Tor - Orientation



Identification. The Tor River (as it is called in the Berik language) promotes a sense of cultural if not linguistic unity, with the groups living along its banks conscious of being "People of the Tor," or "Torangwa." The term "Tor" will be used here to refer mainly to the Berik, Bonerif, and Mander peoples and, to a lesser extent, their Kwerba neighbors on the Apauwar and Mamberamo rivers to the west.

Location. The Tor River arises in the Gauttier Mountains of the Sarmi Subdivision of Jayapura Division in northern Irian Jaya, and it empties into the Pacific Ocean about 25 kilometers east of the town of Sarmi, at about 1°50′ S, 139° E. The Upper Tor is a region of foothills, plains, and tropical rain forest, where the river is too braided and filled with debris for canoe travel. Farther downstream, the Middle Tor is a rugged region giving way to the Lower Tor, where the river meanders through sago swamps. In these lower regions people can use canoes for transport, but in the Upper Tor watercourses are used whenever possible as footpaths. Large areas of this region of about 2,200 square kilometers are never visited by the widely dispersed and seminomadic populations.

Demography. In the late 1950s, the Tor Basin was estimated to be home to about 1,000 people, with perhaps twice as many Kwerba living immediately to the west. While reliable figures are not currently available, recent estimates suggest small if any increases since then. Indeed, one of the striking features of the Tor populations is that between the 1930s and 1960 a very low birth rate combined with 35-40 percent infant mortality to produce a serious depopulation problem, which was compounded by extremely high ratios of males to females in all tribes of the region and which threatened extinction for many groups. There is still no explanation for the high degree of masculinization of the population.

linguistic Affiliation. Most of the languages spoken in the region constitute the Tor Family of Non-Austronesian languages, with Kwerba a member of its own separate family. Throughout the area Berik is used most and has become a lingua franca of the district.

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