Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 2 - Oceania - B pot

Boazi is the name of a language spoken by approximately 2,500 people who live along the middle reaches of the FlyRiver andalongthecentral andnorthern shores of Lake Murray in the souther

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Practitioners Sorcerers and shamans (namer-o) mediate

between humans andthespirit world These statuses

repre-sentvisionarycallingsrequiringlongapprenticeships

Practi-tioners perform magic, exorcisms, and healing Tesmaypits

organize and supervise rituals, employing head singers and

providing food for ceremonies In recent years, cargo-cult

leaders also have emerged

Ceremonies Villagescelebrate major ritualson a two-to

four-year cycle Ritualwarfare (and the activities that

pre-ceded and followedeachbattle) traditionallywasunderstood

as integral to the cosmology ofdualism, reciprocity, and

checks andbalances Feasting, dancing, the carving of

art-works, and lengthy songcyclescontinue to reflect this

per-spective Mythological, legendary, and historical heroes are

extolled inepic song-poems lastingseveral days Initiation,

papis,adultadoption,andmen's house construction are also

accompanied by ceremonies

Arts Asmat art, music, and oral literature are closely

bound toceremonial andsocioeconomiccycles.Themaster

carvers(wowipits) havebeenrecognizedasamong the best of

thepreliterate world. Exuberance ofform, shape,andcolor

characterize ancestor (bis) poles, war shields, and canoe

prows Drums andhead-hunting hornsareconsideredtobe

sacred objects, although only singingis viewed as 'music."

Music serves as avehicleof possession,socialbonding,

politi-caloratory, therapy, cultural transmission, and recreation

Medicine Most curers also are religious practitioners

They employ herbal remedies (including tobacco), sorcery,

andmagic Theintroduction ofWesternmedicine has been

systematically promoted bymissionaries butonly erratically

promotedbythe Indonesiangovernment EarlierDutch

pro-grams were deemed superior

Deathand Afterlife Virtuallyall sickness and death is

at-tributed to spiritual interventionorcosmicimbalance Such

imbalance leads to vulnerability. Upon death, family and

closefriendsgrieveopenlyandintensivelyforseveralhours,

flingingthemselvesdown androllinginthe mud of the

river-bank.Mud is believed to mask the scent ofthelivingfrom the

capricious spirit of the dead The body traditionally was

boundinpandanusleaves,placedon aplatform,andleftto

decay Relatives retrieved certain bones; the skull of one's

mother oftenwas worn on astring aroundtheneckorused as

apillow Thespirits of the dead entersafan, "theother side."

Most Asmat nowrelyuponburial,withsomedeaths

accom-panied by Christian funerals

See also Mimika

Bibliography Amelsvoort, V F P M (1964). Culture, Stone Age, and

Modern Medicine Assen,The Netherlands: Van Gorcum

Van Arsdale, Kathleen0 (1981) Music and Culture of the

Bismam Asmat of New Guinea: a Preliminary Investigation

Hastings, Nebr.: Crosier Press, Asmat Museum

Van Arsdale, PeterW.,and CarolL Radetsky (1983-1984)

"Lifeand Death in NewGuinea." Omega 14:155-169

Voorhoeve, C L (1965) The Flamingo Bay Dialect of the

Asmat Language TheHague: MartinusNijhoff.

PETER VAN ARSDALE AND KATHLEEN VAN ARSDALE

Banaro

ETHNONYMS: Banar, Banara The Banaro are a group numbering about 2,500 located along themiddle course of the Keram River, a tributary of theSepik River in Madang and East Sepik provinces, Papua New Guinea.Banaro is a Papuanlanguageisolate belonging to the Sepik-RamuPhylum The Banaro are today concentrated in two villages Formerly, they lived in four villages, two on ei-ther side of the Keram Each village consists of fromthree to six hamlets, which in turn have from three to eight multi-family houses Each hamlet also includes one communal structure, sometimes referred to as the "goblinhall." Subsist-ence is based on sago processing, the cultivation of taro, yams, bananas and sugarcane, fishing, and the exploitation of wild and domestic pigs Sibs are the landholding group among the Banaro The Banaro produce their own pottery and use bows and arrows

TheBanaroareorganized into severalpatricians,each of which is further divided into twosubclans.Affiliated with each subclanareseveral localized patrilineages Marriage among the Banaro is an exchange of women between exogamous patricians Sister exchange isthe ideal, although the actual choice ofa husband is generally in thehandsof the girl and her mother.Bride-priceis required.Thedomestic unit is a group of coresidentbrothers, along with their wives and children The families livein a communal house, divided into apartments for eachnuclearfamily Each Banaro hamlet consists of a single patrician.Thecommunal houses are divided in two, each half belonging to each of that clan's subclans The latter are to-temic,unilineal,exogamous groups Eachsubclanis allied with several other subsibs in wifeexchanges The alliances are effec-tively self-perpetuating and new alliances are established by the old and influential men among the Banaro These leading men also have the responsibility of settling disputes and making economic and military decisions The headmen lead by persua-sion, not by command, and their power base is secured through a monopoly on magic

The Banaroplacegreat faith in magic Magic is regarded

astheprimary means ofmanipulatingthe natural and super-natural worlds Boys and girls both undergo initiation, with thegirls marrying shortly thereafter The most important su-pernaturals are the ghosts of the ancestors and the mischie-vousgoblins, or minor spirit beings

Bibliography Thurnwald, Richard (1916) Banaro Society American An-thropological Association Memoirs 3 (4).Menasha, Wis

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22 Bau.

