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The Abelam are a people who live in
The Abelam are a people who live in East Sepik Province
East Sepik is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Wewak. East Sepik has an estimated population of 433,481 people (2010 census) and is 43,426 km square in size.
History
Cherubim Dambui was appointed as East Sepik's first premier b ...
of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
. They are a farming society in which giant yams play a significant role. They live in the Prince Alexander Mountains near the north coast of the island. Their language belongs to the Sepik language family.
Farming and hunting
The Abelam live in thetropical rain forest
Tropical rainforests are rainforests that occur in areas of tropical rainforest climate in which there is no dry season – all months have an average precipitation of at least 60 mm – and may also be referred to as ''lowland equatori ...
and clear ground by burning. Their main food crops are yams, taro
Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Afri ...
, bananas, and sweet potatoes
The sweet potato or sweetpotato ('' Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the bindweed or morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable. The young sho ...
. They supplement this with food gathered from the rain forest as well as pigs and chickens raised domestically. They also hunt small marsupials and cassowaries.
Yams
Yam growing forms a large part of Abelam society. The growing of large yams (they can be as large as 80- long) determines the status of individuals as well as the whole village. At yam festivals an individual would give his largest yam to his worst enemy who would then be obligated to grow an even larger yam or have his status fall each year in which he was unable to do so. Separate villages would gather at yam festivals where the hosting villages status would be determined by the size of their yams as well as their ability to provide more food than could be eaten and carried away by the rival village. During the yam growing season, strong emotions were kept to a minimum as they were thought to impede the growth of the yams. Fighting was taboo as was sexual activity. It was thought that the yams had a spirit and could sense any of these strong emotions.Scaglion, Richard (2007). Abelam: giant yams and cycles of sex, warfare and ritual. In ''Discovering Anthropology: Researchers at Work - Cultural Anthropology'', edited by C.R. Ember and M. Ember. Pearson Prentice Hall, pp. 21-31.References
Indigenous peoples of Melanesia Ethnic groups in Papua New Guinea {{PapuaNewGuinea-stub