction 165
1. The Star Mountain Expedition……………………………..171
• Early contacts
• The last major Dutch expedition: to
the Mountains of the Stars
2. Ethnographic information ……………………………………179
• Ok Hamlets, parishes, sacred men’s houses
• Social organization, lineages, clans
• Warfare and leadership
3. Material culture ……………………………………………………187
• Stone adzes, trade, and the myth of Afek
• The ‘kamil’ (hair extensions)
• Body decorations
• Spoons and drums
• Weapons
• Shifting cultivation
4. Comparisons with Papua New Guinea Ok …………..197
• Landscape history
5. Afek and her myths: from
The Children of Afek ……………………………………………203
• The core myths
• Father Hylkema
6. Another look at Ok cosmology …………………………….213
• First creation: the sacred mountains
• Traditional Ok religion
• Sorcery
THE MUYU CULTURE
7 Foundations of Muyu culture.………………………………219
• Basic social organization
• Importance of ‘ot’ shell wealth
• Marriages
• Death, sorcery, and warfare
• Agriculture and food
• Pig feasts
• Traditional religion
• Characteristic Muyu culture
8 Initial Muyu contacts with the outside world ……….229
• Tanah Merah
• Church and state
• Roman Catholic background
• Forced relocation to villages
• Teachers, schools, and money: civilization
• Salvation movements
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………… 239
