mensen van de ayfat - Stichting Papua Erfgoed

SUMMARY
This ethnographic study is based on data gathered during field research carried
out in the Ayfat region of Irian Jaya in Indonesia between August 1969
and February 1972.
From literature about the neighbouring Ayamaru region it appeared that ceremonial
exchange of so-called kain timur (cloths originating in
east Indonesia) also plays a significant role in the Ayfat region. As no
earlier study on the Ayfat region exists, attention was focused not only on
ceremonial exchange and its relation to social organisation, but also on material
living conditions and events such as birth, illness and death.
Chapter I deals with data on the characteristics of the area, its climate,
the dispersion of the population over the different regions and data on the
villages which have come into existence since WW II. The history of cultural
contact is also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter II is devoted to everyday subsistence and material culture. Besides
information about edible plants found or cultivated in the jungle, insight
into different hunting and fishing methods is also given. The chapter further
describes and illustrates types of houses, utensils, clothes and trinkets
found in the region. Some data on the use of paper-money conclude the chapter.
Chapter III discusses the forces which, according to the people of the Ayfat
region, are of crucial significance in life and death. Man has an ambulatory
shadow-soul and a vital force which is inseparably connected to the body.
As ancestral spirits, the dead continue to influence the living, particularly
with regard to ceremonial obligations. Often certain women are considered
to be possessed by kapes fane, the spirit of a hog thought responsible for
illness and death, and killed for it.
After a discussion of concepts and practices related to sex, birth, illness,
recovery and death, data are given on necha mamos which is a series of rites
performed after the death of an influential person. These rites appear to be
closely linked to the exchange of the kain timur mentioned earlier.
The ray mechar, or medicine men, occupy positions of power. To a certain
extent they have at their disposal benificial and destructive forces. The relationship
with the medicine man is characterized by a mixture of fear and
hope which weakens the people confronted with death, misfortune and enmity.
The final chapter describes how ray popot or key-figures in ceremonial exchange
exercise their power. The majority of them are also medicine men.
Chapter IV deals with the social organization of the Ayfat community. Until a
few decades ago, groups of one or more families lived on cultivated spots of
jungle land whose location changed continually. After 1950, the population was
urged by the administration to live together in villages. Ayawasi village,
where I lived for the duration of the field research, is an example of how
ties to clan land, kinship and the creation of villages to a high degree determine
the present social organization. Clearly manifest are the activities of the
Catholic Mission , particularly in education and the provision of medical
facilities. Less clear is the degree in which
changes. There is no question of 'dialogue'
with penetrating Ayfat culture, while the
soon as they are within range of a
terminology, the focus changes to the treatment
mention is made of the fourth determinant factor in
the existence of networks and coalitions within the ex
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