In the article, The People of the Lower Arafundi: Tropical Foragers of the New Guinea Rainforest, Roscoe explains that although the Sepik Basin of New Guinea is very small, populating only 300,000 to 500,000 people, it is one of the most linguistically diverse places on Earth; the population speaking well over 200 languages. Roscoe wrote this article specifically to show that work in the Sepik Basin of New Guinea has been heavily biased towards the regions more dense communities by using archival documentation, provided by the Ulrike class, as well as the results of rapid ethnographic surveys to reconstruct the contact. Many anthropologists seem to overlook Sepki’s less elaborate cultures, like the Lower Arafundi people of the East Speki Province, which despite popular belief, are very different from the People of the Upper Arafundi. In addition to their value in expanding and balancing their comparative knowledge of human society, they are also important for the ethnographic distinction – it is extremely rare for ‘tropical forest peoples’, to live exclusively by hunting and gathering.
The People of the Lower Arafundi are scattered below and midway up the slopes of the Andogoro, Moirurtapa, and Kundiman mountains that separate the East Sepik Province from the Enga and Western. At the base of these mountains, the environment is carpeted with trees and swamps. This is where their settlements are, where they call home. It was originally thought that the Lower and Upper Arafundi spoke different languages, but by late 1960’s, anthropologists confirmed they both spoke Arafundi. Aside from language, the lowland and upland exhibited huge cultural differences. The Lower had canoes and could swim while the Upland were in the moun...
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... seem to do a lot more of the hands on work, typically being the more dominant figure, bringing home the food and putting money on the table. (Or goods.) The women stay around the house, doing chores, cleaning up and taking care of the kids. I have yet to learn about a culture where the women go out and hunt. The few differences I did take note on were the religious stories! They were pretty brutal, and it makes me wonder if people read about our religion and culture and think the same thing. I wish there was more information about their political beliefs and leaders, because I think that in any part of the world is interesting to hear. I learned a lot about the Upper and Lower People of Arafundi, and how important it is to preserve these cultures and do anything we can to better understand their ways to learn and preserve what we can before it’s too late.
The women were in charge of the house and sometimes the field. The women also had to cook and skin the animals. The men were in charge of hunting and fishing for food. The hardest responsibility was making war and protecting the village.
Within this paper, a glimpse into the Yupiaq society will hopefully be accomplished by answering a few questions. First question, what is the Yupiaq worldview? Next, what are the core values that are essential to the success of Yupiaq society? And finally, how are those values expressed in their approach to subsistence behaviors and knowledge of their environment?
In the rough and tropical island of Papua New Guinea, lived an exceptional aggregation of individuals called, The Gebusi. In the 1980's, The Gebusi tribe was anything besides up to date and acculturated. The Gebusi had their own particular singular and special customs and conventions that they rehearsed and accompanied. The Gebusi tribe took part in custom homosexuality, divination or witchcraft was exceedingly respected and polished, and they partook in particular sister-trade relational unions. By 1998-99, The Gebusi tribe had made another lifestyle. The Gebusi had gotten accustomed with new social convictions, modernization due to “western ways” that had changed their lives until the end of time especially changing their ways and view on gender roles and sexuality.
One of the most interesting indigenous groups in the world is the Batek of Malaysia, this is a group of people that live in the oldest rain forest of peninsular Malaysia. Orang ASli means “Original people” in the native Malay Language, and they truly are the original people of the land. Being a nomadic group of hunters and gatherers, means that they are at the mercy of the land and the elements for survival. Batek beliefs note that, the rainforest was created by “superhuman” beings for the Batek to use and will destroy the world and everything on it if the Batek were ever to leave the rainforest ( K.M. Endcott 1979a; Lye 2004). The Batek believe that the “superhuman” beings created the forest for the Batek to harvest, build houses in, and provide also to decorations for their ceremonial rituals.
Marjorie Shostak, an anthropologist who had written this book had studies the !Kung tribe for two years. Shostak had spent the two years interviewing the women in the society. The !Kung tribe resided n the Dobe area of Northwest Botswana, that’s infused with a series of clicks, represented on paper by exclamation points and slashes. Shostak had studied that the people of the tribe relied mostly on nuts of the mongongo, which is from an indigenous tree that’s part of their diet.
