KAMORANIA: A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF RECENT ACQUISITIONS

 

Jan Pouwer

 

 

The Asmat and the Kamoro - formerly known as the Mimika people - constitute the northwest border of the south coast New Guinea non-Austronesian language-culture areas, extending from Etnabay in West Papua to Orokolo, Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. This huge coastal area was the subject of a penetrating, theoretically and methodologically innovative, comparative study by Bruce M. Knauft (l993). However, while the Asmat are reasonably covered, though to a limited extent due to the paucity of systematic ethnographic information, the Kamoro are only dealt with in passing: ritual homosexuality absent; women complementary or integral to male cult life; sister exchange marriage; early trading through rajahs in West Mimika. This in spite of amply available systematic ethnographic descriptions (Kooijman l984; Pouwer l955a, l955b (l970), l956, l964, l968 (l973), l975, l984, l987, l988 and l99l). Knauft only refers to Pouwer l955, l956, l975 and l99l. This omission, I presume, may partially be due to a lack of Dutch reading knowledge. My PhD thesis (l955), containing the main body of ethnographic information, was published in Dutch; an application to have it translated in English was unfortunately turned down. Also, Knauft never approached me personally.

 

Recent years show a happy accumulation of internationally accessible Kamoro data and its interpretations. The publications, specified below, also refer to massive change occurring since the late sixties of the previous century. To put the latter in some perspective; the l96l census of the entire Mimika district showed that the Kamoro (9300) then constituted 97% of the total population, with Chinese and other Indonesians representing 3%, and Europeans about 0.5% (UnCen-ANU l998:36). In l998, however, almost the opposite transpired: the Kamoro were then estimated to represent l5% of the total population (UnCen-ANU l998:5). The major lever of change was provided by the immigration of huge numbers of Indonesians from other parts of Indonesia. Almost all of these immigrants settled in the eastern part of the district, attracted by the arrival of Freeport Indonesia Mining Company in l967. Moreover, its centre, the area of the township Timika, has also been targeted by the transmigration department. In l985 at least nine transmigration settlements had been established in this area (UnCen-ANU l998:36). In l955 the coastal village of Timika or Timuka had about 578 inhabitants (Pouwer l955:283). Its present namesake, located inland, has about 40,000 (!), including about 7500 Kamoro, roughly half of the total Kamoro population of the district (Harple 2000:l96). This Timika has become an icon of inequity, human rights abuse and environmental destruction, as Harple put it (Harple 2000:l90).

 

Yet in spite of drastic political change, modernization and immigration, turning the Kamoro into a minority in their own land, an Australian National University PhD thesis by the American Todd Harple, based on 20 months of fieldwork between l996 and l998, taking my l955 thesis as a baseline, bears ample testimony of cultural and social continuity in spite of radical discontinuity (Harple 2000). His ethno-historical analysis of social engagement gives further striking evidence, already documented in my thesis and other publications, of a Kamoro incorporation of foreign elements and their reformulation in terms of the exploits of timeless culture heroes. Kamoro clearly interpret their history as propelled by the ageless supra-historical and dynamic principle of reciprocity rather than by 'progress', as already noticed and illustrated by me (see for instance Pouwer l975). Foreign withholding of kata - the Kamoro term for ritual secrets and individual propensities, also denoting, by extension, modern wealth and abilities - emerges as a dominant theme in Kamoro narratives; it is interpreted as theft which is ultimately establishing relationships of negative reciprocity between the Kamoro and the powerful outsiders (see Abstract of Harple's thesis).

 

In the light of this remarkable continuity it is a happy coincidence that in 2002 an anthology of 22 Asmat and 23 Kamoro, inter-culturally related narratives was published, with comparative emphasis on Kamoro. It was the result of more than four years of plodding along by Gertrudis Offenberg, a science correspondent in archaeology, architecture and history, and me, assisted by Todd Harple. The odds were an acquisition of funds mainly met by a generous gift of the MSC Provincial Authority at Tilburg, but more particularly a frustrating communication with the publisher. The larger part of the stories were collected by Father G. Zegwaard MSC, a retired missionary of Kamoro and Asmat, who suddenly died in l996. This collection in his honour was supplemented by (versions of) narratives assembled by the late Father J. Coenen OFM and me. Father Coenen, largely based in the eastern-most villages from l953 to l963, spent more time among the Kamoro than any major contributor to Kamoro history and ethnography. His lengthy essay (Coenen l963), unfortunately never published, is a main source of knowledge of and insight in Kamoro cosmology. His study takes the work of Zegwaard and me as a baseline in a critical vein.

 

Selecting and editing 45 narratives was a laborious, incredibly time consuming job, but a highly rewarding one. Their audience according to Kamoro perception are the real, true (Kamoro or Asmat) humans, as contrasted with the not so real, not so human, if not un-human mortals who happen to be neighbours or foreigners or enemies; briefly: we, the in-group versus they, the out-group. Also: we the humans as against the ghosts and the spirit-men. 'We humans' live betwixt and between the underworld, the main abode of the ancestors, and the upper world. The humans inhabit the earth that is merely a corridor. Through this corridor there is a constant circular flow of living and dead, of human, animal and vegetal spirits and ghosts, of ancestors and descendants and of eternal culture heroes, between lower and upper world. This bipartite cosmos and its in-between earthly corridor are coterminous with the upstream/downstream, coast/inland (including west/east) habitat of the semi-sedentary Kamoro and Asmat. They move in a cyclical, upwards and downwards fashion for the acquisition of sago, fish, forestial catch and limited horticultural produce.

