FOURTY YEARS OF FIELDWORK IN THE STAR MOUNTAINS, HIGHLAND OF PAPUA PROVINCE, INDONESIA (WEST NEW GUINEA)

PUBLIC TALK – IMF (CSIC) Barcelona

FOURTY YEARS OF FIELDWORK IN THE STAR MOUNTAINS, HIGHLAND OF PAPUA PROVINCE, INDONESIA (WEST NEW GUINEA)

On the Interface between Anthropology, Prehistory and Human Ethology

 Wulf Schiefenhövel

Dijous 13 de Novembre a les 12:00 h.

Saló d'Actes de la Delegación del CSIC a Catalunya. Carrer de les Egipcíaques 15, Barcelona

CHARRADA OBERTA AL PÚBLLIC – IMF-CSIC Barcelona

First stage of funeral rituals of the Eipo: placing the corpse in the crown of the tree.

The lecturer will talk of fieldwork among the Eipo, member of the Mek cultures and languages, Pengunungan Bintang, Province of Papua, Indonesia.

In June 1974, after a six-days walk into the Eipomek Valley from the newly opened mission station and airstrip of Bime, the lecturer first visited The Eipo, who still had a neolithic tool kit and way of life. They were carrying out their age-old rituals, fighting wars against their traditional enemies in the Famek valley to the West, trading stone axe blades with their partners across the central range and celebrating impressive feasts.

Researchers documented their lives from birth to death and were stunned by their excellent knowledge of nature as well as the beauty of their legends and love songs. The Eipo were modern models of the past, helping us and science to understand the "conditio humana", the essence of what it means to be Homo sapiens.