Shocking traditions and customs of the Papuans, which not everyone will understand. Shocking traditions and customs of the Papuans, which not everyone will understand A necklace made of dog teeth is the best gift for your wife
Despite the fact that outside the window is the rapid 21st century, which is called the age of information technology, here in the distant country of Papua New Guinea, it seems that time has stood still.
State of Papua New Guinea
The state is located in Oceania, on several islands. The total area is about 500 square kilometers. Population 8 million people. The capital is Port Moresby. The head of state is the Queen of Great Britain.
The name "Papua" translates as "curly". This is how the island was named in 1526 by a navigator from Portugal, the governor of one of the Indonesian islands, Jorge de Menezes. 19 years later, the Spaniard, one of the first explorers of the Pacific Islands, Inigo Ortiz de Retes, visited the island and named it “New Guinea”.
Official language of Papua New Guinea
Tok Pisin is recognized as the official language. It is spoken by the majority of the population. And also English, although only one person in a hundred knows it. Basically, these are government officials. An interesting feature: the country has more than 800 dialects and therefore Papua New Guinea is recognized as the country with the largest number of languages (10% of all languages in the world). The reason for this phenomenon is the almost complete lack of connections between tribes.
Tribes and families in New Guinea
Papuan families still live in tribal mode. An individual “unit of society” is simply unable to survive without contact with its tribe. This is especially true for life in cities, of which there are quite a few in the country. However, here a city is considered to be any settlement with a population of more than a thousand people.
Papuan families form tribes and live close to other urban people. Children usually do not attend schools located in cities. But even those who go to study very often return home after one or two years of study. It is also worth noting that girls do not study at all. Because the girl helps her mother with housework until she is married off.
The boy returns to his family to become one of the equal members of his tribe - a “crocodile”. That's what men are called. Their skin should be similar to the skin of a crocodile. Young men undergo initialization and only then have the right to communicate on equal terms with the rest of the men of the tribe, they have the right to vote at a meeting or other event taking place in the tribe.
The tribe lives as one big family, supports and helps each other. But he usually does not contact the neighboring tribe or even openly quarrels. Recently, the Papuans have had their territory cut off quite heavily; it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to maintain the old order of life in nature in natural conditions, their thousand-year-old traditions and their unique culture.
Papua New Guinea families have 30-40 people. Women of the tribe run the household, care for livestock, give birth to children, collect bananas and coconuts, and prepare food.
Papuan food
Not only fruits are the main food of the Papuans. Pork is used for cooking. The tribe protects pigs and eats their meat very rarely, only on holidays and memorable dates. More often they eat small rodents that live in the jungle and banana leaves. Women can cook all dishes from these ingredients amazingly deliciously.
Marriage and family life of New Guineans
Women have practically no rights, submitting first to their parents and then entirely to their husbands. By law (in the country the majority of residents are Christians), the husband is obliged to treat his wife well. But in reality this is far from the case. The practice of ritual murders of women who bear even the shadow of suspicion of witchcraft continues. According to statistics, more than 60% of women are constantly exposed to domestic violence. International public organizations and the Catholic Church are constantly sounding the alarm on this issue.
But, unfortunately, everything remains the same. A girl at 11-12 years old is already married off. At the same time, parents lose “another mouth to feed”, since a younger girl becomes an assistant. And the groom’s family acquires free labor, so they look closely at all girls six to eight years old. Often the groom can be a man 20-30 years older than the girl. But there is no choice. Therefore, each of them meekly accepts their fate as a given.
But the man himself does not choose his future wife, whom he can see only before the traditional wedding ceremony. The decision on choosing a bride will be made by the elders of the tribe. Before the wedding, it is customary to send matchmakers to the bride’s family and bring a gift. Only after such a ceremony is the wedding day set. On this day, the ritual of “kidnapping” the bride takes place. A decent ransom must be paid to the bride's house. This can be not only various valuable things, but also, for example, wild boars, banana branches, vegetables and fruits. When the bride is given to another tribe or another house, her property is divided among the members of the community from which the girl comes.
