Two Years Among New Guinea Cannibals / A Naturalist's Sojourn Among the Aborigines of Unexplored New Guinea

Chapter 23: CHAPTER XV NATIVE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

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About This Book

The narrative recounts two years of scientific fieldwork in New Guinea, combining natural-history collecting with ethnographic observation. The author describes arduous inland travel, coastal settlements and village life, local crafts and watercraft, dialectal diversity, ceremonies, and everyday material culture while recording birds, insects, and new species. Chapters detail camps, transport challenges, encounters with various tribes, and practical arrangements for collection and study; appendices present specimen records and scientific notes. Illustrations and a map accompany practical accounts of landscape, wildlife, and indigenous technologies.

CHAPTER XV
NATIVE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

The Papuan at Home—His Good Points—Physical Characteristics—Ceremonial Dress—Coast and Hill Tribes—Differences—Local Distribution of the Rami or Petticoat—Its Decrease in Length in the Mountains—Its Disappearance at Epa—Dandyism—The Priceless Chimani—The Shell Armlet—Household Constitution—Rudimentary Government—Courtship and Marriage—The Price of a Wife—Position of Women—Six Ways of Carrying an Infant—Meal Times—Weapons—Clubs—Their Manufacture the Monopoly of One Tribe—Weird Tribal Dances.