Uwus Village
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Uwus Village
Today we had a visit to another Asmat village, one even
more remote than the one we saw yesterday, and even more affected by mud.
We started out in the Zodiacs going east along the New Guinea coast, going past the river which we had used to get to the Per village, and ultimately turning up another river. We then continued upriver for about five miles, and then slowed. Suddenly, from a tributary off to the side, came war canoes as if in an ambush:
The men of Uwus Village really surprised us. They herded us upriver:
Where we were met by another force of Uwus canoes:
Had it been real, we would have been in a pincer between upriver and downriver forces. It had been raining lightly, but now a steady heavy rain began as we went ashore to land which only an hour before had been underwater with high tide. Everything here depends on the tides, and the tide was going out. We were welcomed with drumming:
The rain continued quite heavily, and despite modest attempts to create places to walk with bark over widely spaced poles, it was not possible to avoid the muck:
Some of the warriors appeared quite fierce:
After the raising of the ancestor poles, the action moved inside the longhouse:
The drums were tuned by heating the drumheads (lizard skins) by a fire:
The villagers chose a couple from our trip to demonstrate
initiation rites:
The rain ended, and the ceremonies were finished. We were soaked, muddy, hot and sticky. It was almost low tide, and our ship had to
move about 8 miles offshore, as the water at low tide is only about three
meters deep out to 7 miles. We said our
goodbyes, got into the Zodiacs, and traveled downriver to the mouth of the
river and then 8 miles out to sea in the open ocean. The ship was not visible over the horizon
when we started out; it took 45 minutes to get there. We were badly in need of a shower when we
arrived, but what an experience!
Unforgettable. The next couple of
days will be completely at sea as we travel east to Papua New Guinea.
Lots of thoughts about these remote tribes. Are they peaceful among each other? Territory boundaries or conflicts. How do they start fires in such a damp, wet environment? Since they are near the equator they must not have significantly different seasons, so is their sense of yearly time different than ours? Love to know what they think about us!
ReplyDeleteSupposedly mostly at peace now, with no more “revenge killings” and no more cannibalism. Don’t know about time, and also would love to know what they think about us. Where do they suppose the artifacts we buy are going? How do they think our homes look? What would they think of House and Garden magazine?
DeleteYou’d have to learn one of the literally hundreds of languages and dialects.
Fascinating that they have a sense of pitch for the drums. I suppose that a tighter skin (hence higher pitch) also produces a sound that carries further. Thanks not least for the photo of your (or whoever's) feet covered in mud--this gives a vivid sense of the experience of tromping around there. And I get annoyed if there's a tiny pebble in my shoe or my sock is bunched up.
ReplyDeleteIt was beyond muddy—the mud seemed to splash, fly all by itself and got all over us. Along with heat, humidity, rain and mosquitos it was quite a sensation.
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