One head, many faces : : new perspectives on the Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea / / Jelle Miedema, Ger P. Reesink.

• Superior document: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde
• VerfasserIn: Miedema, Jelle, 1946-; Reesink, Ger P.,
• TeilnehmendeR: Reesink, Ger P.,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands : : KITLV Press,, [2004]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Series: Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (234 pages)

The Bird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea covers some 30,000 square kilometres of enormously varied landscape. Although it is home to an indigenous population of just 114,000, these people share more than twenty languages. Wider knowledge of the peninsula was recently gained through an extensive interdisciplinary research project (ISIR) involving anthropologists, archaeologists, botanists, demographers, geologists, linguists, and specialists in public administration. In analysing the findings of the project, this book provides a systematic comparison with earlier studies, addressing the geological past, the latest archaeological evidence of early human habitation (dating back at least 26,000 years), and the region’s diversity of languages and cultures. The peninsula is an important transitional area between Southeast Asia and Oceania, and this book provides valuable new insights for specialists in both the social and natural sciences into processes of state formation and globalization in the Asia–Pacific zone. Jelle Miedema studied sociology and anthropology at Groningen University. Awarded his PhD at Nijmegen University, he became coordinator of the ISIR project at Leiden University. His research topics include ethnohistory, kinship, and religion.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures, maps, and tables -- Preface -- I Introduction -- 1 The Bird's Head Peninsula and interdisciplinary research -- 2 Towards a synthesis -- 3 The structure of this book -- PART I LAND AND SETTLEMENT -- II Geography and early human settlement -- 1 Geography of the area -- 2 Early human settlement -- PART II LANGUAGES AND CULTURES -- STRUCTURE AND CHANGE -- III Language groups -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Bird's Head proper -- South Bird's Head -- West Bird's Head -- East Bird's Head -- 3 Evidence of diversity and contact -- Vocabulary -- Clause structure -- Other signs of contact with Austronesian -- 4 Conclusions -- IV Kinship, exchange, and change -- 1 Shifting rules and practices across the peninsula -- The northwestern and central-western peninsula -- The Moi -- The Maybrat -- The East Maybrat (West Ayfat area) -- Abun -- The northeastern and central-eastern peninsula -- Mpur -- Meyah -- Hatam -- The outer-eastern and southern peninsula -- Sougb (Bintuni and its hinterland) -- Tehit (Teminabuan and its hinterland) -- Inanwatan (Berau area) -- 2. Trade, travel, and exchange: long-term processes of change -- The northern and central peninsula -- The southern peninsula -- Bintuni and its hinterland -- Teminabuan and its hinterland -- The Inanwatan area -- 3 Conclusions -- Kinship systems: which systems and according to whom? -- Commoditization of people: arranged and 'free' marriages -- V Land, exchange, and change -- 1 Land as commodity -- The Ayamaru case (1970s) -- The Teminabuan case (1990s) -- 2 Land as a sacred object -- The Inanwatan case (1990s) -- 3 Conclusions -- PART III SHIFTING KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS -- VI Shifting clusters of myth themes across the peninsula -- 1 Myth themes: introduction -- 2 From nature to culture: main themes and actors -- Emergence of mankind.

Struggles between lethal and vital powers, and the emergence of human society -- Three generations of key actors and their roles -- 3 Mythical actors across the peninsula -- Mythical actors across the northern peninsula -- The evil supernatural female and the evil water demon, and their opponents: benevolent grandmothers or mothers and culture heros -- The culture hero in relation to the unfinished male -- From prehumans to halfway heroes -- The cassowary -- The trickster pair -- Mythical actors across the central peninsula -- The culture hero -- The hero's parents (the halfway heroes) -- The hero's wives: cooperative women versus uncooperative women -- The evil supernatural female and the water demon -- The cassowary -- The male trickster pair -- Mythical actors across the southern peninsula -- The culture hero -- The cassowary and the culture hero -- The unfinished female -- The cassowary mother -- The unfinished male -- The evil supernatural female and the (male) culture hero -- The cassowary -- Kekeao, from prehuman mother to culture heroine -- 4 Conclusions -- Common themes in Bird's Head myths -- The accommodation of 'foreign' knowledge within Bird's Head myths -- Evidence of migratory patterns within the peninsula -- VII Shifting notions of witchcraft and adat -- 1 Witchcraft and sorcery -- Witchcraft in the eastern peninsula (1970s) -- Witchcraft in the western peninsula (1950s) -- Witchcraft in the southern peninsula (1950s, 1990s) -- Teminabuan and hinterland (late 1990s) -- Inanwatan and hinterland (late 1990s) -- The Berau and Berauer areas and beyond -- 2 Traditional and modern notions of adat -- The Ayamaru area (1950s) -- The Kebar area (1970s) -- The Teminabuan area on the south coast (1990s) -- 3 Conclusions -- Witchcraft and gender ideology -- The shifting role of the cassowary in relation to other mythic figures.

Female and male witchcraft -- Traditional and 'modern' ideas about witchcraft -- Old and new elites -- PART IV LANGUAGE, CULTURE, AND IDENTITY -- VIII Language and identity -- 1 Maintaining linguistic diversity -- 2 Viability of language as marker of ethnic identity -- Extinct Mansim -- Language death and ethnic identity in the Inanwatan community -- Viability of other Bird's Head languages -- 3 Conclusions -- IX Culture and identity -- 1 The dynamics of culture: old and new roles, positions, and identities -- The changing roles of women -- The changing roles of 'slaves' (female and male) -- 2 Shifting criteria for identity construction -- The question of one's own area, language, origin, and adat -- We and the Other: reconceptualizations of past and present -- 3 Conclusions -- PART V ONE HEAD, MANY FACES -- NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE BIRD'S HEAD PENINSULA AND BEYOND -- X Main findings and new perspectives for interdisciplinary research -- 1 An overview of main findings -- 2 Perspectives for future interdisciplinary research -- Early inhabitants and ancient interregional contacts -- Kinship systems and exchange systems as models for comparison -- Trade history, ethnohistory, and language -- The south coast and beyond: Islam and Christianity -- List of abbreviations -- Bibliography -- Index.