Bau

ETHNONYMS: Kubuna, Mbau,Tui Kaba

Orientation

Identification The name 'Bau" wasoriginally that ofa

housesite (yamu) at Kubuna on the Wainibuka River inthe

interiorofVitiLevu,themainislandofFiji,buttoday'Bau"

usually refers to thesmall offshore islet,home of the

para-mountchiefs,and'Kubuna"tothosewho claimkinshipwith

thechiefly families, orthose who'gowith' Bauinthe wider

politics of allFiji

Location. The Kubuna moved down the Wainibuka and

then the Wailevu (Rewa) rivervalleysto occupythe

north-eastern coastofthe Rewa Delta and the Kaba Peninsula

be-fore makingahome for their chiefsonthe small islet ofBau,

at17°58'S, 178°37'E This isletis no morethan 8 hectares

in extentand 15metersabovesealevelatthehighestpoint.

Demography When Bauwas attheheightofits power,

thepopulation onthe isletissaidtohave been4,000.The

paucityof available datapermits no morethana guess as to

the number ofits supporters. Mid-nineteenth-century

esti-matesvariedbetween 100,000and300,000for all ofFiji,of

whomperhapshalfsupported Bau,but traditions tell of

disas-trousepidemics-associated withtheearlier arrival of

Euro-peans-ravaging the populationbyasmuch as40 percent.

The 1986 censusrevealed Fijians intheprovinces that'go

with" Bau totaling 175,000

Linguitc Affiliation The language is one of 300

'co-mmunalects" (dialects largely confined to one community)

thatexist amongthecontemporarypopulationof300,000

Fi-jians. Intheearly nineteenthcentury, alinguafrancabased

onthe communalects of Bau andRewawasusedby Fijians

from differentpartsof the islands whentheywishedto

com-municate,andEuropeanmissionarieschose Bau for

transla-tionof the Bible.EuropeanizedBauan,sometimesalsocalled

Old HighBauan,hasnowbecomethe basis for Standard

Fi-jian, which is in the Oceanic Branch of Austronesian

languages

History and Cultural Relations

Although Fiji has been inhabited for atleast 3,500 years,

muchinterveninghistory has beenlostto memory.AUof the

greatchiefdoms ofeasternVidLevu trace theirfoundingan.

cestors tothe Nakauvadra Mountainsnearthe northcoast,

butexistinggenealogicalinformationcannotbeheldtorelate

toearlier thanthesixteenthcentury.TheBauhadtwo great

chiefly lines, that of the RokotuiBau,the sacredchiefs, and

the Vunivalu,warchiefs andexecutivechiefs Aftermoving

to the islet, the Bau began extending their influence The

Vunivalu Naulivou exploited musket-bearing European

beachcombersto sucheffectthat at the time of his death in

1829,Bau seemedwellontheway toestablishingaFiji-wide

hegemony.Rebellionin 1832halted this inexorablerise,and

as the century advanced, relationships between Bau and

other chiefdoms, and between Fijians and Europeans,

be-came increasingly complex Missionaries arrived at Bau in

1839.Theirprogress waslimitedduring the earlystagesof the

warbetweenBauand Rewa, which dominated Fiji's politics during the middle years of the century, butin1854,the Vuni-valu Cakobau convertedto Christianity,and the climactic battle ofKaba, in 1855, tookonthe character ofa struggle be-tweenpaganand Christian powerin Fiji.Thereafter, Euro-peaninfluence increased Fijiwascededto Great Britain in

1874, with Cakobau signing the deed as King of Fiji The British colonial administrationadoptedafairly benign pater-nalism towards all Fijians Alienation of landwas stopped, butevolution of Fijian society andadaptationtochangewere severely limited.The old chiefdoms such as Bau became rela-tively insignificant,althoughsomeofthechiefs were involved

in administration With independence in 1970, and even more soafter themilitary coups of 1987, however, the chiefly confederations haveonce again come tothe fore

Settlements Although the focus of the chiefdom was Bau Island, there weremanytributary towns and villages, each with their own territory up and down the Tailevu coast, along the north coastof thedelta, andon nearby islands in the Koro Sea Duringtheperiod of greatest turbulence, villages were elabo-rately defended.Thoseintheswamplands of the delta, in par-ticular, weresurrounded with impenetrable barriers of fences andditches strengthened with concealed and upraised spikes Special structures included the temple to the ancestral god of the paramountchiefs, the house sites of the most important families, which were builtonrock-steppedplatforms, and the stone-borderedcanoe docks, representing political suprem-acy Inorder toprovide more land, terraces were leveled and foreshore reclaimed, andabridge wasbuilt to connect the islet with the mainland more than a kilometer away During the time offriendship with Rewa, a 2-kilometer canal was dug linking adjacent channels of the great river to provide easier accessbetween the two centers of power

Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities Bauan Fijians were subsistence horticulturists, raising root crops such as taro and cassava on aswidden basis on the drier Tailevu coastal lands, but planting swamp taro in carefully mounded and ditched plots in the RewaDelta Fishing and collecting the resources of mangroves and the nearby reefs provided im-portantadditionalfood.Tradingwith Europeans began when thelatter discovered stands ofsandalwood on the northern island of Vanua Levu in the first decade of the nineteenth century,and itgreatly intensified when the technology associ-ated with thedrying of seaslugs (trepang) was brought to Fiji from China inthe 1820s The chiefs of Bau deployed their supporters in order to acquirethe cash they needed to buy guns,ammunition, and, in the case of the VunivaluCakobau

of Bau, a schooner for hispersonal use Today, 60 percent of the total population lives invillages, largely still with a sub-sistenceeconomy and the continued obligations of commu-nal life, but rural-urban drift is creating problems More Fiji-ans work for wages and seekemployment in towns, resulting

in a lack ofhousing, employment, and education opportuni-tiesandaweakening of the resources of the villages Since the coupsof 1987, theFijian-dominated government has sought

to redressimbalances that it perceives between Fijians and In-dians, originally brought to the country by the colonial

