Asmat



PRONUNCIATION: AWZ-mot

LOCATION: Indonesia (province of Irian Jaya on the island of New Guinea)

POPULATION: 65,000

LANGUAGE: Asmat-Kamoro language family; Bahasa Indonesia (national language of Indonesia)

RELIGION: Christianity; Asmat religion based on spirit worship

1 • INTRODUCTION

The Asmat are a Melanesian people who live within the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. They are widely known for the quality of their wood sculptures. They are also notorious for their traditional practices of headhunting and cannibalism. These Asmat practices have been linked to the unsolved 1961 disappearance of the twenty-three-year-old son of former New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, who was touring the region to collect native artwork.

The Asmat's first European contact was with the Dutch in 1623. For many years the group had few outside visitors due to their fearsome reputation. The Dutch began to settle the Asmat area in the 1920s, bringing in the first Catholic missionaries. Contact with the West has expanded steadily since the 1950s, and traditional Asmat warfare and cannibalistic practices have declined.

2 • LOCATION

The Asmat are a coastal people occupying a low-lying swampy region. Their homeland covers approximately 9,652 square miles (25,000 square kilometers) in southwestern Irian Jaya. The swamps include sago palms, mangroves, and patches of tropical rain forest. The Asmat population is estimated at about 65,000 people, living in villages with populations of up to 2,000.

3 • LANGUAGE

The Asmat languages belong to the Papuan language family known as Asmat-Kamoro, which has over 50,000 speakers. Due to missionary work in the region, the central Asmat now have a written form of their spoken language. A form of Bahasa Indonesia, the national language of the Republic of Indonesia, is spoken by many Asmat men.

4 • FOLKLORE

Many Asmat myths are about their head-hunting tradition. According to one myth, two brothers were the original inhabitants of the Asmat region. The older brother convinced the younger brother to cut off the older brother's head. Then the decapitated head of the older brother instructed the younger one about headhunting, including how to use decapitated heads in initiation rituals for young males.

5 • RELIGION

Before Christianity was introduced to their region, the Asmat practiced a native religion involving spirit worship and fear of the ghosts of the dead. It was believed that most deaths were deliberately caused by evil forces. The ancestral spirits were said to demand that wrongful deaths be avenged by killing and decapitating an enemy. The person's body was then offered to the community for cannibalistic consumption.

Missionary activity has introduced Christianity into the Asmat area.

6 • MAJOR HOLIDAYS

In traditional Asmat societies, there were elaborate cycles of ceremonial feasting throughout the year. Feasts that celebrate deceased kinfolk are still very important celebrations. In the past, most feasting events were associated with raiding and headhunting.

Asmat who have embraced Christianity celebrate the major Christian holidays. Although Islam is the major religion of Indonesia, it not practiced among the Asmat population.

7 • RITES OF PASSAGE

Male initiation, although still practiced, has lost much of the significance it held in pre-colonial Asmat society. Traditionally, each initiate was given a decapitated head so that he could absorb the power of the deceased warrior to whom the head had belonged. After being plunged into the sea by the older men, the initiates were symbolically reborn as warriors. Male initiation rites among the Asmat no longer involve decapitation.

When a death occurs, family and friends of the deceased roll in the mud of the riverbanks to hide their scent from the ghost of the deceased. Ceremonies ensure that the ghost passes to the land of the dead, referred to as "the other side." The skull of a person's mother is often used as a pillow.

8 • RELATIONSHIPS

Little is known about everyday Asmat life. Currently Indonesia limits the amount of time researchers may spend in Asmat country. Missionary and government influence have effected social customs such as greetings and other forms of etiquette.

9 • LIVING CONDITIONS

Asmat houses are elevated on stilts to prevent them from flooding during the rainy season. Ordinary Asmat dwellings do not have running water or electricity. Most houses have an outside porch area where people can gather to gossip, smoke, or just watch their neighbors.

10 • FAMILY LIFE

Asmat society is divided into two halves called "moieties" by anthropologists. Within a given village, a person is supposed to marry someone who belongs to the opposite moiety. After the marriage, the bride moves in with her husband's family. Extended families occupy large houses built of bamboo, sago bark, and sago frond thatching. Men sleep apart from their wives in the men's longhouse (yew). Ceremonial activities that take place inside the men's house are prohibited to women.

Wife beating was an accepted practice in the past. Unmarried women and girls are still beaten by their fathers or brothers if their behavior is considered unacceptable. A woman's property is transferred to her husband at the time of marriage, and she loses control over it.

11 • CLOTHING

The Asmat traditionally have worn little or no clothing. Footwear is not often owned. Due to missionaries and other outside influences, many Asmat today wear Western-style clothing. The most popular attire is rugby shorts for men and floral cotton dresses for women. Men may have their noses pierced and wear wild pig or boar tusks. Both men and women paint their bodies on ceremonial occasions.