Life in marriage cannot be called easy. According to ancient traditions, a woman lives separately from a man. In the tribe there are so-called women's and men's houses. Adultery, on either side, can be punished very harshly. There are also special huts where husband and wife can periodically retire. They can also retire in the forest. Girls are raised by their mothers, and boys from the age of seven are raised by the men of the tribe. Children in the tribe are considered common, and they are not treated on ceremony. Among the Papuans you will not find such a disease as overprotection.
This is the difficult family life of the Papuans.
Witchcraft law
In 1971, the country passed the Witchcraft Law. It says that a person who considers himself “bewitched” is not responsible for his actions. The murder of a sorcerer is a mitigating circumstance in court proceedings. Very often, women from another tribe become victims of accusations. Four years ago, a gang of cannibals who called themselves witch hunters killed men and women and then ate them. The government is trying to fight this terrible phenomenon. Perhaps the witchcraft law will finally be repealed.
From the deck of the "Dmitry Mendeleev" you can see the coast of New Guinea - the Maclay Coast. The command sounds: “A detachment of ethnographers, prepare to land!”
The palm trees are getting closer, approaching the narrow strip of the beach. Hidden behind them is the village of Bongu. You can hear the rustling of coral sand under the bottom of the boat. We jump ashore and find ourselves in the middle of a crowd of dark-skinned people. They have been notified of our arrival, but remain wary. We feel the scrutiny, even gloomy glances on us at times. - Tamo Bongu, kaye! (People of Bongu, hello!) - exclaims a member of our expedition N.A. Butinov. How many times did he pronounce these words in the ship’s cabin, recorded by Miklouho-Maclay a hundred years ago? The faces of the Papuans express obvious bewilderment. There is still silence. Has the language changed here? However, Butinov is not so easily embarrassed:
- Oh tamo, kaye! Ha abatyr sinum! (Oh people, hello! We are with you, brothers!) - he continues.
Suddenly the Papuans are transformed; they smiled and shouted: “Kaye! Kaye! And amid shouts of approval they led us to a hut for visitors.
Between the huts are coconut palms. Only above the main square - spacious, cleanly swept - the crowns of palm trees do not block the sky.
Together with a young man named Kokal, we approach a small hut. Kokal is local. He is about twenty years old. He graduated from primary school in Bongu and entered college in the town of Madang, but a year later he returned home: his father could not pay the tuition. From the first day, this smart guy became an energetic assistant to the ethnographic squad. And now he introduces me to the Papuan Dagaun. Hot day. Dagaun sits on the terrace of his house, enjoying the shade. To shake his hand, we have to bend down - the roof of coconut palm leaves hangs so low.
Dagaun is between forty and forty-five years old. He is dressed like many Bongu men, in shorts and a shirt. On the face there is a tattoo - an arc indicated by a dotted blue line under the left eye and above the eyebrow. The hair is cut short. Lush hairstyles with combs and curls, familiar to us from the drawings of Miklouho-Maclay, are a thing of the past, but behind the ear a red flower glows with ruby. Until now, men of all ages love to wear flowers, plant leaves, and bird feathers in their hair. A boy of about seven with a cloth around his hips stopped at the hut, staring at us; A white cock feather sticks out provocatively above his crown. A bracelet woven from grass is wrapped around Dagaun's arm above his bicep. This ancient decoration, sketched by Maclay, is still worn by both men and women. Kokal is explaining something to Dagaun, and he looks at me with curiosity, apparently not quite understanding what I need.
“He agrees,” Kokal tells me.
Here I must disappoint the reader if he expects that after these words the ethnographer will begin to ask the Papuans about something unusually mysterious and exotic, well, say, about the secrets of witchcraft, and as a result of the conversation, thanks to personal charm or a successful coincidence of circumstances, the Papuans will tell everything, they will lead the ethnographer to a secret cave and show an ancient ritual... All this, of course, happens, but we, ethnographers, are not busy only hunting for exotic things. We study not individual bright features of people's life, but the culture of the people as a whole, that is, everything that the people live by - the economy, beliefs, food, and clothing. Here, in Bongu, our detachment had to trace changes in the culture of the Papuans over the hundred years that had passed since the time of N. N. Miklouho-Maclay. In short, we had to find out how different the methods of farming and hunting, tools, language, songs and dances, hairstyles and decorations, household utensils, life and habits, and so on, and so on... differed from those described by him.
