Wild Tribes: Papuans Of New Guinea

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Video: Wild Tribes: Papuans Of New Guinea

Video: Wild Tribes: Papuans Of New Guinea
Video: Expedition around wild Papua and other islands 2024, March
Wild Tribes: Papuans Of New Guinea
Wild Tribes: Papuans Of New Guinea
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Wild Tribes: Papuans of New Guinea - Papuans, Papua New Guinea
Wild Tribes: Papuans of New Guinea - Papuans, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea, especially its center - one of the reserved corners of the Earth, where human civilization almost did not penetrate. People there live in complete dependence on nature, worship their deities and worship the spirits of their ancestors.

Quite civilized people who know the official - English - language now live on the coast of the island of New Guinea. Missionaries have worked with them for many years.

However, in the center of the country there is something like a reservation - nomadic tribesbut that still live in the Stone Age. They know each tree by name, bury the dead on the branches, have no idea what money or passports are.

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They are surrounded by a mountainous country overgrown with impenetrable jungle, where, due to high humidity and unimaginable heat, life is unbearable for a European.

No one there knows a word of English, and each tribe speaks its own language, of which there are about 900 in New Guinea. The tribes live very isolated from each other, communication between them is almost impossible, so their dialects have little in common, and people are different a friend is simply not understood.

A typical settlement where the Papuan tribe lives: modest huts are covered with huge leaves, in the center there is something like a clearing in which the whole tribe gathers, and around the jungle for many kilometers. The only weapons of these people are stone axes, spears, bows and arrows. But not with their help, they hope to protect themselves from evil spirits. That is why they have faith in gods and spirits.

In the Papuan tribe, the mummy of the "chief" is usually kept. This is a certain outstanding ancestor - the most courageous, strong and intelligent, who fell in battle with the enemy. After his death, his body was treated with a special compound to avoid decay. The body of the leader is kept by the sorcerer.

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He is in every tribe. This character is highly revered among relatives. Its function is mainly to communicate with the spirits of the ancestors, to appease them and ask for advice. People who are weak and unsuitable for the constant battle for survival usually go to sorcerers - in a word, old people. They make their living by witchcraft.

WHITE OUTPUTS FROM THAT LIGHT?

The first white man to come to this exotic continent was the Russian traveler Miklouho-Maclay. Having landed on the shores of New Guinea in September 1871, he, being an absolutely peaceful man, decided not to take weapons ashore, grabbed only gifts and a notebook, which he never parted with.

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The locals met the stranger quite aggressively: they shot arrows in his direction, screamed terribly, brandished their spears …

But Miklouho-Maclay did not react in any way to these attacks. On the contrary, with the most imperturbable air he sat down on the grass, demonstratively took off his shoes and lay down to take a nap.

By an effort of will, the traveler forced himself to fall asleep (or only pretended to). And when he woke up, he saw that the Papuans were peacefully sitting next to him and with all their eyes they were examining the overseas guest. The savages reasoned this way: since the pale-faced is not afraid of death, it means that he is immortal. On that and decided.

The traveler lived for several months in a tribe of savages. All this time, the natives worshiped him and revered him as a god. They knew that, if desired, a mysterious guest can command the forces of nature. How is it?

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Yes, just once Miklouho-Maclay, who was called only Tamo-rus - "Russian man", or Karaan-tamo - "man from the moon", showed the Papuans this trick: he poured water into a plate of alcohol and set it on fire. Gullible locals believed that a foreigner could set fire to the sea or stop the rain.

However, the Papuans are generally gullible. For example, they are firmly convinced that the dead go to their country and return from there white, bringing with them many useful items and food. This belief lives on in all Papuan tribes (despite the fact that they hardly communicate with each other), even in those where they have never seen a white man.

FUNERAL RITES

Papuans know three causes of death: from old age, from war and from witchcraft - if death occurred for some unknown reason. If a person has died a natural death, he will be honorably buried. All funeral ceremonies are aimed at appeasing the spirits that receive the soul of the deceased.

Here is a typical example of such a rite. Close relatives of the deceased go to the stream to perform bisi as a sign of mourning - covering the head and other parts of the body with yellow clay. At this time, men are preparing a funeral pyre in the center of the village. Not far from the fire, a place is being prepared where the deceased will rest before cremation.

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Here they put seashells and sacred stones of vus - the abode of some mystical power. Touching these living stones is strictly punishable by the laws of the tribe. On top of the stones there should be a long braided strip decorated with stones, which acts as a bridge between the world of the living and the world of the dead.

The deceased is placed on sacred stones, coated with pork fat and clay, and sprinkled with bird feathers. Then they begin to sing over him funeral songs, which tell about the outstanding services of the deceased.

And finally, the body is burned at the stake so that the human spirit does not return from the afterlife.

FOR THE FALLED IN BATTLE - GLORY

If a person died in battle, his body is fried at the stake and, with appropriate rituals, is honorably eaten so that his strength and courage are passed on to other men.

Three days after this, the phalanges of the fingers are cut off to the wife of the deceased as a sign of mourning. This custom is associated with another ancient Papuan legend.

One man mistreated his wife. She died and came to the next world. But her husband yearned for her, could not live alone. He went to another world for his wife, approached the main spirit and began to beg to return his beloved to the world of the living. The spirit set a condition: the wife will return, but only if he makes a promise to treat her with care and kindness. The man, of course, was delighted and promised everything at once.

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The wife returned to him. But one day her husband forgot himself and again forced her to work hard. When he caught himself and remembered this promise, it was already too late: his wife broke up before his eyes. Her husband had only a phalanx of her finger. The tribe became angry and drove him out, because he took away their immortality - the opportunity to return from the afterlife, like his wife.

However, in fact, the phalanx of the finger for some reason is cut off by the wife as a sign of the last gift to her deceased husband. The father of the deceased performs the nasuk rite - he cuts off the upper part of his ear with a wooden knife and then covers up the bleeding wound with clay. This ceremony is rather long and painful.

After the funeral ceremony, the Papuans honor and placate the spirit of the ancestor. For if his soul is not appeased, the ancestor will not leave the village, but will live there and harm. The spirit of the ancestor is fed for some time as if it were alive, and they even try to give him sexual pleasure. For example, a clay figurine of a tribal god is placed on a stone with a hole, symbolizing a woman.

The underworld in the Papuans' view is a kind of heavenly tabernacle, where there is a lot of food, especially meat.

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DEATH WITH A SMILE ON THE LIPS

In Papua New Guinea, people believe that the head is the seat of a person's spiritual and physical strength. Therefore, when fighting enemies, the Papuans first of all strive to take possession of this part of the body.

Cannibalism for the Papuans is not at all a desire to eat deliciously, but rather a magical rite, in the process of which cannibals receive the mind and strength of the one they eat. Let us apply this custom not only to enemies, but also to friends and even relatives who heroically died in battle.

The process of eating the brain is especially "productive" in this sense. By the way, it is with this rite that doctors associate the disease kuru, which is very common among cannibals. Kuru is also called mad cow disease, which can be contracted by eating uncooked animal brains (or, in this case, humans).

This insidious ailment was first recorded in 1950 in New Guinea, in a tribe where the brain of deceased relatives was considered a delicacy. The disease begins with pain in the joints and head, gradually progressing, leads to loss of coordination, trembling in the arms and legs and, oddly enough, fits of unrestrained laughter.

The disease develops for many years, sometimes the incubation period is 35 years. But the worst thing is that the victims of the disease die with a frozen smile on their lips.

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