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ad-ministrationin 1878 toworkintheplantationsugarindustry

thateventuallybecame thebasis ofthe colonialeconomy

Industrial Arts Traditional crafts of Fiji included the

making of pots, woven mats, and fine bark cloth by the

women, and, by the men, the carving of whalebone ivory

(sometimes inlaid with pearl shell) and a wide variety of

wooden artifacts, including spears andclubs, bowlsfor the

ceremonialdrinkingofkava,and thegreatseagoing

double-hulledcanoesthatpermittedspeedypassage between the

is-lands ofFijiand to Samoa andTongatotheeast

Trade Bauan power restedon the ability to maintain a

widenetwork oftributaryrelationshipsthatinvolved the

sup-plying to it of alltheresourcesofthe landand sea,including

thecrafts mentioned above Europeanswereintegratedinto

thesystemwheneverpossible, particularlyinthe firsthalfof

thenineteenthcentury

DivisionofLabor Intraditional times,familyunitsspread

widely over theland, cultivatingandcollecting The division

of labor wasaccordingtoboth age andsex.Menproduceda

fargreater proportion of thefamily'sfood,foragriculturewas

andremains the domain ofmen Younggirls mightcollect

taro leaves,butotherwisetheywould not gotothegardens

Fishing by line or net and the collection of molluscs and

other productsof thereefarewomen'swork,asisthefetching

ofwater, mostcooking, and thecareof house andchildren

Young children of 8 or9mighthelptheirparents, butlackof

responsibilityusually lastsuntil 14 orso.The heaviertasks

fallontheyounger men and women.Thedomesticseniority

system serves to organizehouseholdproduction;this

arrange-ment wasespeciallytrueof the traditional extendedfamily

LandTenure Landwasheldbythe"family," whichwas

definedmore or lessinclusivelyindifferentparts of Fiji

Dur-ingthe period of its rise to power, Bau struggled with Rewa for

controlofthe delta andsoughttoimposeatributary

relation-ship onthosetheyconquered.Thecolonialgovernment

de-finedprinciples ofland tenure retrospectively, creating

ho-mogeneity in place of a system built on dynamism and

change Theybased their system at leastinparton Bauan

norms

Kinship

KinGroups and Descent Fijiansociety isorganizedinto

ahierarchyofkinshipgroups ofincreasingorders of

inclusive-ness At Bau, the chiefly yavusa was divided into four

patricIans:the twochieflymataqali,awarriorclan,anda

her-aldclandividedinto two subclansassociatedwith each ofthe

chiefly lines With the rise to political importance of the

chiefly confederations since the 1987 coups, clan

relation-ships at the individual level are becoming more important

once again

KinshipTerminology Thesystem is of the Iroquoistype,

with somespecial features Thereisthe usualsharp

distinc-tionbetweencross and parallelrelatives,butbifurcate

merg-ing occurs inall but the second descending generation, in

which kinship reckoning is simply generational Amongthe

chiefly families ofBau, the vasu relationship, between ego

and mother's brother, was used to cement ties with other

chiefdoms.The vasu was able to make particular demandson

the material wealth of his maternal uncle's kin group,

fre-quently doing so in the interests of hisownchiefdom

Marriage and Family

Marriage Traditionally, the preferred marriage alliance wasbetweencrosscousins; marriagebetweentribeswas possi-bleonlyafterformalrequest.Nonsororalpolygynywas prac-ticed, and aman's status wasdefined bythe number of his wives.The great chiefs married many times, usually in the in-terestsofextending political power This meant that all of the chieflyfamilies ofFijiwereclosely related,often manytimes overinsucceeding generations In such situations, thestatus

ofthe first wife wasdistinctlysuperior.The title ofthe princi-pal wife of the Rokotui Bau was 'Radi niBau,"andhis sec-ond wifewas tided 'Radi Kaba." The principal wife ofthe Vunivalu wascalled 'RadiLevuka."Marriage ceremonial was more orlesselaborate dependingonthe rank of the partici-pants.Patrilocal residence was the norm, and divorce could

beeffectedeasily by eitherparty

Domestic Unit The traditionalextended family consisted

of several married pairs andtheirchildren, inhabiting sepa-rate dwellings but sharing and cooperating in one cook house.Typically, men of thefamily would becloselyrelated

tothepaternal line, but a daughter and her husband might alsobelong The senior male would use theancestralhouse site (yavu)

Inheritance Dwelling houses areallocated by the family head andremainunderhis control, asdogarden plots and otherfamily property such as canoes At hisdeath, his surviv-ing seniorsibling determines thedispositionof thehouse if thedeceased has no mature sons In the case of the great chiefs, the council of thewholetribe (yavusa) would deter-mine successionandwith it all rights toproperty.

Socialization The rigor andprinciples of family ranking are amicrocosmoflarger kin groups andcommunities Chil-dren are subordinate to their parents, but they arealso ranked relative toeachother bybirth order.Aboriginally, they were rankedfirst by order of marriage oftheirmothersandthen be-tweenfullsiblingsby birth order.Thefirstchild (ulumatua) has aspecialstatus.Obedienceandrespect aredemandedof thechild bythe father, afterinfancythe child is constantly taking orders Punishment by thefather is the main discipli-narymechanism,and themother is more indulgent than the father, particularly towardsboys andyoungmen of the family

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organizato. The social organization of the chiefdom was extraordinarly complex, with all aspects of its existence ringed with ceremony Each individual identified with a hierarchyofincreasingly inclusive groups: extended family, subclan, clan (yavusa), federation of clans (vanua), and political confederation (matanitu) The focus of the chiefdom was the chiefly clan,whichwassupportedand de-fended by twogroupsofhereditary fishers,who also had the role ofdefendingthe chiefs from attack by land or sea PoliticalOrganization Ashead of thepolitical confedera-tion, the chiefly clan of Bau sought tomaintainanetworkof tributaryrelationshipsthrough itssubclans.Thisarrangement implied adegreeofpoliticalinstability,and, indeed, the history

of the firsthalf of thenineteenthcentury was one of a ceaseless struggle forpower Warriorsubclans were spread as a shield along thenorth coast of theRewa Deltaand at the base of the