And I came to Dagaun with a very prosaic goal - to describe his hut in detail.
N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, looking at modern houses, would not recognize Bongu. In his time, the huts had earthen floors, but now they stand on stilts. The shape of the roofs has become slightly different. An important detail of the old life of the Papuans - bunks for eating and sleeping - disappeared from the huts. These bunks were necessary in the previous house, but now there is no need for them, they were replaced by a floor of split bamboo trunks, which rises a meter and a half above the ground. We notice this immediately, at first glance. How many more new items have come into life? Only a strict register of all things will correctly reflect the relationship between new and old.
Kokal left, and two boys about ten years old, dressed in clean shorts and cowboy shorts, willingly took on the role of translators. Schools are taught in English, and many young people in Bongu have a good command of this language. How much easier it is for us to work than for N. N. Miklouho-Maclay, who had to learn the local dialect on his own, sometimes spending months trying to understand the meaning of a word! In addition, in Bongu, as in many areas of New Guinea, the second native language of the Papuans became pidgin English - English adapted to the Melanesian grammar. From the point of view of an Englishman, this is a barbaric corruption of the English language, seasoned with an admixture of Papuan words, nevertheless, the pidgin is widely used in other islands of Melanesia, and an extensive literature has already arisen from it. In Bongu, both women and children speak pidgin English. Men prefer to speak it when it comes to important matters or abstract subjects. “This is our big language,” one of the Papuans explained to me the role of pidgin English. Why big? Because the local dialect of this village is indeed a very “small” language: it is spoken only in Bongu; Each of the surrounding villages has its own dialects, different from each other.
A Papuan house reliably protects the family’s internal life from prying eyes: partitions attached to a blank wall made of split bamboo trunks form rooms. There are two small rooms in Dagaun's hut. “I live in one, women live in the other,” Dagaun explained. There are no windows in the owner's room, but light penetrates through the numerous cracks between the bamboo trunks, and all the modest furnishings are clearly visible. To the right of the door, against the wall, lies an iron ax next to a neatly closed empty tin can. There is also a black wooden vessel with a metal lid and a flat pot. A few wooden dishes and two wicker baskets fill the corner. Directly opposite the door on the wall there are two small drums, and two more axes, a large saber-like iron knife and a saw are tucked behind the beam supporting the roof. On the nightstand there is a glass glass with scissors and empty jars of cream...
I will not bore the reader with a description. There was nothing exotic in the women's room either. No skulls staring gloomily with empty eye sockets, no brightly colored masks. Everything looked casual, businesslike. And yet, while exploring the furnishings of a poor Papuan house, I became fascinated: the things helped me learn something new about Papuan antiquity.
For example, a bench with an iron strip at one end is an innovation in Papuan life. She replaced the pointed shell, an ancient primitive tool for extracting coconut flesh. I have seen this bench used more than once. A woman, sitting on it, holds with both hands a half of a split nut and rubs its pulp against the jagged edge of a stationary iron scraper; a vessel is placed below. Comfortable! It is difficult to say who invented this ingenious device, but it was brought to life by another innovation - furniture, which is gradually spreading in Papuan villages. A hundred years ago, Papuans sat on bunks or directly on the ground, with their legs tucked under them. Now they prefer to sit like Europeans, on a raised platform, be it a stool, a block of wood or a bench. And a new tool could establish itself in everyday life only when one became accustomed to sitting on a bench. That is why it is also found on other islands of Melanesia (and, say, in Polynesia, where the islanders still sit cross-legged, such a scraper cannot be found).
In every Papuan house you can see a sheet of iron, thanks to which they can light a fire on a thin bamboo floor without fear. Judging by the shape of these iron sheets, they are most likely made from gasoline barrels.
