Untitled - Stichting Papua Erfgoed

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at planting and harvest and in casse of sickness (threatened failure of the
harvest), just as in hunting (at the beginning and end) and in fishing (at the
beginning of the season, the first catch and in laying storms). The medecineman
who directs the harvest may not eat of it, the hunter who shoots a pig
may not eat any of it and the „lord of the fish", Sanji, may not eat fish. There
is undoubtedly a system in these parallels; they are all based on the same principle.
Noteworthy is further the correspondance between hunting and fishing
with respect to the use of a catching-net or fish-net, a harpoon or spear
with fruwèrè, certain rituals, secret language and the dividing of the catch
on the temple platform.
Actually identical with this is again the resemblance between gardening and
the making of pottery with respect to the usse of a dibble or digging-stick,
certain rituals, secret language (?) and the dividing of the harvest on the
temple platform. With respect to hunting, fishing and gardening, a temporary
prohibition could be imposed on catching, gathering or harvesting.
It is, thus, remarkable that the technical equipment remained the same •—
with minor adaptations — for all these activities. A number of implements
have, as do articles belonging more to other aspects of the culture, proper
names, e.g. harpoons, potter's stones, stones used in making hatchets, and ritual
fishingplanks (chenjau). Everything forms a homogeneons complex, even though
the dualistic element is naturally still to be found here, too, just as for human
beings the birth and death rituals are opposed but equal. This also finds
expression in the division of labor: in gardening and in the preparation of
sago both sexes are involved; hunting and the making of stone hatchets, prahu
and houses is men's work; the making of pottery and the raising of pigs should
be done by women and deep-sea fishing by men, whereas shore or reeffishing
is for the women (thus respectively sea and land). Dualism is also
manifest in the custom according to which the clans occupying the western
half of a village fish at night whereas those living in the eastern half fish in
the daytime.
The autochthonous trade has a system of trade and marriage relations. The
outer-bay villages Kaju Indjau and Kaju Batu have relations primarily to the
east and west with the coastal villages. The inner-bay villages Tabati and Indjeros
have contact principally with Lake Sentani. Here, too, we find, thus, an orientation
of sea with sea villages and land (here iner-bay) with land villages.
The time for trading par excellence was the east monsoon period — the second
half of the year. Although trade was usually carried out in kind, the standard
of value was formed by beads of various kinds, differentiated according to
color and substance. Beads were necessary — especially in earlier times —
for marriage gifts and donations, the payment of fines, etc. (at births, marriages,
deaths, war and administration of justice). In addition the much more
valuable glass rings, chás, and, to a lesser degree, stone hatchets could function
as means of payment. The beads and glass rings also show dualistic features:
according to some people they come from heaven or the mountains (inland),
but others assert that these precious objects come from the sea. Compare with
this the myth of Wei (Chai) who descended from heaven with the beads,
planted them in a cave and later on — in the form of a hammer-headed shark
— took them to the sea, whereas they finally ended up in the interior of Nimboran.
It is remarkable how these un-Papuan objects could become such an
integral part of this culture.