Untitled - Stichting Papua Erfgoed

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5. The religious aspect of the former Humboldt Bay society is extremely
interesting, mirroring and finding support in the mythology and falling with
it into dissolution, as have all aspects of this archaic culture. It is difficult to
give a correct interpretation of the material presented in Chapter VI. Briefly
one may say that the demons, urèb, who live in stones, on rocks, in trees,
animals and various material objects, are conceived of personally, that is to
say they are male or female. They can be summoned to aid, for good or evil
purposes, by every one. They can manifest themselves in human or animal
form (snake, lobster, fish, lizard (Varanus s.) or bird). A small number of
these demons, the tjebo, are nevertheless clan property, at the service of the
oldest member of the clan and actually identical with the clan forefather and
with the totem (animal or plant), in which form the demon can appear. The
head of the clan formerly made sacrifices to these „Lares" and they were forbidden
food, oseidji, for him. The „public" urèb were lumped together under
one name, Chrai, by which was indicated the predominantly evil (sometimes
good) element as opposed to Tab, who represented the predominantly good
(sometimes evil) element. In time of sickness and war and for supernaturel
practices Chrai and Táb were naturally invoked, especially the former. Tab
played an important part in gardening, fishing, love, law and the curing of
sickness. Here again the ambivalent position of the priest-medecine-man finds
expression, as doctor and helper with black magic, making use of a similar
technique in both cases. The people of the inner bay (land phratry), it would
seem, were particularly adept in black magic.
Occult phenomena (rapping signals, clairvoyance, seances) and expectations
of a utopia (e.g. the Séu movement) which affected all facets of the culture
were also know. Scarification and tattooing, applied by an old woman, were
often practised during initiations. It is noteworthy that the name utidji is used
not only for scarification but for a mourning song and for the song which
accompanies the making of dancing hats as well. Fish, frogs, shells, star-fish,
blood-suckers, millipedes, birds, flies, bird-claws and bows and arrows were
the designs most commonly tattooed. Here again we find dualism: animals of
the water and the air. The time-reckoning has of old also known two contrasting
periods, the time of the east monsoon, Tjarama, and that of the west
trade-wind, Tjara; they are divided into moon-months bearing the names of
fish. The principal feasts, the beginning of the fishing season, gardening, etc.
are determined by the solstices, which mark the beginning of the two halves
of the year. The songs, which were formerly and still are partly „bought"
from the neighbouring tribes to the east, were also apparently dualistically
conceived, as strophe and antistrophe were often distinguished and indicated
by the terms „male" and „female".
6. The temple complex has become a thing of the past. About 1930 the
temples, mau, disappeared from the villages where they had appeared in the
preceding century (about 1890 at Lake Sentani), taken over from across the
eastern border. The temple of Indjeros was „washed away" and that of the
Makanowé-Jouwé group was burned by the Chamadi, so that temples were
only found in Nachaiba, Kaju Batu, Kaju Indjau and Tabati (in the last of these
there were — in this century — two, due to quarrels between the Chamadi
and Iréuw clans). In the building of the temples, just as in the building of
a chief's house, or of a church at present, mutual help was lent by various