Such acquisitions of Papuan life, of course, look poor compared to the standards of modern industry, but they help to understand the peculiarities of the process of cultural transformation on the Maclay Coast. The renewal of local culture in the context of contact with modern civilization, firstly, was quite meager, and secondly, it was not limited to direct borrowings alone. The Papuans also adapted new materials or things made for completely different needs to old habits, to their way of life. This means that upon contact with European civilization, the independent development of traditional culture did not stop. The Papuans apparently adopted some cultural skills not from the Europeans: pile houses, which had not previously existed in Bongu, were already found on the island of Bili-Bili in the last century. And the Papuans' men's loincloth, like a skirt, clearly copies the Polynesian lava-lava.
Factory-made items that appeared in the houses of Bongu residents are not interesting in themselves for the ethnographer, but behind them lies a more important innovation in the life of the Papuans - money: after all, now you have to pay in money for clay pots, which are still brought from the village of Bil- Beel (now she is on the coast, and not on the island of Bili-Bili). They also pay money for wooden dishes - tabirs. Papuans know well what money is. Having heard (and been slightly surprised) that Australian dollars did not circulate in the USSR, the Papuans asked to show them Soviet money. The money was laid out on a log washed up by the surf on the sandy shore; everyone came up to the log and looked at them carefully.
Bongu is a poor village. There isn't even a single bicycle here. Papuans, as a rule, purchase basic necessities - metal tools, fabrics, clothing, kerosene lamps and electric flashlights. There are very few items that look like luxury in local conditions (wristwatch, transistor). Nevertheless, among the Bong huts there are already three shops run by the Papuans themselves. Where do Papuans get the money to pay taxes, pay tuition, and buy the necessary things in local shops?
Behind the village, at the very edge of the forest, on the road leading to the neighboring village, we stop at a dense, high fence.
- Here is our garden. Taro and yams grow here,” says Kokal.
The forest breathes with the unusual smells of tropical plants and flowers, echoing the chirping of unfamiliar birds.
“We don’t have barns,” explains Kokal. - Everything is here in the garden. Every day, women dig up as many tubers as needed and bring them home.
I remember that in the women's room of the Dagaun house there were beds - for storing provisions, as they explained to me - but they were completely empty.
“We don’t plant in the same area all the time,” continues Kokal. — After three years, the garden is planted in another place. We are also planning to clear a new site in August.
Two months of work - and the garden is ready.
Just like a hundred years ago... But on the other side of the road, as if across the border separating two worlds, in a vast meadow surrounded by a fence of poles, a new branch of rural farming is gaining strength: cows graze among the lush grass at the foot of the hill. This picture, familiar to the Russian eye, is alien to the ancient traditions of the Maclay Coast. For the first time, Miklouho-Maclay brought a cow and a bull here.
Papuans remember stories about the appearance of the first animals in the village, which their grandfathers mistook for “big pigs with teeth on their heads” and wanted to immediately kill and eat; when the bull got angry, everyone ran away.
But Miklouho-Maclay’s attempt failed, and cows were brought here again recently, on the initiative of the Australian administration, interested in supplying meat to the center of the district, the port of Madang. Although the herd belongs to the Papuans, they sell all the meat to Madang and don’t even drink cow’s milk - it’s not a habit.
Another source of money is coconut meat. It is dried and sold to buyers in Madang. For the sake of preserving coconut palms, the residents of Bongu voluntarily abandoned domestic pigs, because voracious pigs spoil young coconut shoots. Previously, there were a lot of pigs (according to Miklouho-Maclay’s descriptions, they ran after women around the village like dogs). And now I saw only one pig sitting under the hut in a cage. Thus, innovations in the economy partially modified the traditional economy of the Papuans.
But the main occupations remained the same as before - farming, hunting, fishing. Fish is caught in the usual old-fashioned ways: with a net, a spear, and tops. They still hunt with spears and arrows, with the help of dogs. True, the old days are beginning to recede; several guns have already been purchased. But how recently this happened - just three or four years ago! And in agriculture there is almost no change. Unless an iron hoe appeared.