“The Sambia: Ritual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New Guinea” is a book written by Gilbert Herdt. It is based on a case study Herdt did during the 1970’s of the culture of the Sambia people. His study took place in Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. He didn’t know much about their language, however through out his time there he was able to learn their language and customs. As he settled into their village, he mostly slept in the clubhouse with the other Nilangu villagers; however, eventually they built a house for him to stay at. Herdt had a great interest in gaining new knowledge about the Sambia culture.
-There were many similarities and differences among European, Native American and African societies. The first similarity thing is the role gender played in their societies, and they assigned work based upon gender. In Native American and African world, the men were the ones who do heavy lifting work, and the women were the ones perform the domestic duties. Likewise, men were usually the breadwinners and working outside the home, either women worked in their own
The film Ongka’s Big Moka is about a Big Man named Ongka of the Kawelka tribe in Papua New Guinea. Being the Big Man of the tribe Ongka reasures his status by arranging a Moka ceremony. In this film we see the process of a Moka that takes up to 5 years of preparation. We follow Ongka’s struggles and successes of accumulating the number of pigs in preparation for the ceremony. The film allows us to understand the motives and functions of a Moka, provides topics that have been discussed in class, and relate this culture to a similar institution within the United States.
Ness. Philip A. Grafting Old Rootstock: Studies in Culture and Religion of the Chamba, Duru, Fula, and Gbaya of Cameroun. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, Inc., 1982.
The Asmat people of southwestern New Guinea are hunting, fishing, and gathering people. The term “Asmat” translates to “we the tree people.” This one word label represents the people, the language, and the geographic area. The Asmat use numerous ritual artifacts created from wood, paint, fibers, etc. (Van Arsdale). Their artifacts consisted of bis poles, body mask (det), ceremonial container, drum, male figure, shield, spirit canoe (Wuramon), trumpet (fu) and perhaps numerous others that the world is unaware of (Asmat Art). The Asmat people are a cultural group of New Guinea, living in Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. The Asmat population is approximately 65,000 people, however living within villages that contain populations of up to 2,000.
Along with encapsulating the culture in her writing, she also documented the effect and growth of globalization. The original goal of Ward was to examine the language, norms, values, and attitudes of this group to obtain survey results related to Pohnpeians’ low blood pressure. Not only did she successfully study her original goals, she also made conclusions about effects of recent colonization on a marine tropical island. Ward delivers a strong foundation from which present-day anthropologists can follow in their
The Korowai are one of the most endangered ethnic groups in the world. Their traditional culture was developed thousands of years ago. They live in small family clans and are hunter-gatherers and live in a horticultural society. The natural resources have allowed them to survive in the harsh rainforest which they depend for living. As population grows in society more and more people are using the earth’s natural resources. Trees are being cut down for extraction of minerals and energy. Lands are being used to create missionary communities. The Korowai territory is surrounded by missionary communities, who have influ...
During his research Barker utilizes a series of methods in his quest to understand these indigenous people, from this he was able to capture his readers and make them understand issues that surround not only people form third worlds; but how these people and their struggles are related to us. By using ethnographic methods, such as: interviews,participant observation, key consultants/informants,detailed note-taking/ census, and controlled historical comparisons. In these practices Barker came to understand the people and their culture, of which two things became a big subject in his book. The first being Tapa, “a type of fiber made from bark that the Maisin people use as a stable for cloths and other cloth related uses. Defining both gender roles and history; proving income and also a symbol of identity to the people” (Barker 5-6). And the other being their forest, of which logging firms the Maisin and Non Government Organizations (NGO’s), had various views, wants and uses for the land. Logging firms wished to clear the area to plant cash crops such as oil palms, while the NGO’s wanted the land to remain safe; all the while the Maisin people were caught in the middle by the want to preserve their ancestors lands and the desperate need to acquire cash. With these two topics highlighted throughout Barkers ethnography the reader begins is journey into understanding and obtaining questions surrounding globalization and undeveloped
the story in the Phillip Whitten and David E. K. Hunter anthropology book of No
Boas, F. (1930). Anthropology. In, Seligman, E. R. A. ed., Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences. Macmillan: New York.