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24 Bau

Kaba Peninsula, separating Bau andRewa Moredistant ties

were based onacknowledged ancestral kin relationships As

such,they requiredtobeconstantlyreinforcedwithin the

con-temporaryplayofpoliticalforces.The colonialadministrative

systemand thatoftheimmediatepostindependenceperiod

di-vided the old chiefdomofBaubetween severalnew

adminis-trative units,butinpostcoup Fijithechieflyconfederationsare

again assuming political significance

Social Control Reflectingapreference for avoiding direct

confrontation, gossip, ostracism, and social withdrawal have

always been important forms of social control.Fearof divine

retributionwasandremainsapowerfulsanction atboth the

individual and the community level The colonial

govern-mentmade Fijianssubjecttoitsjudicialsystem, butsincethe

1987 coupsthere has beenanattempttoreincorporate

tradi-tionalprinciples intothelegal system

Conflict Therewereceremonial ways ofaskingforgiveness

where there was a wish for reconciliation, ending withthe

drinkingofkava.Thevasucouldalsodefusepotential

con-flict, being ableeffectively torepresent the female side in a

patrilineal society

Religion and Expressive Culture

ReligiousBeliefs Intraditional times, religious belief

cen-tered onthe deifiedfounders of clans,frequentlyworshipped

inanimalform.Inaddition,eachgrouphadits ownsetof

ani-mal andplant totems, deemed tobeinhabitedby ancestral

spirits.The missionaries succeededindrivingancientbeliefs

underground,buttheysurfacedseveraltimes attheendofthe

nineteenth century, usuallyin the form of atavisticcultsas

vehicles for anticolonial opposition Today, Methodism

claims the support of most Fijians, although thereis an

im-portant Roman Catholic minority

ReligiousPractitioners Traditionally,priestsformed

he-reditary dans, exercising important divinatory and healing

rolesand acting as the voice of the ancestralgods

Ceremonies Theseweremainlyassociated with lifecycles

andwith intergrouprelationships. In ancienttimes,therewas

aceremonyoffirstfruits,when thevarioustributaries ofBau

brought offeringsoffoodtotheRokotuiBauand latertothe

Vunivalu, these usually being inthe form of delicacies for

which particular groups were well known This ceremonywas

conducted accordingtothetraditional calendar

Arts Singingand chanting,dancing,and joke telling were

thetraditionalarts.Thesexes neverdancedtogetherand had

quitedifferentdances Both danced standing and sitting The

women useddelicatehand movements, while the men often

danced with fanand spear or club, orwith sticks

Medicine Disease wasunderstood as deriving from

malev-olenceofthe spirits, particularly afterthe violation of taboos

Womencollected andcompounded herbal cures, while men

appliedthem-a reflection of the belief thatmenpossessed

heavenly power (mana)whereas the strength of women came

from theearth Massage was alsoanimportant healing

tech-nique, but womenmassaged onlywomen, andmenonlymen

Death andAfterlife The ceremonyassociatedwithdeath

wasextremely elaborate, particularly when the status of the

deceasedwashigh, reflectingitsimportance intraditional

be-lief Tributary groups would come to pay homage to the

corpse andtothebereavedfamily,cementingties inthe

proc-ess After the burial ofahighchief, a taboo was laid on the watersaround Bau,andthe women,having kept vigil over the corpseforfour to ten days, would cut their hair, only after100 nightsofmourningwould the taboos be lifted.Wives were strangled to go with their husbands into the spirit world, for

onthe way lurked Ravuyalo, who killed the spirits of those who failed to accompany their spouses The unmarried were buried with aclub for theirown defense

See alsoLau

Bibliography Nayacakalou, R R (1975) Leadership in Fiji Melbourne: OxfordUniversityPress

Ravuvu,Asesela D (1988) Development or Dependence: The Patternof Change inaFijianVillage Suva,Fiji: Universityof the South Pacific.

Thomson, Basil (1908) The Fijians: A Study of the Decay of Custom London: Heinemann Reprint 1968 London: Dawsons

Williams, Thomas (1858) Fiji and the Fijians.Vol 1, The Is-landsand TheirInhabitants London: Alexander Heylin Re-print 1982 Suva: Fiji Museum

DAVID ROUTLEDGE

Belau

ETHNOMYMS: Palau, Pelew

Orientation Identification. Hearing the word beluu, "village home-land", early British explorers of the western Pacific mistakenly referred to the Belau Islands as"Pelew";the spelling'Palau" became standardized in nineteenth-century German

scien-tificwritings The form'Belau"moreaccurately reflects con-temporary pronunciation and has become a symbol of na-tional unity