— Is it possible to plant a vegetable garden anywhere? - we ask Kokal. For us ethnographers, this question is very important.
And here we hear something that Miklouho-Maclay did not know. All the land around the village is divided between the clans that make up the population of Bongu. On the clan's land, in turn, plots are allocated for families, and the owners can build a vegetable garden only on their plot.
— Is the same piece of land assigned to a family forever?
- Yes. I heard from my grandfather that in his time there were some redistributions of plots within the clan, but that was a long time ago. And when the Gumbu clan moved to Bongu, abandoning their village of Gumbu, they did not receive any land in the new place; their gardens remained in the same places.
Returning to the village, we came across two girls in bright dresses in the thickets, who were chopping dry trees for firewood with iron cleavers (everything is according to Miklouho-Maclay: men did not bother themselves with this work even in his time).
“You can only prepare firewood on your own plot or far in the forest,” Kokal noted.
There is not a single tree around the village that does not belong to anyone, and by picking up a fallen coconut from the ground, you are trespassing on someone else's property.
It would seem that with the advent of money, the ancient collective form of ownership should disappear. But in life, what should happen in theory does not always happen. Here's an example: a herd of cows that brings in dollars belongs to the entire village! The village also jointly owns a large plot of land planted with coconut palms. The village meeting decides how to use the money received for meat or copra. However, a person who is hired to work on a plantation for Australians remains the full owner of his earnings.
The arrival of "Dmitry Mendeleev" served as the occasion for a dress rehearsal before the big celebration. Ten days later, guests from all the villages in the area were supposed to gather in Bongu for a crowded celebration. And although the holiday was going to be held, in general, as is customary in these places, it was unusual in concept. The Papuans were preparing to celebrate the anniversary of Miklouho-Maclay! (As we were told, the idea was suggested by a teacher, and the population of the Maclay Coast warmly supported it.) Unfortunately, we could not stay for the holiday: the ship belongs to oceanographers, and their work required us to continue the voyage. And then the Papuans agreed to show us those performances that they had saved for the anniversary days.
First, a pantomime was performed - Maclay's first appearance in the village. Three Papuans were aiming their bows at a man who was walking up the path from the shore to the village. The warriors were dressed in ancient loincloths made of bast, and bright bird feathers fluttered above their intricate headdresses. Maclay, on the contrary, was purely modern: shorts, gray shirt. What can we do, our captain M.V. Sobolevsky could not imagine in advance that he would be asked to participate in the Papuan pantomime... The soldiers did not want to allow Maclay into the village. The arrows trembled menacingly on tightly drawn bowstrings. A moment and the stranger will die. But the audience smiles. It was clear that the armed warriors themselves were afraid of the man calmly walking towards them. They back away, stumble, fall, dragging each other to the ground... But a hundred years ago this was not a game at all.
They also showed us ancient dances. Antique? Yes and no: apart from them, there is nothing else danced in Bongu yet. The dancers' attire has not changed - the same dark orange bast bandage on the hips, the same jewelry. The past is still very near and dear to the people of Bongu. Papuans not only remember the dance outfits of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers (this was easy to verify from the drawings of Miklouho-Maclay), but also admire them. The most original among Papuan jewelry is shaped like a dumbbell. A dumbbell made of shells hangs on the chest, but during the dance it is usually held with the teeth - this is required by the ancient canons of beauty. Bird feathers and stems of some grass flutter above the dancers' heads. Entire bouquets of plants and flowers are tucked into the loincloth at the back, making the dancer pleasant to view from all sides. The dancers themselves sing and beat the okama drums, fulfilling, so to speak, the duties of both the choir and the orchestra.
Both men and women smoke in Bongu. Soviet cigarettes were a great success among the Papuans. And suddenly the head of our detachment, D.D. Tumarkin, discovered that our supply of cigarettes had run out. The boat had just departed, taking away the dancers and respected people of the village invited to a reception with the head of the expedition. This means that there will be no contact with “Dmitry Mendeleev” in the next few hours...
— Shall we go for cigarettes in a Papuan canoe? - I suggested. “You still need to familiarize yourself with the local boat.”
