The Sawi or Sawuy are an
ethnic group
An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...
of
South Papua
South Papua, officially the South Papua Province (), is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province located in the southern portion of Western New Guinea, Papua, following the borders of the Papuan customary region of Anim Ha. Formally establ ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. They were known to be
cannibal
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecology, ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well ...
istic
headhunters as recently as the 1950s. They speak the
Sawi language, which belongs to the
Awyu language family.
Since then, many of Sawi have converted to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...
and the world's largest circular building made strictly from un-milled poles was constructed in 1972 as a Christian meeting place by the Sawi.
[Tucker (1983), p. 478] Christian missionary
Don Richardson who lived among the Sawi wrote a book about the experience called ''Peace Child''.
See also
*
Indigenous people of New Guinea
The indigenous peoples of Western New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands: a first wave from the Mal ...
References
Further reading
* ''Peace Child'' (1974)
*
External links
Never the Same Documentary about visit to the Sawi in 2012
Ethnic groups in Indonesia
Indigenous ethnic groups in Western New Guinea
Cannibalism in Oceania
Headhunting in New Guinea
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