The Korowai, also called the Kolufo, live in southeastern
Papua in the Indonesian provinces 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 ...
and
Highland Papua
Highland Papua () is a provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, which roughly follows the borders of the Papuan customary region of Lano-Pago (often shortened to La Pago). It covers an area of and had a population of 1,467,050 according to ...
. Their tribal area is split by the borders of
Boven Digoel Regency,
Mappi Regency,
Asmat Regency,
Pegunungan Bintang Regency
Pegunungan Bintang Regency or Bintang Mountains Regency ("Bintang" means "star") is a regency in the Indonesian province of Highland Papua. It was created on 11 December 2002 from the north-eastern districts of Jayawijaya Regency. It covers an a ...
, and
Yahukimo Regency
Yahukimo Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in the Indonesian province of Highland Papua. It covers an area of 17,152 km2, and had a population of 164,512 at the 2010 Census,Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. but this figure more t ...
. They number about 4000 to 4400 people.
Etymology
The Korowai call themselves ''Klufo-fyumanop'' or ''Kolufo-yanop'', from the word ''Kolufo'' (variation: ''Klufwo, Klufo, Karufo''), meaning "people", and ''fyumanop'' meaning "walking on leg bone", to distinguish themselves from the Citak and the Auyu that use boats to travel.
Language
The
Korowai language belongs to the
Awyu–Dumut family (southeastern Papua) and is part of the
Trans–New Guinea phylum. A dictionary and grammar book have been produced by a Dutch missionary linguist.
Living
The majority of the Korowai clans live in
tree house
A tree house, tree fort or treeshed, is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a ha ...
s on their isolated forested territory.
[Sustainable living: Korowai tribe and tree houses](_blank)
BBC.
Since 1980, some have moved into the recently opened villages of Yaniruma at the Becking River banks (
Kombai–Korowai area), Mu, and Mbasman (Korowai–Citak area). In 1987, a village was opened in Manggél, in Yafufla (1988), Mabül at the banks of the
Eilanden River (1989), and Khaiflambolüp (1998).
The village
absenteeism
Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation without good reason. Generally, absenteeism refers to unplanned absences. Absenteeism has been viewed as an indicator of poor individual performance, as well as a breach of an ...
rate is still high, because of the relatively long distance between the settlements and the food (
sago
Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is c ...
) resources.
The Korowai traditionally smokes tobacco but not drink alcohol. They used a traditional smoking pipe called ''depon nagel'', made from bamboo with diameter of 3-4 cm. Sagoo shoots shavings called ''fiop'' is used as the filter.
Economy
The Korowai are
hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
s and
horticulturalists
Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...
who practice
shifting cultivation
Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cul ...
. They have excellent hunting and fishing skills.
Information about Korowai trade patterns is scant. The Korowai have a few gender-specific activities, such as the preparation of
sago
Sago () is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of ''Metroxylon sagu''. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Maluku Islands, where it is c ...
and the performance of religious ceremonies in which only the male adults are involved.
Some Korowai have since the early 1990s generated moderate cash income by working with tour companies selling tours into the Korowai region. Within the tourist industry, opportunities are limited to hosting tour groups in villages for tourist-sponsored sago feasts, carrying luggage, and performing traditional displays.
Kinship
The
patriclan is the central unit with respect to social, economic, and political organization. Kinship terminology follows the
Omaha I pattern (Lounsbury), knowing a central opposition between cross and parallel relationships.
In Korowai society, the forms of institutional
levirate
Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother's widow. Levirate marriage has been practiced by societies with a strong clan structure in which exogamous marriage (i.e. marriage ou ...
and predominance of
avuncular relationships are found, as well as a kind of
affinal avoidance relationships. Marriage is
exogamous and
polygynous
Polygyny () is a form of polygamy entailing the marriage of a man to several women. The term polygyny is from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); .
Incidence
Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent. Some scholar ...
. Preference is given to a
conjugal relationship with the (
classificatory) mother's mother's brother's daughter.
Social life
Leadership structures are based on personal qualities of
big men, rather than on institution. Interclan warfare occurs mainly because of
witchcraft
Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...
and
sorcery-related conflicts.
Religious life
The Korowai universe is filled with a variety of spirits, some more personal of character than others. Reverence is paid especially to the red headed creator god Gimigi. The Korowai ascribe an important role in their daily lives of honoring their "One God" with one being used as the concept of a prime deity from whom all others either descend or to whom all others pay homage.
Once in a lifetime, a Korowai clan must organize a
sago grub festival in order to stimulate prosperity and fertility in a ritual fashion. In times of trouble they sacrifice
domesticated pigs to the spirits of the ancestors.
The Korowai have an extraordinary and rich oral tradition:
myth
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
s,
folktales, (
magical) sayings and
charms, and
totem
A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system.
While the word ...
traditions. With respect to death and afterlife the Korowai believe in the existence of a reciprocal type of
reincarnation
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the Philosophy, philosophical or Religion, religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new lifespan (disambiguation), lifespan in a different physical ...
: those who died can be sent back at any time to the land of the living, by their kinsmen in the land of the dead, in order to reincarnate in a newly born infant of their own clan.
Contact with Westerners
The first documented contact by Western scientists with members of a band of western Korowai (or eastern Citak) took place on 17–18 March 1974. The expedition was co-led by anthropologist
Peter Van Arsdale (now at the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...