Tumarkin protested:
— What if the canoe capsizes? There are sharks here! “But he soon gave in, not sure, however, that he was doing the right thing.”
Papuan canoes lie in a long row on the shore. There are about twenty of them in the village. Kokal does not have his own boat, and he went for permission to take a canoe from his uncle, a local pastor. Soon he returned with an oar, we carried the boat to the water and set sail from the shore. The narrow boat was hollowed out from a single tree trunk. A thick balance pole attached to it at a distance of about a meter gives the boat stability. A wide platform stretches above the boat almost all the way to the pole, on which Kokal sat the two of us and his friend.
All Papuan Bongu canoes are built according to the ancient model. But a few years ago a giant leap through eras took place: the community's primitive water transport was enriched by twentieth-century shipping. Several coastal villages, including Bongu, jointly purchased a boat and began to support a Papuan mechanic; This boat takes copra to Madang.
We moored the canoe to the ramp of the Dmitry Mendeleev. Kokal had never been on board such a large ship. But unexpectedly it turned out that he was eager to see his fellow villagers on the Soviet ship first of all. The very ones with whom he can communicate every day. Everything else - the ship, computers, radars, etc. - interests him much less. We went up to the conference room. Here, dancers and the most respected people of the village sat decorously at a table with treats. Decorations made from shells, boar tusks, flowers and bird feathers looked somewhat implausible against the backdrop of glass shelves with the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Kokal, however, did not dream of joining the Bongu elite. No, he only wanted to be noticed. He sat comfortably on a leather sofa opposite the open door of the conference room, looking around with an independent air, as if he was used to spending his Sunday leisure time this way. He calculated correctly. They saw him, and amazement was expressed on the faces of respected people. The head of the village council, Kamu, even went out into the corridor and asked something: apparently, how Kokal ended up on the ship. Kokal casually pointed at us and fell back on the sofa.
I don’t know how long he could have sat like that. We had already stocked up on cigarettes, but Kokal still didn’t want to leave. They managed to take him away only after he was introduced to the head of the expedition and shook hands with him.
This minor episode showed us the first cracks in the former social structure of the village. A hundred years ago, a young man would not have dared to appear among his elders without permission. Ah, these new times... People are beginning to find support for asserting their own personality outside the usual norms of village life. For some, this support is money earned on the side. For others, like Kokal, education gives them the courage to level themselves with the elders. And yet, the excitement with which Kokal showed himself to influential fellow villagers speaks of the strength of past relationships in the Papuan village.
The traditional social organization of Bongu is primitive - the Papuans previously had neither clearly defined bodies of collective power nor a leader.
Now some new features have been added to the previous social order. Bongu, for example, is governed by a village council. Its members are clan elders. Apparently, the creation of the council only formalized an ancient tradition. But our friend Kamu is not one of the elders. It’s just that the Australian authorities saw in him an energetic and quick-witted person with whom they could find a common language. Kamu represents his village in the district "Local Administration Council", created in the early 60s, and thus brings the administration into contact with the community.
In a short period of time, our team - eight ethnographers - managed to learn a lot about the life and traditions of the Bongu Papuans. A hundred years ago, the Stone Age reigned on the Maclay Coast. What have we seen now? The Age of Iron, the era of early class formation? Assessing modern Papuan culture is not easy for Bong. The appearance of this village has changed. There are many innovations here - some are striking, others become obvious only after much questioning. Papuans speak English and pidgin English, use guns and kerosene lamps, read the Bible, have knowledge gleaned from Australian textbooks, and buy and sell for dollars. But the old man is still alive. What prevails?
