Asmat people

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Asmat people
Catholicism[2]
Minority:
Papuan peoples of Western New Guinea and Papua New Guinea, other Melanesians

The Asmat are an

ethnic group of New Guinea, residing in the province of South Papua, Indonesia. The Asmat inhabit a region on the island's southwestern coast bordering the Arafura Sea, with lands totaling approximately 18,000 km2 (7,336 mi2) and consisting of mangrove, tidal swamp, freshwater swamp, and lowland rainforest
.

The land of Asmat is located both within and adjacent to Lorentz National Park, a World Heritage Site, the largest protected area in the Asia-Pacific region. The total Asmat population is estimated to be around 110.000 as of 2020.[4] The term "Asmat" is used to refer both to the people and the region they inhabit.

The Asmat have one of the most well-known

Pacific
, and their art is sought by collectors worldwide.

Culture and subsistence

The natural environment has been a major factor affecting the Asmat, as their culture and way of life are heavily dependent on the rich natural resources found in their forests, rivers, and seas. The Asmat mainly subsist on starch from the sago palm (Metroxylon sagu), supplemented by grubs of the sago beetle (Rhynchophorus bilineatus), crustaceans, fish, forest game, and other items gathered from their forests and waters.

Materials for canoes, dwellings, and woodcarvings are also all gathered locally, and thus their culture and

veneration of ancestors
, particularly those who were accomplished warriors.

Asmat shields

Asmat art consists of elaborate stylized

St. Paul, Minnesota.[7]

Traditionally, many Asmat men practiced polygamy by marrying more than one woman. In many cases, men were expected to marry a male relative's wife when that relative dies, lest the widow and orphans be left without a source of protection or economic support. Schneebaum reported[8] that many Asmat men had long-term ritual sexual/friendship relationships (mbai) with other men, although the prevalence of this practice has been disputed by others. In the mbai system, male partners were also known to share their wives in a practice called papitsj.[8] It is probable that missionary influence in the last several decades has reduced the occurrence of both mbai and papitsj.[citation needed]

Headhunting raids were an important element of Asmat culture until missionaries suppressed the practice, which, according to some accounts, persisted into the 1990s. The death of an adult, even by disease, was believed to be caused by an enemy, and relatives sought to take a head in an endless cycle of revenge and propitiation of ancestors. Heads were thought necessary for the rituals in which boys were initiated into manhood. Cannibalism was a subsidiary feature of the rituals that followed the taking of heads.[9][10]

Language and ethnic sub-groups

Linguistic classification of the native language(s) of the Asmat people is somewhat problematic, but is generally characterized as being a group of closely related languages or dialects (most mutually intelligible to some degree), known as the Asmat family, which is a sub-family of the Trans–New Guinea language phylum. However, some ethnic groups who speak languages in the Asmat language family, such as the Kamoro and Sempan peoples who live adjacent to the Asmat, are ethnically distinct from Asmat.

Asmat may be thought of as an umbrella term for twelve different ethnic sub-groups with shared linguistic and cultural affinities and sense of shared identity. These twelve Asmat groups include Joirat, Emari Ducur, Bismam, Becembub, Simai, Kenekap, Unir Siran, Unir Epmak, Safan, Aramatak, Bras, and Yupmakcain. Further complicating the issue, these groups speak approximately five dialects (Casuarina Coast Asmat, Yaosakor Asmat, Central Asmat, North Asmat, Citak). However, at some important level these groups share a sense of identity and would likely refer to themselves as "Asmat".

History

Asmat on the Lorentz River, photographed during the third South New Guinea expedition in 1912–13.

The Asmat's first encounter with European people was with the Dutch, in 1623. However, until the 1950s, their remote and harsh location almost entirely isolated the Asmat from other ethnic groups. It was not until the mid-20th century that they came into regular contact with outsiders. The Asmat were documented headhunters and cannibals, and as a consequence were left largely undisturbed until then.

The first apparent sighting of the Asmat people by explorers was from the deck of a ship led by a Dutch trader,

HM Bark Endeavour
encountered a group of Asmat warriors; sensing a threat, the explorers quickly retreated.

