Are They Man-eaters
by Korowai tribe that lives on trees and has been adopting the centuries old life style
In south east of Papua, there is Korowai tribe, which was unknown before 1970. This area is the south east part of the western New Guinea and it is doubted that their inhabitants still eat human flesh.
The Korowai people are 3000 in number. Even they did not know before 1970 that there are other humans reside in this world too. They used to think that they were the only humans residing in this world.
LANUGAGE
The Korowai language belongs to Awyu-Dumut family which is the language of South East Papua. An English linguistic expert has now prepared its grammar and dictionary.
HABITATATION
The majority of Korowai people lives on houses prepared on the trees. There residential area is totally separate from the rest of the village. They do not like to go any where from their residential area. But, when they related to the civilized world and especially the European people established many villages from the residence where they provided all the possible facilities, even then they did not move from their place. But from 1980s few Korawai people started shifting to these new villages in Yaniruma. But there number was very less. These villages are been established at the shores “Mu” and “Mbasman” of River Becking, which is not very far away from their own area.
In 1987 a village was established at Manggel, in 1988 second village was established at Yafufla, in 1989 a village named Mabul was established at the shores of River Eilanden and in 1998 another village was established at Khaiflambolup. In short these villages were prepared for Korowai people but in response they did not show the enthusiasm that was expected. This is due to this indifferent attitude that many villages are still shown empty.
The basic reason for that may be that these colonies are situated far away from the resources of food (Sago). In the local language the word “Sago” is used for food.
ECONOMY
The Korowai people are basically hunters and fulfill their appetite by hunting. They also do gardening and now gradually diverting towards yielding crop. The Korowai people are conscious of the importance of protein from the beginning and therefore they hunt animals and are very expert in fishing. They fulfill their requirements of proteins from the above-mentioned food.
What business Korowai people do? And what they sell or buy? The information regarding this is very little and not enough. There are special ways in Korowai tribe to carry out the daily chores of life for instance “Sago” means the responsibility of preparing food is of adult youngsters. They not only collect food but also prepare it. Likewise whatever religious ceremonies they celebrate according to their beliefs, youngsters also play their role in these ceremonies. There is no role of women in these types of ceremonies.
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