The pictures seen in Bongu reappear before my eyes. Dusk is falling. A half-naked woman in a short skirt walks past the huts with a tired gait. She returns from the garden carrying taro, yams and bananas in a wicker bag secured with straps on her forehead. Such bags were also available under N.N. Miklouho-Maclay. Another woman peels the outer fibrous layer of a coconut using a stick fixed in the ground with the pointed end up. A fire is burning on the site near the house, and taro, cut into slices, is being cooked in a clay pot, just like a hundred years ago... Innovations in Bongu seemed to be superimposed on the usual way of life of the village, without changing it significantly. Reforms in the economy were allowed only for the sake of relations with the outside world and had little impact on everyday life. Life remained the same: the same daily routine, the same distribution of functions. Among the things that surround the Papuans, there are many new ones, but these objects come to the village ready-made and do not give rise to new activities. In addition, life in Bongu does not depend on imports. The village is in contact with the outside world, but has not yet become an appendage of it. If suddenly for some reason Bongu's connection with modern civilization was interrupted, the small community would not experience a shock and would easily return to the way of life of their ancestors, since they had not moved far from it. This is not surprising: the colonial administration was in no hurry to make the Papuans modern people. And Bongu’s isolated position greatly protected the village from external influences. Although Bongu is only twenty-five kilometers from Madang, there is no road due to the marshy swamps. Stable communication is possible only by water. Tourists don't visit Bongu...
As for what stage of development the Bongu Papuans belong to today, we ethnographers still have a lot of work to do to find a term that would designate their unique culture, combining the heritage of primitiveness and some handouts from twentieth-century civilization.
V. Basilov, Candidate of Historical Sciences
New Guinea is called the “island of the Papuans.” Translated from Indonesian daddy —"curly".
The Papuan tribes are indeed dark-haired and curly.
The island is buried in tropical forests; It's hot and humid there, and it rains almost every day.
In this climate, it is better to stay high away from the muddy and wet ground.
Therefore, in New Guinea there are almost no dwellings standing on the ground: they are usually raised on stilts and can even stand above the water.
The size of the house depends on how many people will live in it: one family or an entire village. For settlements, houses up to 200 meters long are built.
The most common type of building is a rectangular house with a gable roof.
Piles usually raise a house two to four meters above the ground, and the tribe kombayev generally prefers a height of 30 meters. Only there they probably feel safe.
Papuans build all houses without nails, saws or hammers, using a stone ax, which they wield masterfully.
Construction of a pile house requires good technical skills and knowledge.
Longitudinal logs are laid on the piles, transverse beams are placed on them, and thin poles are placed on top.
You can get into the house along a log with notches: first, into a kind of antechamber, more like a “veranda”. Behind it is a living space, separated by a bark partition.
There are no windows; light comes in from everywhere: through the entrance and through cracks in the floor and walls. The roof is covered with sago palm leaves.
all pictures are clickable
The most amazing home of Papua owls is a tree house. This is a real technical masterpiece. Usually it is built on a large tree with a fork at a height of 6-7 meters. The fork is used as the main support of the house and a horizontal rectangular frame is tied to it - this is the foundation and at the same time the floor of the house.
The frame posts are attached to the frame. The calculation here must be extremely accurate so that the tree can withstand this structure.
The lower platform is made from the bark of a sago palm, the upper one from boards of a kentia palm; the roof is covered with palm trees
leaves instead of mat walls. On the lower platform there is a kitchen, and simple household belongings are also stored here. (from the book "Dwellings of the Nations of the World" 2002)
Each nation has its own cultural characteristics, historically established customs and national traditions, some or even many of which cannot be understood by representatives of other nations.
We present to your attention shocking facts about the customs and traditions of the Papuans, which, to put it mildly, not everyone will understand.
Papuans mummify their leaders
Papuans have their own way of showing respect for deceased leaders. They do not bury them, but store them in huts. Some of the creepy, distorted mummies are up to 200-300 years old.
Some Papuan tribes have preserved the custom of dismembering the human body.
The largest Papuan tribe in eastern New Guinea, the Huli, has acquired a bad reputation. In the past they were known as headhunters and eaters of human flesh. Now it is believed that nothing like this is happening anymore. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that human dismemberment occurs from time to time during magical rituals.
Many men in New Guinea tribes wear kotekas
Papuans living in the highlands of New Guinea wear kotekas, sheaths worn over their male parts. Kotek is made from local varieties of calabash gourd. They replace panties for Papuans.