Location Belau, an archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, islocated between 6° and8"Nand134° and 135° E Theislands form the westernmost group of the Caroline Is-lands of Micronesia Belau includes over 200 geologically and ecologically diverse islands; the largest, Babeldaob, is a vol-canic island of 362 squarekilometers.Other islandtypes in-cludehigh limestone and platform limestone islands, small reefislands, and one true atoll A coral reef encircling most of thearchipelagocreateslagoons richinmarineresources and permits relativelysmooth intervillage sailing The climate is tropical,with constantly high humidity, ameantemperature

of 27° C, and rainfall ranging from 320 centimeters per year

in the south to 425 centimeters per year on Babeldaob A

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yearly wind shiftfromwesterlymonsoons inthesummer to

easterlytradesinthewinter isinterrupted only by typhoons,

whichperiodically destroyhomes, harbors, andfarms

Demography Thepopulation in 1988 wasapproximately

14,000,about half ofwhomliveontheislandofKoror

Esti-matesofprecontactpopulationrangefrom20,000to40,000

Fromthe lateeighteenthcentury on Belauans were subject to

decimationbyintroduceddiseases andbytheintensification

of warfarecausedbyimportedfirearms The Japanesebegana

massivecolonial resettlement program in the 1930s, resulting

in a foreign population ofover 24,000 in Kororby 1940

SinceWorldWarIIthelocalpopulationhas risen

dramati-cally,and many Belauans have movedtoGuam, Hawaii,and

California

linguistic Affiliation Belauan, an Austronesian

lan-guage, isspokenuniformly throughout the archipelago; only

minordifferences inaccent andidiomaticexpressions

indi-cateaspeaker'shomevillage.MostBelauansovertheage of

fifty are also fluent in Japanese,and thoseyounger thanfifty

speakEnglish Belauanisreferred to as a Nonnuclear

Micro-nesian language, since ithascloser genetic affinitywith

lan-guagesspoken in easternIndonesia,Taiwan,andthe

Philip-pinesthanwith those spokenintherestof Micronesia The

language isnotedfor itscomplexsystem ofverbalinflections,

the presence of aphonemicglottalstop, and an archaicsetof

lexical itemsfoundinchants and myths

History and Cultural Relations

Thearchipelagowasdiscovered morethan2,000 years agoby

Austronesian voyagers sailing from insular Southeast Asia

These early settlers occupiedboth low-ling islands, where

fishing was the primary subsistence activity, and high

vol-canicand limestoneislands,whereextensive tarocultivation

was possible Perhaps aslateasthetwelfthcentury A.D.,the

is-landers constructed monumental terraced earthworks and

builtinlandvillages onelaboratestone foundations Thereis

a strongpossibilitythat prior to European contactBelau had

interaction with the Chinese,whose shipscould have been

thesourceofthe ceramicandglass beadsstillfunctioningas

exchangevaluables.SirFrancisDrake visitedbrieflyin 1579;

extensive relations between Belau and the West began in

1783 when the EastIndiaCompanypacket Antelopewrecked

on the reef The islands have been subject to successive

claims by colonial powers: Spain (1885-1899), Germany

(1899-1914), andJapan (1914-1944) In 1947 Belau

be-came part ofthe Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, a

UnitedNations'strategictrusteeship"under the

administra-tion of the United States Constitutional self-government

wasproclaimedin 1981 when theRepublicofBelauseated its

first government, while the islands continuedtobesubject to

thetrusteeship After decades ofbitterfactionalandlegal

dis-putes, Belau iscurrentlynegotiating a Compact of Free

Asso-ciation withthe United States.ThefirstpresidentofBelau,

HaruoRemeliik,wasassassinated in 1985;thesecond

presi-dent, Lazarus Sahii,died ofgunshotwoundsin 1988

Settlements There are two types ofsettlements, relatively 'rural" villages

located on Babeldaob, Ngcheangel, Beliliou, and Ngeeur,

andtherelatively 'urban"townofKoror.Startinginthe

nine-teenth century,Belauans abandoned their inland villages and built newsettlementscloserto coastal harbors and alluvial streams Kororwasthecenter fornineteenth-century colonial trading operations, was later the headquarters of the Japanese-mandatedPacificislands,and ispresentlythe home

ofmostgovernmentoffices, schools, retailshops, restaurants, and tourist facilities Many Belauans maintain dual resi-dences in Koror and in their home villages, and some even commute by motorboat on a dailybasis Formerly, villages consisted of residential and meeting houses constructed of doselyjoined lumber, with thatched roofs, and elevatedbarm boofloors; today, tinroofs andconcreteblock foundations are favored innew construction In manyplaces on Babel-daob one canstilldetect thetypical villagelayout, with meet-inghouses locatedon acentralpaved square, canoe houses and men'sclubhouses standingnear theshore or river, and residential housesfanning out along elevated stone walkways

Economy Subsistence and Commercial AcDivities Fish and taro havelong been the staple foods of Belau Fishing by spear gun, line, hand net, and trap is carried out in the coastal la, goons;high-powered speedboats are used for trawling outside thereef.Thecatch ispooled bylocalcooperative associations for retail sale in Koror In preparation forfunerals and festi-vals,menworkthelagoonwithhugenets.Womentakepride

in tarocultivationon 'dry" upland slopes andin'wet" irri-gatedswamps;thebackbreakinglabor required hasled many younger women to substitute cassava and imported rice Young men raise pigs for slaughter atceremonialevents In-creasinglyvastamounts of importedcommercial goods are re placing locallyproduced items In Koror the government is the largest employer, and little locallyowned industry has flourished Belau is completely dependentupon U.S govern-mentfundsand upon payments fromothercountries for ac-cess toBeau's marine, strategic,andrecreational resources Industrial Arts Skills such as wood carving, meeting-house construction, andtortoiseshell-ornament production are becoming rare; basket weaving, however, is widely prac-ticedbywomen.Mostable-bodiedmen areexpertfishermen, and individuals win renown by developingspecialized tech-niques and by possessing expert knowledge of tides and spawningcydes.Youngpeoplestrivetoobtain advanced edu-cationaland businesstraining at statesideschools In the vil-lages, wage earners include schoolteachers, nurses,

magis-trates, landregistrars, and religious officials

Trade Interdistrict trade in the traditional context in-volved not only daily necessities such as lamp oil, pottery, woodenimplements, palm syrup, and canoe sails but also spe-cialized prestige goods such as turmericpowder, tortoiseshell ornaments,women's shirts, red-ocher dye, and dugong brace-lets In thenineteenth century, Europeansettlersestablished trading centers for the commercial extraction of trepang, pearl shell, and copra Now, a few families in each village run small retailstores A complex system of social exchange, in-volving thepresentation of food and service in return for cash and valuables across the affinalbond,istheprincipal focus of daily economic life U.S currency is used infinancial transac-tions; Belauan valuables supplement cash in customary exchanges