In 1826, another Dutch explorer, Kolff, anchored in approximately the same area as that visited by Cook. When Asmat warriors approached the visitors with loud noises and bursts of white powder, Kolff's crew rapidly withdrew. The Dutch, who had gained sovereignty over the western half of the island in 1793, did not begin exploring the region until the early 1900s. At that time they established a government post in Merauke in the southeast corner of the territory.

From there, several exploratory excursions with the goal of reaching the central mountain range passed through the Asmat area and gathered small numbers of zoological specimens and artifacts. These artifacts were taken to Europe where they generated much interest, and probably influenced modernist Western artists such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso.

Start of significant contact with the outside world

Asmat carving

The first colonial post was established in the Asmat area in Agats in 1938. This small outpost was closed in 1942 due to the onset of

Mimika
area to the west. In 1953, Zegwaard re-established the post in Agats, which was to become the government headquarters and the base for Roman Catholic missionaries.

It was not until

bisj
ceremonies, which were incorporated into an adapted Catholic liturgy.

Asmat was the launching point for an arduous joint French-Dutch expedition from the south to north coast of New Guinea in 1958 and 1959, which was documented by the team and resulted in a book and documentary film,

The Sky Above, The Mud Below, which won an Academy Award in 1962
.

In November 1961, the 23-year-old Michael Rockefeller, son of the then-Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller and member of one of the wealthiest families in the United States, disappeared in Asmat when his boat overturned while on an art collecting expedition. His disappearance, followed by an intensive and ultimately unsuccessful search by the Dutch authorities, was the source of much speculation as to Mr. Rockefeller's fate. Recently, author Carl Hoffman in his book "Savage Harvest," presented evidence that Rockefeller was killed and eaten by people from Otsjanep village.[11]

In 1962, the

St. Paul, Minnesota, one of the largest collections of Asmat art in the United States.[12]

Present day

Asmat men inside their longhouse during a bisj pole completion ceremony, 2015.

Even today, the Asmat are relatively isolated and their most important cultural traditions are still strong, though their interaction with the outside world has been increasing over the last decades. Many Asmat have received higher education in other parts of Indonesia and some in Europe. The Asmat seek to find ways to incorporate new technology and beneficial services such as health, communications, and education, while preserving their cultural traditions.

The biodiversity of their area has been under some pressure from outside logging and fishing, although this has faced significant and not unsuccessful resistance. In the year 2000, the Asmat formed Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Asmat (LMAA), a civil society organization that represents and articulates their interests and aspirations.

LMAA has been working with Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance since 1999, and has established separate traditional sub-councils, or Forum Adat Rumpun (FAR) to implement joint activities. In 2004, the Asmat region became a separate governmental administrative unit or Kabupaten, and elected Mr. Yufen Biakai, former director of the AMCP and current Chairman of LMAA, as its Bupati (head of local government).

In 2022, following the formation of South Papua province which includes Asmat Regency, Apolo Safanpo, a native Asmat, was appointed as the first governor of South Papua.[13]

See also

References

  1. OCLC 1011165696
    .
  2. ^ "Between two worlds: struggles of the Asmat people". www.theguardian.com.
  3. ^ Widharyarto, B. "Kondisi Papua Terkini: Berangkat dari Kasus Asmat" (PDF) (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2023-10-22.
  4. ^ "The Asmat". Citypopulation. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
  5. S2CID 162331035
    .
  6. ISBN 978-1-4629-0964-3
    .
  7. ^ "About the Museum". Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-8021-0019-8
    .
  9. hdl:10524/11970
    .
  10. ^ Njideka Agbo Asmat: The Tribe Where Cannibalism Makes You A Real Man 22 February 2018 Guardian Newspapers
  11. ISBN 978-0062116154
  12. ISBN 978-0-9800484-2-1
    .
  13. ^ Novianto, Raka Dwi (11 November 2022). "Apolo Safanpo Dilantik Jadi Pj Gubernur Papua Selatan, Fokus Pembangunan Manusia". iNews. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

External links

Further reading

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