When women lost relatives, they cut off their fingers
The female part of the Papuan Dani tribe often walked without phalanges of fingers. They cut them off for themselves when they lost close relatives. Today you can still see fingerless old women in villages.
Papuans breastfeed not only children, but also animal cubs
The obligatory bride price is measured in pigs. At the same time, the bride's family is obliged to take care of these animals. Women even feed piglets with their breasts. However, other animals also feed on their breast milk.
Almost all the hard work in the tribe is done by women
In Papuan tribes, women do all the main work. Very often you can see a picture where Papuans, being in the last months of pregnancy, chop firewood, and their husbands rest in huts.
Some Papuans live in tree houses
Another Papuan tribe, the Korowai, surprises with their place of residence. They build their houses right on the trees. Sometimes, to get to such a dwelling, you need to climb to a height of 15 to 50 meters. The Korowai's favorite delicacy is insect larvae.
Each people of the world has its own characteristics, which are absolutely normal and ordinary for them, but if a person of another nationality falls into their midst, he may be very surprised by the habits and traditions of the inhabitants of this country, because they will not coincide with his own ideas about life. We invite you to learn 11 national habits and characteristics of the Papuans, some of which will terrify you.
They "sit" on nuts like drug addicts
The fruits of the betel palm are the most harmful habit of the Papuans! The fruit pulp is chewed and mixed with two other ingredients. This causes profuse salivation, and the mouth, teeth and lips turn a bright red color. That’s why Papuans endlessly spit on the ground, and “bloody” blots are found everywhere. In West Papua, these fruits are called penang, and in the eastern half of the island - betelnut (betel nut). Eating fruits gives a slight relaxing effect, but is very damaging to teeth.
They believe in black magic and punish for it
Previously, cannibalism was an instrument of justice, and not a way to satisfy one's hunger. This is how the Papuans punished witchcraft. If a person was found guilty of using black magic and harming others, he was killed and pieces of his body were distributed among clan members. Today, cannibalism is no longer practiced, but murders on charges of black magic have not stopped.
They keep the dead at home
If in our country Lenin “sleeps” in the mausoleum, then the Papuans from the Dani tribe keep the mummies of their leaders right in their huts. Twisted, smoked, with terrible grimaces. The age of the mummies is 200–300 years.
They allow their women to do heavy physical labor
When I first saw a woman seven or eight months pregnant chopping wood with an ax while her husband rested in the shade, I was shocked. Later I realized that this is the norm among Papuans. Therefore, the women in their villages are brutal and physically resilient.
They pay for their future wife with pigs
This custom has been preserved throughout New Guinea. The bride's family receives pigs before the wedding. This is a mandatory fee. At the same time, women care for piglets like children and even breastfeed them. Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay wrote about this in his notes.
Their women mutilated themselves voluntarily
In the event of the death of a close relative, women of the Dani tribe cut off the phalanges of their fingers. Stone axe. Today this custom has been abandoned, but in the Baliem Valley you can still find toeless grandmothers.
A dog teeth necklace is the best gift for your wife!
Among the Korowai tribe, this is a real treasure. Therefore, Korovai women do not need gold, pearls, fur coats, or money. They have completely different values.
Men and women live separately
Many Papuan tribes practice this custom. That's why there are men's huts and women's huts. Women are prohibited from entering the men's house.
They can even live in trees
“I live high - I look far away. Korowai build their homes in the canopies of tall trees. Sometimes it's 30m above the ground! Therefore, you need to keep an eye on children and babies here, because there are no fences in such a house.
They wear catsuits
This is a phallocrypt with which the mountaineers cover their manhood. Koteka is used instead of panties, banana leaves or loincloths. It is made from local pumpkin.
They are ready to take revenge to the last drop of blood. Or until the last chicken
A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye. They practice blood feud. If your relative was harmed, maimed or killed, then you must answer the offender in kind. Broke your brother's arm? Break it for whoever did it too. It’s good that you can pay off blood feud with chickens and pigs. So one day I went with the Papuans to the Strelka. We got into a pickup truck, took a whole chicken coop and went to the showdown. Everything happened without bloodshed.