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26 Belau

Division oflabor The mostimportant divisionoflabor is

betweenfishing,emblematicofmalevirtue, andtaro

cultiva-tion,symbolic of female productiveness Thissplitparallels

theduel system ofexchangevalues,womenusing locally

pro-duced hammered turtleshelltrays andmenusing beads and

cylindersofforeign origin.Womentakechargeofdomestic

activities, such as food preparation,childcare, andlaundry,

andtheyalso carryheavyresponsibilityinselectingholders of

male and femalechiefly tides

Land Tenure Prior tochangesimposedby colonial

pow-ers,land waseither 'publiclandofthevillage" (chutembuai

erabeluu),subjecttothelocalchieflycouncil,or"land ofthe

principal houses" (chetemel a kebtfil), controlled by chiefly

titleholdersand seniormatrilinealrelatives.Residentialsites

and taro patches were assigned to affiliated family segments

rather than being passeddowntooffspring.These lands

re-verted to chiefly control for redistribution Germanofficials

instituted patrilineal land inheritance and encouraged

nu-clearfamilies to move their houses and toplantcoconuttrees

onunusedvillageland Today,landis dividedinto'public

land" controlled by the national government, 'clan land"

controlledbychiefly houses, "village land" governedby

vil-lage councils,andprivate property owned in feesimple.The

national government isforbiddenbythe constitutiontouse

eminentdomain for the purpose of helping a foreign country

Kinship

Kin Groups and Decent The basic kin unit is the

'house" (blai), which is composed ofindividuals linkedby

strong matrilateralbonds (oche.l, or'offspring ofwomen")

andofindividualsassociatedbyweakerpatrilateralties

(ule-chelU,or"offspringofmen"). Each housecontrolsa

residen-tialsite, taropatches,achiefly title, exchangevaluables,and

ceremonial prerogatives Houses form wider affiliative

net-works (kebliil) both within thevillage and betweenvillages,

whichfunction to channel social cooperation,exchange,and

inheritance The complexity ofBelauan kinship lies inthe

lateral breadthofrelationshipsrather than in thedepthof

re-membered genealogies

Kinship Terminology Distinctive characteristics of the

systemofkin termsinclude: theoverridingofgeneration

(off-springofwomenlabeloffspringofmen as"children");the

im-portance ofsiblingrankreflected inseniorandjuniorterms

for both males and females; a reciprocal term forcross-sex

siblingssignalingthesolidarityof thebrother-sisterpair; the

existence of aspecialtermformother's brother;andthe

gen-eralizationof therespectfulkin terms"mother"and 'father"

in polite address to all elders With respect to the

genera-tional stratificationofsiblingandcousin terms, the system

could be labeled Hawaiian; with respect to the skewing of

generationsduetotheimportance of matrilineal ties,itcould

be labeled Crow Titleholders are neveraddressed by their

personal names

Marriage and Family Marriage Marriage isfundamentallyan economic

institu-tion Traditionally, high-ranking women were prohibited

from"falling,"that is, marryinga manof lower rank The

pro-hibitionwasbasedoneconomicconsiderations-if the

hus-bandwere oflow rankhisrelatives would beunabletomakea

sufficient financial contribution and the couple's male child wouldlackthefinancial assets needed to maintain his chiefly authority.Today, individuals are free to selectspouses, but social rank and wealth are critical considerations Fragile marital ties are subordinate to enduring kinship ties: while the former are severed at death or divorce, the latter are a

"bridgeforever." High-rankingindividuals tend to marry out-side of thevillage, and there isstillconsiderable rank endo-gamy Newly married couples establish independent houses

onlandnearthehusband's father'shouse; men who receive a chieflytidecan movebackto their matrilinealhome Divorce

is frequent and remarriage is the norm

DomesticUnit The residential family(ongalek) often in-cludes grandparents and otherextended kin Adoption of children withinthe network ofkinis common

Inheritance. Property belonging to the house is controlled

bysenior"offspringof women"members, who select the heirs

tolandandvaluables Much private property passes in the pa-triline.Womengive turtleshellheirlooms to their daughters

Socializaton. Mothers play agreater role in child raising thanfathers;childrenhave a more relaxed,affectionate rela-tionship with fathers than withmother'sbrothers Older sib-lings takeon child-care responsibilities Young men'sclubs act aspowerful peer reference groups

Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization The principles ofdemocratic egali-tarianism andinherited hierarchical rank conflict in contem-porary Belau.Rankpertains torelations between siblings, be-tween houses in avillage, betweentitlesin apolitical council, and between villages within the state According to myth, fourvillages were regarded as preeminent: Imeiong, Mele-keok, Imeliik, and Koror Financial wealth, elected political office, and esoteric knowledge are other sources of social power

Political Organization Prior to the indoctrination into democratic valuesand practices, Belau was governed bychiefs, whosetitleswereranked according to the social hierarchyof local land parcels Called duz, the word for 'coconut palm frond," tides possess sacredness and demand respect apart from the person who carries thetide The highest titleholders from Melekeok village(theReklaitide) and Koror village (the Ibedultide) haveemerged as"paramount chiefs" of the archi-pelago.Today, Belau is aself-governing constitutional repub-lic, headed by anelected president and a national legislature Traditional chiefsplay an advisory role at thenationalleveL Each state is headed by an electedgovernor and sends two sen-atorstothenationallegislature.At the villagelevel,a council

ofchiefs parallels a council ofelected officials,headedby a magistrate The central role ofmultivillageconfederacies, once factionsforintervillage warfare, has vanished

