Few places in the world have as much cultural and ethnic diversity West Papua, a province of Indonesia where there are at least 312 indigenous tribes and many of them have not yet come into contact with Western people. These local clans are governed in a perfect balance with nature and that relationship allows the tribe cloakfor example, live literally in trees.
These aboriginals, also known as kolufosof about 3,000 people, first came into contact with Dutch missionaries in the 1970s. Although a portion of the population has been westernized, most of their traditions Y ancient customsthose who originated when they were separated from the world.
The tribe of cloak it remains safe at the apex. In the area where they live is very high humidity, an ideal place for the spread of mosquitoes. In addition to insects, wild animals and bad weather like floods play an important role in deciding to raise their homes. And they also ensure your protection against evil spirits.
Their tree houses allow them to protect themselves from insects, predators and evil spirits.
principal houses
Their tree houses are usually built between 6 and 15 meters high, although some can reach up to 35 meters. Of course, this symbolizes a level of social status. The higher they are, the higher the prestige of the clan. They build their houses on top of the strongest trees and use all the materials that the forest provides for their interior.
The floors and ceilings are covered with sheets of palmswhile the walls are covered with rolls of Cortex of trees. The works could take an average of two weeks until the house was finished, and if a nearby clan helped them, they would return the favor. When they are fit to live, all family members participate in a inaugural ceremony where they light a small fire within.
To climb, a toothed tree trunk is used as a ladder and, of course, they are not slippery because there is no safety measure. At that height, the fall can be fatal, though it doesn’t happen often. They can live together 15 people per household because they are polygamous. Of course, when climbing there are clear rules: the men climb first and then the women.
Cannibalism
Ang cloak became famous in 1974 and was read by the press of civilized nations for being cannibals. Yes, cannibals. Although at present they make sure not to they eat people for decades, there was another version about it. Australian journalist Paul Raffaele traveled there in 2006 to better understand its worldview.
Thanks to his guide, who lived with them for 10 years, he was able to enter the jungle, interact and survive. For this tribal clan if someone had an accident (fell into the tree house or died in battle) their death was obvious. But do not know what they are germs and the germs, when a person dies due to an illness they do not understand it. This is considered something mysterious.
“When someone dies in a way they consider mysterious, they believe it’s because of underworld witches called khakhua“, Raffaele explained to VICE. This demons they eat the inside of the men’s bodies and the logic of the tribe is to pay with the same coin. That is, eat the body of those khakhua as this one did to the person who died. This revenge is part of their justice system.
Currently, about 3 thousand people make up the Korowai tribe.
Tobacco smoke
They steamed everything in the oven made of leaves and stones. The head is for the person who finds khakhua. They eat everything except hairang nails and the penis. However, there is also another precedent for this cannibalism: one of the battles with neighboring tribes. In addition to doing so for a spiritual reason, this clan ate their defeated rivals after the war.
Everyone not from the group was considered ghosts or demons and was in great danger of being attacked. But understand that this is part of the past. Currently the cloak they are quite calm. These nomads naturally use banana leaves as loincloth and their diet is based on hog, deer, elderberry and banana. They are big hunters, collectors Y horticulturists.
So are the great ones builders related to Western civilization, for example, some cloak They have been participating since 1990 with tourism companies (something unimaginable twenty years ago) selling trips to the region, showing them their traditional sites, sights and festivals, such as of sago preparation. They even incorporated other practices, with natives photographed tobacco smoking in the bamboo tube.
Source: Clarin