 

Natural phenomena, celestial bodies and man always existed in an ever-present cosmos. These were not created but transformed and re-directed by superhuman culture heroes who mainly operated on and from the in-between earth. They acted as superior tricksters outdoing their powerful literal namesakes in upper-and underworld. By so doing the earth was made suitable for real man. They re-directed sun, moon, fire, rain and winds, and re-established and re-distributed sago, fish, hunting equipment including dogs, and garden products. Their acts and exploits served the needs of man. Also, at least in Mimika, the two main and major rituals relating as female to male, the Emakame and Kaware rituals, were instituted in and to some extent stolen from the underworld by them. The former ritual safeguards reproduction of humans and their environment; its constituting myth reconstitutes and re-distributes men, turns them into separate groups including groups of foreigners. The latter ritual safeguards communication with the dead, the ancestors, the under- and upper world. Initiation of the adolescents and honouring as well as getting rid of the dead in an elaborate succession of stages are autonomous rituals closely connected with the two main, 'female' and 'male' major rituals. To what extent this set up also applies to Asmat is unclear, due to the paucity of data. There are pertinent parallels but their orientation is clearly different.

 

Space and time in cosmos, culture and society are regulated, set and kept in motion by the golden principle of reciprocity (Kamoro: aopao) between two halves of varying composition. Bipartition is a fundamental property of Kamoro and Asmat cosmos, culture and society. Aopao stands for counterpart, counter-word, counter-act, quid pro quo, and revenge. Reciprocity is the prime mover of social state, social process and history. It also includes engagement with the foreigners, their acts, power and wealth.

 

The narratives supply the members of the societies with the concrete stuff and acts of their life ways and worldviews: it is concrete thought, pensée concrète, on the move. They also account for the two main rituals in separate myths, although there is no one to one relationship between myth and ritual. Needless to say that the concrete events of the stories also include and explain the origin and impact of the foreigners, and their power and wealth. Finally, former and present conflicts and contradictions of real life find expression in these stories.

 

The anthology is named Amoko after the eternally present era (amoko) of the culture heroes (amoko-we). This era relates to the era of humans as bottom, root, inner essence if you like (mopere or mapere), to top, outer surface (ipere), as deep reality to mere appearance.

 

In a Preface and Introduction Gertrudis Offenberg informs the reader about the genesis and purpose of the anthology and introduces him to geography, history and life ways of the peoples concerned. She also deals with the method of collecting the stories and with particulars about the storytellers.

 

Harple, in a Prologue, demonstrates by means of a case study the outer appearance and the deeper reality of the first ever Kamoro arts festival in l998, sponsored by Freeport Mine. His account highlights present social conflicts.

 

I myself, in a separate chapter, offer the lay reader a guide to the stories, an understanding of which might easily get lost by their complexity.

 

The most recent acquisition was provided by the exhibition 'Papua lives! Meet the Kamoro' in the Leiden National Museum of Ethnology, l4 February to l5 August 2003. At some stage even Kamoro woodcarvers enlivened the exhibition. Its splendidly and lavishly illustrated catalogue Kamoro art: Tradition and innovation in a New Guinea culture, edited by Dirk Smidt, curator of the museum department of Oceania, added significantly to a revival of interest in Kamoro culture and society. The museum has a unique collection of about l300 objects, some of them collected as early as l828, and a major part assembled in l907-l9l5. The most recently fabricated ones were acquired during the 2002 Kamoro arts festival. The catalogue includes a detailed description of objects on display, and chapters on ancestral heritage and the essence of life by Kamoro author Mamapuku in conjunction with Todd Harple, Kamoro up to the sixties by Hein A. van der Schoot a former District Officer, Catholic mission and Kamoro culture, and Kamoro arts festival, both by Karen Jacobs, an art historian employed by the museum, with a focus on fieldwork during the Festivals 2000-2002. I myself contributed to the catalogue in a lengthy essay of 25 pages about Kamoro rituals, the first ever comprehensive description, based on field research and observation on the spot in the nineteen fifties. Its subject matter are the two main rituals, mentioned earlier and the various and elaborate stages of passage from adolescence to death. Since most of the artefacts, including tools and objects (such as canoes) for daily use, are fabricated and function during rituals, the essay concerned is of vital importance for understanding Kamoro art, which by the way is not a separate domain of Kamoro life. Present social and individual innovations, encouraged by the festivals, by growing access to modern commodities and finance and by a growing differentiation of individual artists, could well usher a new era of Kamoro society and culture. Although the two major rituals are no longer performed in toto, not even in the nineteen fifties, a current striking bricolage of rites, ceremonies, songs, narratives and carvings leads to spectacular cultural re-combinations and individual and social innovations. Amoko and modernization, globalization, may well go together! At present a remarkable revival of rites de passage of adolescence and manhood is clearly evident.