), geographer Robert Mitton, and community developer Mark (Dennis) Grundhoefer. Thirty men were encountered on the south bank of the Upper Eilanden River, approximately 12 miles east of its junction with the Kolff River and 10 miles north of the Becking River. A basic word list was generated and observations were recorded regarding such things as fire making techniques.
In the late 1970s, a few Christian (
Dutch Protestant
The Dutch Reformed Church (, , abbreviated NHK ) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the traditional denomination of the Dutch royal famil ...
) missionaries began to live among the Korowai. Dea Sudarman, an Indonesian anthropologist, made several documentary films on the Korowai for Japanese television in the 1980s. In 1993, a film crew documented an anthropological study in the Dayo village area by the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
of Korowai treehouse construction and the practice of
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...
as a form of criminal justice. This resulted in the film ''Lords of the Garden''. In 1996 a local Christian community was established, the members of it mainly originating from the neighbouring
Kombai people. For a long time the Korowai have been considered exceptionally resistant to religious conversion; however, by the end of the 1990s the first converts to Christianity were baptized. In the autumn of 2003, a small team of Bible translators from Wycliffe/
SIL moved to Yaniruma.
In May 2006, tour-guide Paul Raffaele led an Australian ''
60 Minutes
''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style o ...
'' crew to report on the people.
The 2007 BBC documentary ''First Contact'', presented by
Mark Anstice, features footage from his 1999 encounter with members of the Korowai people, and describes how they were disturbed upon seeing a "white ghost", whose presence indicated the end of the world was nigh.
In January–February 2011, the BBC documentary ''
Human Planet
''Human Planet'' is an 8-part British television documentary series. It was produced as a co-production between the BBC Natural History Unit, BBC Worldwide, BBC Cymru Wales, Discovery Channel and France Télévisions. The documentary describes ...
'' commissioned the Korowai building of a treehouse 35m high.
In August 2019, the "
Best Ever Food Review Show" channel on YouTube made contact with the Korowai people in which they ate various foods of the culture.
In the documentary
My Year with the Tribe, a film team visits the Korowai area several times over a period of one year. The documentary reveals that an industry has developed around the supposedly traditional lives of many Korowai. Many locals take advantage of the Korowai's reputation for living a particularly original life in order to earn money. It is also reported that houses located at a particular high altitude have been financed by Western film crews.
Cannibalism claims
The Korowai have been reported to practice ritual cannibalism up to the present day. Anthropologists suspect that cannibalism is no longer practiced by the Korowai clans that have had frequent contact with outsiders. Recent reports suggest that certain clans have been coaxed into encouraging tourism by perpetuating the myth that cannibalism is still an active practice.
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
Bibliography
* ''The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language in Its Cultural Context (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, 9)'' by Gerrit J. Van Enk & Lourens de Vries ().
* Korowai: in ''Encyclopedia of World Cultures – Supplement (Editors: Melvin Ember, Carol R. Ember, and Ian Skoggard) pp.183–187'' by Gerrit J.van Enk. Macmillan Reference United States / Gale Group ().
''Society of Others: Kinship and Mourning in a West Papuan Place''by Rupert Stasch (). University of California Press.
* Korowai Treehouses and the Everyday Representation of Time, Belonging, and Death. by Rupert Stasch. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology. 12(3): 327–347.
* Textual Iconicity and the Primitivist Cosmos: Chronotopes of Desire in Travel Writing about Korowai of West Papua. by Rupert Stasch. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 21(1):1–21.
* Word Avoidance as a Relation-Making Act: A Paradigm for Analysis of Name Utterance Taboos. by Rupert Stasch. Anthropological Quarterly 84(1):101–120.
* The Camera and the House: The Semiotics of New Guinea "Treehouses" in Global Visual Culture. by Rupert Stasch. Comparative Studies in Society and History 53(1):75–112.
* Knowing Minds is a Matter of Authority: Political Dimensions of Opacity Statements in Korowai Moral Psychology. by Rupert Stasch. Anthropological Quarterly 81(2): 443–453.
* Referent-Wrecking in Korowai: A New Guinea Abuse Register as
Ethnosemiotic Protest. by Rupert Stasch. Language in Society 37(1):1–25.
* Demon Language: The Otherness of Indonesian in a Papuan Community. by Rupert Stasch. In Bambi Schieffelin and Miki Makihara, eds., Consequences of Contact: Language Ideologies and Sociocultural Transformations in Pacific Societies, pp. 96–124. Oxford University Press.
* The Semiotics of World-Making in Korowai Feast Longhouses. by Rupert Stasch. Language & Communication 23(3/4):359–383.
* Separateness as a Relation: The Iconicity, Univocality, and Creativity of Korowai Mother-in-law Avoidance. by Rupert Stasch. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (n.s.) 9(2):311–329.
* Joking Avoidance: A Korowai Pragmatics of Being Two. by Rupert Stasch. American Ethnologist 29(2):335–365.
External links
Lords of the Garden 1994 documentary film of Smithsonian expedition to Korowai
Expeditions to West Papua: the KorowaiKorowai Language Research, VU University Amsterdam*
ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160304023433/http://papuaweb.org/dlib/s123/stasch/_rk.html On Stasch's dissertationStasch's book
{{Ethnic groups in Indonesia
Ethnic groups in Indonesia
Indigenous ethnic groups in Western New Guinea
Cannibalism in Oceania