the interior of the Bird's Head, the Maibrat (or Ayamaru) and surrounding groups carried on a complex ritual trade involving kain timur—antique cloths from eastern Indonesia—which were obtained from the coastal Austronesian traders in exchange for pigs and food from the interior.
Every two years the Maibrat "Big Men" (shorthand for a kind of charismatic leader) organized a huge feast involving payments to relatives and economic transactions between groups. The Maibrat believed that death and illness were the work of ancestral spirits. Good relations among the living, achieved through gift-giving, were essential lest the ancestral spirits be angered.
A Dani woman, dressed in marriage finery. The Dani, like most of West Papua's highlanders, are Papuans.
The people living in West Papua's lowland forests between the coastal swamps and the highlands are the least known. Nowhere is there a very high population density, and many of these people are nomadic.
The Kombai, Korowai and scattered other groups living between the Asmat area in the south, and the southern ranges of the Central Highlands in the north, have proved to be among the most resistant people on the island to the entreaties of missionaries and others who would have them join the so-called modern world. One group has for years systematically rejected, with spears and arrows on occasion, missionaries, government workers, and even gifts of steel axes, nylon fish nets, and steel fishhooks.
Cannibalism is frequently reported and surely still practiced here. These unregenerate forest dwellers—inhabiting the area in the upper reaches of the Digul River watershed and scattered other locations in the foothill forests south of the central cordillera—live in tall tree houses, perhaps to escape the mosquitos, and the men wear leaf penis wrappers.
An Asmat man from Biwar Laut, on the south coast.
Highland West Papuans
People have been living in West Papua's highlands for 25,000 years, and farming the relatively rich soils here for perhaps 9,000 years. The altitude of the rugged mountain chain produces a more temperate climate than the south, and perhaps more important, is outside the worst of the range of the malarial Anopheles mosquito.
Highlanders practice pig husbandry and sweet potato farming. Sweet potato cultivation, featuring crop rotation, short fallow periods, raised mounds and irrigation canals, attains a peak of sophistication in the Baliem Valley. West Papua's first highlanders relied on taro and yams, adapting to the subsequent introduction of sugar cane, bananas, and much later, the sweet potato.
One sartorial trait distinguishes all of West Papua's highlanders: they all wear "phallocrypts" (penis coverings). Or at least all did, until this striking wardrobe caught the attention of some puritanical missionaries. However, there is less pressure on the highlanders to wear clothes today than there has been in the past, as both the Christians and the government have toned down their campaigns.
The well-known Dani are but one of many highland groups living in West Papua's highlands. (See "The Dani," page 110.) West of the Dani are the Amung, Damal and Uhundini group, numbering about 14,000 and sharing a language family. West of the Damal are the Moni, numbering about 25,000. (See "Growing up Moni," page 118). Further west, in the vicinity of the Paniai Lakes, the westernmost extent of the central mountains, are the Ekari, numbering about 100,000.
East and south of the Dani, living in some very rugged terrain, are the 30,000 Yali, speaking several dialects. Three related groups live east of the Yali: the Kimyal, some 20,000 of whom live around Korupun, the 9,000 Hmanggona who live around Nalca, and the 3,000 Mek or Eipomek who live around the village of Eipomek.
The Western Dani
The Western Dani, sometimes called Lani, live in the highlands from east of Ilaga to the edge of the Grand Baliem Valley. The introduction of the Irish potato, which can withstand frost and cold, has allowed the Western Dani to plant up to 3,000 meters.
The Western Dani have been responsive to the efforts of missionaries and the government, and have historically been far less warlike than their neighbors in the Baliem, as they farm far less fertile soil and consequently have less excess population and time to expend on warfare. The Baliem Dani's proclivity for warfare is considered to be a product of the spare time resulting from good soil and sophisticated agricultural techniques. (For more on the Baliem Valley Dani, see "The Dani," page 110.)
The Yali
The Yali live in the area west of the Baliem Valley, from Pass Valley in the north to Ninia in the south. There are at least three dialects of the Yali language, with speakers centered around Pass Valley, Angguruk and Ninia. The language is related to Dani, and their name comes from the Dani word "yali-mo," which means: "the lands to the east"
[Note: Many common West Papuans ethnic designations come from other groups, for the simple reason that many languages do not have a term for "we" or "us" that is not non-exclusive of members of other groups, or that refers to a group larger than the immediate political community or confederation. For example, the Dani have a word for "people," but this is in contrast to "ghost" or "spirit," and is not exclusive of any other people. The word "yali" has a cognate in the Yali language that also means "east," and the Yali will use it to refer to people living east of their territory. It is perhaps important to note also that this "east" is not a compass point per se; it really refers to a specific end of the common trade route, which, in this case, is east. Many of the terms coined by western anthropologists for ethnic identifications have gained currency among the highland West Papuans, through the bi-or tri-lingual guides around Wamena. For example, "koteka," an Ekari word for a penis gourd, is universally understood in the Baliem Valley, even though a Dani word (horim) exists. Some people call this bahasa baru, the "new language."]
The Yali are immediately distinguished by their dress, which consists of a kind of tunic constructed of numerous rattan hoops, with a long penis gourd sticking out from underneath. They maintain separate men's and ritual houses, which unlike Dani huts are sometimes painted with motifs reminiscent of Asmat art. The Yali are farmers, growing sweet potatoes and other highlands crops in walled gardens.
The terrain of Yali-mo is formidable, which delayed the arrival of both missionaries and the government. Though contacted in the late 1950s by the Brongersma Expedition, the first permanent outside presence was a Protestant mission established in the Yali-mo Valley in 1961.
When the first airstrip was built at the mission, one or two cowrie shells was still an acceptable daily wage and most of the Yali had only heard rumors of steel axes. The missionaries traded axes to acquire land and pigs, introducing the metal tool's widespread use. The Protestants began a school and offered medical aid including a cure for frambesia or yaws, a virulent rash caused by the spirochete Treponema pertenue. This disfiguring disease was eradicated in 1964.
Also in 1964, anthropologist Klaus Friedrich Koch arrived in Yali-mo, where he learned the language and conducted anthropological research that led to the book War and Peace in Jalemo. Like the Dani, the Yali are farmer-warriors, but they live in a much more hostile environment. The Yali responded eagerly to the mission-sponsored introduction of new plants such as peanuts, cabbage and maize, as well as to animal husbandry—placing great demands on the first imported stud hog.
By the time Koch left the field in 1966, there were already six landing