SocialControL Traditionalsanctions, including fines and banishment, applied by the local council of chiefs are supple-mented by the legislated civil code, which in turn is subject to the laws of theTrust Territory

Conflict. In the absence ofinterdistrict political councils

in the precolonialperiod, intervillagehostilityfunctioned as a primary means of political integration and as a mechanism forthe financial enrichment of chiefs Warfaretookthe form

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of either swifthead-huntingraidsor massivesieges aimedat

the devastation of the enemy village Also, rivalry among

chiefsandcompetitionovertide inheritance created powerful

motives forpolitical assassination

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religots Beliefs Belau has been heavilymissionized by

Catholics, Seventh-DayAdventists, and Mormons A

nativ-isticmovement,Modekngei,or"Let Us GoForthTogether,"

is apowerfulreligious andeducationalforce.Exceptforsome

village gods (represented in stone monuments), the

tradi-tionalpantheon has beenreplaced by the Christiantrinity

Christianity and Modekngei provide the primary religious

dogmas;the latterstresses purificationrites andtrances

ReligisPractitioners Traditionalmale andfemale

reli-gious specialists performed offerings to local gods (chelid)

and, while intrance, spoke the messages andpropheciesof

thegods Male titleholdersservedasritualspecialists inthe

domestic cult, focusing on manipulating ancestral spirits

(bladek)through offeringsof burntcoconutand smallpieces

ofmoney Today, Belauanscan serve asChristiandeacons,

ministers, andpriests; Modekngeiutilizes ritualspecialists.

Ceremonies Important traditionalceremoniesinclude

in-terdistrict dancingfestivals (ruk) andcompetitivefeasts

be-tween localfishermen'sclubs (onged).Protestantsand

Cath-olics observethe principalfestivals ofthe Christiancalendar,

followersofModekngeiassembleweeklyatthe ritual center

in lbobang

Arts Skills such as canoe buildingand decorative wood

carving arecurrentlybeing revived as folk art "Storyboard"

carvings depicting events from folklore are a major tourist

item Local dance teams perform atfestivals; older women

singarchaicfuneral chantsandsongs.Storytellingis ahighly

respectedformofverbalart

Medicine Western medicine is available at the central

hospitalinKoror and invillage clinics; villages placeahigh

value onpublic healthandsanitation.Traditional curing

em-ploysherbal medicinesapplied on the side of the body

oppo-sitethe affectedpart

Death andAfterlife Funeralsarecostly,elaboraterituals

Thedeceased's femalerelatives maintain amourningperiod,

andmale relatives collectfinancial contributions tobe

dis-tributed toheirs at asubsequent ceremonialoccasioncalled

"death settlement talks." Burial takes place in community

graveyards, although formerly burial was under the house

platform A week afterburial, closerelatives meet again to

pavethegrave and to send the spirit to itsfinal restingplace

inthe southern part of the archipelago

See also Marshall Islands

Bibliography Kiste,RobertC (1974) The Bikinians:AStudyinForced

Mi-gration MenloPark, Calif.: Cummings Publishing Co

Mason, Leonard(1954) 'Relocation of theBikini

Marshal-ese:AStudyinGroupMigration." UnpublishedPh.D

disser-tation, Yale University

Boazi

ETHNONYMS:Boadzi, Suki

Orientation Identification Boazi is the name of a language spoken by

approximately 2,500 people who live along the middle

reaches of the FlyRiver andalongthecentral andnorthern

shores of Lake Murray in the southern lowlands of New

Guinea Boazispeakersusethename'Boazi"torefertotheir

language,but theirnamesfor themselvesarethenamesof the

eight territorialgroups intowhichtheyaredivided Theuseof

thename"Boazi" (bothbyBoazispeakersandothers)torefer

toallBoazispeakers (orin some cases torefertothose who

live along the Fly River asopposed to those who live around Lake Murray) istheresult ofthe recent colonial andcurrent postcolonialcontext inwhichBoazispeakers live.Prior tothe colonialperiod,there does not seem to have been any con-ception of group membershipbeyond the territorial group Nonetheless, the eightBoazi-speakingterritorial groupsshare

a common history, culture, and social structure Early colo-nial documents also referto Boazispeakers as"Suli,"a name nowreservedforculturallysimilarpeople living farther down the Fly River

Location TheLakeMurray-Middle Flyarea islocated be-tween6°30' and 8°S,and 141° and 141°5' E.Thedominant geographical features of thearea arethe FlyRiver,with its 10-kilometer-wide floodplain, and Lake Murray, which is 60 ki-lometers long and 15 kiki-lometers wide at its widest point Awayfromthe river and lake are low ridgescovered withopen forest orclosed canopy rain forest In the marginally lower ar-eas between these ridges are extensive sago swamps from whichBoazi speakers get most of their food The area receives