 

Pictures of artefacts published in Kooyman (l984), Smidt (2003) and Indonesian translations of narratives in Offenberg and Pouwer (2002) are currently being made available to Kamoro people in order to enhance their interest and creativity.

 

Let me conclude by drawing the attention of the reader to a kind of travelogue written by the American journalist David Pickell , magnificently illustrated by the American photographer Kal Muller, who also contributed to the exposition and its catalogue. The two were assisted by the Kamoro, Akinyau and Takati ( David Pickel 2001).

 

Knauft's bold incorporation of Kamoro as a sub-heading in a language-culture area under the main heading Asmat, raises questions rather than provides answers (see his map l). Its merit is that it provokes a detailed intra- and cross-cultural comparative analysis of Asmat and Kamoro society and culture, still to be made. The present edition of narratives, my description of Kamoro rituals and the recent exposition of Kamoro art as described in its catalogue, explicitly and implicitly reveal substantive and striking differences and variations within a framework of broad similarities. It offers an outstanding opportunity, not to be missed out, for detailed and theoretically well informed comparison, obviously within the context of a detailed knowledge of socio-economic and socio-political reality. Published and unpublished data with respect to this context are available, but need selective and systematic addition. For Asmat there is an overemphasis, for Kamoro there was an under-emphasis on art. Volunteers and funds for this major exercise are urgently called for!

 

 

References

 

Coenen OFM, J. (l963). Enkele facetten van de geestelijke cultuur van de Mimika [Some aspects of the spiritual culture of the Mimika People]. Omawka: OFM. Unpublished typescript held at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden.

 

Harple, Todd. (2000). Controlling the dragon: An ethno-historical analysis of social engagement among the Kamoro of South-West New Guinea (Indonesian Papua/Irian Jaya). PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra. Free download from PapuaWeb: http:// www.papuaweb.org/dlib/s123/harple/_phd.html

 

Knauft, Bruce M. (l993). South coast New Guinea cultures: History, comparison, dialectic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 

Kooijman, Simon. (l984). Art, art objects and ritual in the Mimika culture. Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum van Volkenkunde, Leiden 24. Leiden: Brill.

 

Offenberg, Gertrudis A.M. and Jan Pouwer (eds). (2002). Amoko - In the beginning: Myths and legends of the Asmat and Mimika Papuans. Adelaide: Crawford House Publishing (tonycraw@bigpond.net.au). Not in bookshops except in bookstore 'De Verre Volken'  established inside the National Museum of Ethnology at Leiden, Netherlands (info@ethnographicartbooks.com).

 

Pickell, David. (2001). Kamoro: Between the tides in Irian Jaya. With photographs by Kal Muller. Jakarta: Aopao Productions.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l955a).   Enkele aspecten van de Mimika-cultuur (Nederlands Zuidwest Nieuw Guinea). PhD thesis, University of Leiden, Leiden. Den Haag: Staatsdrukkerij.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l955b). Rechten op de grond in Mimika [Landtenure in Mimika]. Adatrechtbundel 45:569-582. Den Haag: Nijhoff. Republished as 1970.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l956). A masquerade in Mimika. Antiquity and Survival 1(5):373-386.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l964). Radcliffe-Brown's ideas on joking relationships tested by data from Mimika. International Archives of Ethnography 1:l1-30.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l968). Translation at sight: The job of a social anthropologist. Inaugural Address. Wellington: Victoria University. 23 pages. Republished as l973.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l970). Mimika land tenure. New Guinea Research Bulletin 38:24-33. Canberra: Australian National University.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l973). Signification and fieldwork. Journal of Symbolic Anthropology 1:l-l3. The Hague and Paris: Mouton.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l975). Structural history: A New Guinea case study. In: W.E.A. van Beek and J.H. Scherer (eds), Explorations in the anthropology of religion: Essays in honour of Jan van Baal (pp. 80-111). Verhandelingen 74. The Hague: Nijhoff.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l984). Geslachtelijkheid en ideologie, toegelicht aan een samenleving van Irian Jaya. In: Ton Lemaire (ed.), Antropologie en ideologie (pp. 127-166). Groningen: Konstapel.

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l987). Gender in Mimika: Its articulation, dialectic and its connection with ideology. Paper presented at the International New Guinea Workshop, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, February 24-26. 55 pages

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l988). The presentation of art: A museologist’s dilemma. Review of Kooijman l984. Bijdragen Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde l44(4):557-564 .

 

Pouwer, Jan. (l99l). Mimika. In: Terence E. Hays (ed.), Encyclopedia of world cultures, Volume 2: Oceania (p. 209). Boston: Hall.

 

Smidt, Dirk. (2003). Kamoro art: Tradition and innovation in a New Guinea culture. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers

 

UnCen-ANU Baseline Studies Project. (l998). Kamoro Baseline Study final report. UABS Report 7. Jayapura and Canberra: Universitas Cenderawasih and Australian National University.