The Mee (also Bunani Mee, Ekari, Ekagi, Kapauku, Tapiro) are a people in the
Wissel Lakes area of
Central Papua
Central Papua, officially the Central Papua Province () is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province located in the central region of Western New Guinea. It was formally established on 25 July 2022 from the former eight western regencies of ...
,
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 speak the
Ekagi language
Ekari (also ''Ekagi'', ''Kapauku'', ''Mee'') is a Trans–New Guinea language spoken by about 100,000 people in the Paniai lakes region of the Indonesian province of Central Papua, including the villages of Enarotali, Mapia and Moanemani. ...
.
History
According to the oral history of the Mee, their ancestor came from a place east of the
Baliem Valley, called ''Pupupapa'' or ''Pagimo Peku'' ("large cave"). The Mee have formed trading relationships with their surrounding tribes, like the
Moni
Moni or Mone ( Kamkata-vari: ''Mone''/''Mune''), also known as Mandi (from Prasun) was, after Imra, the second-most important god in the pre-Islamic pantheon of the Nuristani people. With his breath, Imra created Moni and Gish. Moni was believed ...
and
Kamoro, using traditional money called ''mege'' (
cowrie shells
Cowrie or cowry () is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae.
Cowrie shells have held cultural, economic, and ornamental significance in various cultures. The cowrie was the shell most widely used wo ...
). They were first discovered by European explorers during the 1909–1911 expedition by ''
British Ornithologists' Union
The British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) aims to encourage the study of birds (ornithology) around the world in order to understand their biology and aid their conservation. The BOU was founded in 1858 by Professor Alfred Newton, Henry Baker ...
''. Through the southern route from the Kamoro's region, they explored Mount Tapiro in
Deiyai and found a group of inland people, because of their shorter-than-average height, they were called ''Tapiro
pygmies
In anthropology, pygmy peoples are ethnic groups whose average height is unusually short. The term pygmyism is used to describe the phenotype of endemic short stature (as opposed to disproportionate dwarfism occurring in isolated cases in a po ...
''.
Later in 1934, the Dutch pilot
Frits Wissel came across
three large lakes, the Paniai, Tigi, and Tage, where there were numerous human settlements and activities. The Mee then were called the Ekari (exonym from the Moni) or Kapauku (exonym from the Kamoro), though they preferred to be called by the name Mee, shortened from ''Makado Mee'' ("true human").
Epidemiological significance
In the 1970s, an investigation was conducted by Indonesian physicians concerned about the high rates of Ekari people hospitalized for burns. The study revealed many Ekari people were suffering from
neurocysticercosis
Neurocysticercosis (NCC) is a Parasitic disease, parasitic infection of the central nervous system, nervous system caused by the larvae of the tapeworm ''Taenia solium,'' also known as the "pork tapeworm". The disease is primarily transmitted ...
, caused by the
pork tapeworm, ''Taenia solium'', which had been previously unseen in Papua New Guinea. As a result, many had been suffering seizures while near fires, injuring themselves in the process. Pigs infected with the tapeworms had been introduced to the island previously by the Indonesian unknowingly. Though based on modern genetic study, tapeworms in Papua are the oldest among Indonesian haplotypes. They diverged from lineages in Bali at minimum 25,000 years BP, hence unlikely to be recent introduction.
Representations in media
* National Geographic aired the film ''Tribal Odyssey: The Chief Who Talks to God: The Mee, Papua'' in 2005 as part of its Tribal Odyssey series.
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
External links
Spirited Fight, The Guardian (2002, UK)
Indigenous ethnic groups in Western New Guinea
Ethnic groups in Indonesia
{{Asia-ethno-group-stub