Namau - History and Cultural Relations



Information about the Namau prior to European contact is sketchy. Two of the groups (Kaimari and Maipua) have oral traditions suggesting that they may have migrated into the Region, perhaps from the southwest, but no such tradition appears to exist for the other groups. The Namau were known to have been very warlike, and both head-hunting and Ceremonial cannibalism formed important parts of traditional ritual culture. The first European contact took place in 1894 and government involvement, labor recruitment, missionary activities, and efforts at modernization followed shortly thereafter. Many men of the region served in the Papuan Infantry Battalion during World War II. As happened elsewhere in New Guinea, this experience and exposure to Western goods and values resulted in a high degree of local dissatisfaction in the postwar years. For the Namau, this unrest found expression in the Tommy Kabu movement, which was an effort to introduce a cooperative economy, break up the old Ceremonial system, and achieve local political sovereignty. The movement did not receive adequate government support and by 1955 had achieved little by way of positive gains, in part because it lacked the people and the skills to carry out its Economic program.

Settlements Namau settlements, containing up to 2,500 people, traditionally were built on islands of drier land Scattered throughout the swamps. Dwellings had a high front elevation, rising up to as much as 20 meters with a roof line that sloped rearward to a back elevation of 4-5 meters. These dwellings were built on stilts to protect the structures from flooding during high-water periods. Men and women had separate houses, both built according to this structural style and partitioned on the inside. The partition-formed alcoves in the women's house provided separate quarters for each woman and her young children. The men's house, or ravi, served also as an important ceremonial center. Its alcoves, which ran in two parallel rows along the sides of the building, each had its own hearth and belonged to a small patrilineally related group of men and initiated youths. Modernization efforts, Including the Tommy Kabu movement, have resulted in the adoption of European house design and the relocation of settlements to drier land areas, and the ceremonial centers/men's houses are no longer built.

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