The Korowai Tribe

The Korowai tribe was one of the most secluded tribes in the world. Found in the tall, tall trees of the forests of Papua New Guinea, the Korowai tribe is, as an example of their seclusion, thought to have been oblivious to the existence of people outside their tribe until the 1970s. Despite this undoubtedly recent realization, the Korowai are, themselves, a very complex and stratified society. The economy of the Korowai is made up of horticulturists, hunters, and gatherers, with the horticulturists practicing shifting horticulture. This means they shift from field to field, which saves nutrients in the soil. Social organization is much like early nineteeth to twentieth century, in the fact that girls, as soon as they had hit puberty, were expected to contribute to the economy and the social norms put before them. These young girls were expected to have a husband and to serve him in every manner he deemed necessary. The occasional feast is another major part of this patriachal society. Marriage, another part of social organization, is polygamous, and often times exogamous(external tribe marriage).

A Dutch linguist created a dictionary for the language, and someone--it may not have been the same Dutchman, it may have been--labled the language the Kolufo, and that it branchest from the Awyu-Dumut family(the southern Papua region). Government of the Korowai is much like the social organization--the males with the most appealing physical attributes are made the leaders of the tribe. Interclan wars or spats are often the result of accusations of crimes--some punishable by