12 • FOOD

Fish and the sago palm are the staple foods of all Asmat groups. Canned meats and fish, as well as flour, tea, and sugar, have become important food items as well. A butterfly larva often found in rotting tree carcasses is an important ritual food considered a delicacy among the Asmat.

13 • EDUCATION

Missionaries and colonial administrations have set up various schools in the Asmat region. Schoolhouses have been built in the coastal Asmat area.

14 • CULTURAL HERITAGE

Asmat drums have an hourglass shape and a single, lizard-skin-covered head that is struck with the palm of the hand. The other hand is used to hold the drum by a carved handle. Although the Asmat regard drums as sacred objects, they do not define instrumental sounds as music. Only singing is classified as music in Asmat culture. Love songs and epic songs, which often take several days to perform, are still important forms of expression.

Traditionally, dance was an important part of Asmat ceremonial life. However, missionaries have discouraged it. The Asmat have a great deal of oral literature, but no written tradition.

The Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress is collecting artifacts from all areas of Asmat culture. It produces catalogues and other publications on Asmat culture, mythology, and history.

15 • EMPLOYMENT

The Asmat are hunters and gatherers. They hunt crocodiles and other animals, and they gather and process the pulp of the sago palm. Some also grow vegetables or raise chickens. There is a traditional division of labor along gender lines. Women are responsible for net fishing, gathering, and other domestic tasks. Men are responsible for line and weir (enclosure) fishing, hunting, gardening, and the felling of trees. The sale of woodcarvings to outsiders represents an additional source of income.

16 • SPORTS

Traditionally, male competition among the Asmat was intense. This competition centered on the demonstration of male prowess through success in headhunting, acquiring fishing grounds and sago palm stands, and gathering a number of feasting partners. Males still compete in these areas, except headhunting which is now prohibited.

17 • RECREATION

The Asmat region of Irian Jaya is still very isolated. Western forms of entertainment and recreation are not available.

18 • CRAFTS AND HOBBIES

Asmat art is highly valued by European and American art collectors. Much of the Asmat artistic tradition is tied to the practice of headhunting. Thus, since the prohibition of headhunting, the production of Asmat artifacts has declined.

The central and coastal Asmat traditionally produced decorated shields, spears, digging sticks, canoes, bows and arrows, and a wide range of elaborate carvings. The most famous ritual carving of these groups is the ancestor pole, or bis. These elaborate carved objects commemorate the deaths of those killed in battle or by sorcery. They were erected during the feasts that preceded headhunting raids to avenge those deaths.

19 • SOCIAL PROBLEMS

The Asmat are fighting to retain their traditional ways of life in the face of pressure by Indonesian administrators. Many Asmat have converted to Christianity and are being educated in Western-run schools. However, they have been able to exercise some influence over government policy regarding the use of their land.

20 • BIBLIOGRAPHY

Knauft, Bruce. South Coast New Guinea Cultures . New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Muller, Kal. New Guinea: Journey into the Stone Age. Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Publishing Group, 1990.

Schneebaum, Tobias. Asmat Images: From the Collection of the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress . Minneapolis, Minn.: Crosier Missions, 1985.

WEBSITES

Indonesian Embassy in Canada. [Online] Available http://www.prica.org/ , 1998.

Interknowledge Corp. [Online] Available http://www.interknowledge.com/indonesia/ , 1998.

University of Oregon. Asmat. [Online] Available http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~st727/index.html , 1998.

World Travel Guide. Indonesia. [Online] Available http://www.wtgonline.com/country/id/gen.html , 1998.



Also read article about Asmat from Wikipedia

User Contributions:

1
handy
thanks for the site. Now I can do my homework completely... GBU
2
Joanna
Thanks for the info. I'm doing a paper on the Asmat traditional culture and how it's changed. This was just what I was looking for. The only thing is that I was looking for more information on their religion, which I'll look for elsewhere.
3
your mum
hi does anyone here no about da dances that da ppl do


if u do send to ma hotline at www.me.com
4
tipleloop
First, thanks for the information, but I'm more concern about they culture level, I never been Irian Jaya before, But I'm doing some Research about Asmat culture and literature, I heard about asmat has their own Scribble words, but now has been replace by Indonesian's.
what is meaning for I love you in asmat language???
6
Ica
Asmat from Indonesia, Proud be Indonesian people :)
7
Linda
I really enjoyed reading about the Asmet tribe, I'm glad they are not head hunters anymore , but I hope they can keep a good deal of their culture. Their wood carvings are amazing. My husband and I with our teenage sonsI enjoyed three years in Indonesia, sailed to Saumluki (and ran aground) on the way back and the people there were just beautiful, we never made it to Irian Jaya, but I really wished we had now. Thank you so much for this informative publication. Linda

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