250centimeters of rain per year, over half ofwhich falls dur-ingthenorthwest monsoon, whichlasts from late December

to mid-April

Demography In 1980 there were approximately 2,500 Boazispeakers The populationdensityof theLake Murray-Middle Fly area is about 0.3 person per square kilometer There is no reliable information on population growth or decline

linguistic Affiliation According to C L Voorhoeve (1970), Boazi is spoken in three dialects: Kuni at Lake Murray, and North Boazi and South Boazi along the Fly River The Boazi language is one oftwo languages in the Boazi Language Family, the other being Zimakani which is spoken around the southern part of Lake Murray and the confluence of the Fly and Strickland rivers The Boazi Lan-guageFamily is the easternmost of the three language families

intheMarindStock,whichispartofthe Trans-New Guinea Phylum

History and Cultural Relations Boazi speakersare culturally similar to groups to the south andwestof the Lake Murray-Middle Fly area, including the Suki, Yi-nan, Marind-anim, Bian Marind, and the tribes of theTrans-Fly, but they are culturally very different from the peopleswho live to the north of theLake Murray-Middle Fly area such as theYonggom, Aekyom (or Awin), and the Pare speakers.To date no archaeological research has been done

in theLake Murray-Middle Fly area It is therefore impossi-ble to saywith any certainty how long people have been in the area or wherethe ancestors ofthe present-day Boazi speakers camefrom Boazi speakers claim that their ancestors origi-nated inthe LakeMurray-Middle Fly area itself, and Boazi oral history records various military conquests and subse-quentmovements of people within the Lake Murray-Middle Fly areaprior to the arrival of Europeans The first contact be-tweenBoazi speakers and Europeans took place in June 1876 during d'Albertis's exploration of the Fly River d'Albertis had brief hostile encounters with people along the middle reaches of the riverboth during his ascent and during his de-scentlater that year For the fifty years following d'Albertis's visit, Boazispeakers both along the Fly River and at Lake

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Murrayhad onlybriefandsporadiccontactswithEuropeans.

Inthe late 1920s, in response tohead-huntingraids by Boazi

speakersonpeoples close to Australian and Dutch

govern-mentstations, the colonial administrations both of the

Aus-tralian Territory of Papuaand ofDutch NewGuinea began

trying topacify the Boazispeakers of the Middle Fly This led

to aperiod of Dutch control and proselytization by Dutch

Catholicmissionaries inthe MiddleFlyfrom1930 to 1956

Dutch control did not, however, extend to the Lake Murray

areawheretraditionalwarfarecontinuedintothelate1940s

In 1956, Boazispeakers becamecitizensof theIndependent

StateofPapua New Guinea

Settlements Villagesrange inpopulation from about 50to600persons

Families alternate between living in a village and living in

small camps near their sago swamps andhunting grounds

Bothvillagesandcamps are usuallybuilt on lowislandsor

peninsulasintheswamps and marshes of theFlyRiver

flood-plain Allvillages haveaseparatehousefor unmarried men

Thishouseisphysicallyremovedfromthe rest of thevillage

andserves asthemarriedmen'sclubhouseand therepository

ofthe central objects of the men's secret cult.Traditionally,

houses were simple, open-sided structures with dirt floors,

sleeping platforms of split Areca palm, and roofs of sago

leavesorMelaleucabark.Today,however, houses have raised

floors ofsplitpalmand walls ofsagopalmfrondstems in

ad-dition to theirsago-thatch roofs

Economy Subsistence andCommercial Activities Boazi speakers

areprimarilyhunters, fishermen,and sago makers The Lake

Murray-Middle Fly area is extraordinarily rich in wildlife

Wildpigs, cassowaries,wallabies, and deerabound.The

for-estsand marshlandsarehome to manytypesofbirds,

includ-ing gourapigeons, bushfowl, ducks,andgeese, andtherivers

andlakescontain a greatvarietyof fish as well asturtles and

crocodiles Hunting isdonewith bowsandarrows,usinga

va-rietyofhunting techniques, includingstalking, blinds, and

driving gametowardhunters with fireornoise.Dogsareoften

usedinhunting largergame Boazispeakers fishwithtraps,

spears,hooks,andcommerciallymadenylonnets.Themost

important food item,however,issago, a starch extractedfrom

the pith of thesagopalm(Metroxylon sagu),whichgrows

nat-urally in the extensive freshwaterswamps of the area Boazi

speakers also plant coconutpalms, bananas,and sometubers,

butgardeningplaysonlyaminorroleintheiradaptationto

the environment

Industrial Arts Boazispeakers are preindustrialand,prior

to the arrival ofWhitemen, used only stone tools Any adult

canproducevirtuallyall of theimplementsnecessaryfor

day-to-day livingfrommaterialsfoundinthe local environment

Trade Prior to pacification, Boazi speakers raided their

neighbors for the fewthingswhich they could notproduce

themselves-most importantly, stone for tools, since the

LakeMurray-Middle Flyareahasno stone.Today, theyare

able tobuy steeltools,metalpots,Westernclothes,andsome

European foods fromsmall,indigenouslyowned tradestores

in the area.Moneyisobtainedprimarilyfrom the sale of

croc-odile skins orfrom contractlabor outside the Lake Murray-Middle Flyarea

Divisionof Labor Boazispeakers have aloosely defined sexual division of labor.Hunting, making bows and arrows, carvingpaddles, cutting canoes, and building houses are con-sidered men'swork,although some aspects ofhouse building, such as making roof panels from sago palm leaves, may be donebyeithermen or women.Women'sworkincludes mak-ing sago, gathering firewood, cooking, and weaving baskets and mats Most other tasksmay be done by either sex In Durkheim's terms, the Boazi exhibit ahigh degree of mechan-icalsolidaritywithlittle interdependenceoftasks and virtu-allynospecialization of labor The nuclear family is the maxi-mum unitofproduction

Land Tenure Within the territory of a territorial group, individual tracts ofland are owned communally by totemic groups or,insomecases, patrilineages.Individualscanobtain access toforest products (e.g., trees for canoes) or the right to hunt in a particular area through matrilateral or affinal ties as wellasthroughmembershipin thetotemic groupthatownsa tract of land Within the landholdingsof a totemic group, sago swamps are owned by individual members of that group Coconutpalms,banana stands, and other garden plants are ownedby the people whoplanted them

Kinship KinGroups Each Boazispeakerisamemberof alineage,

a totemicgroup, and amoiety.Lineages are named for their apicalancestors, and totemicgroups have animals such as the pig, cassowary,crocodile, andvarious types of fish as their to-tems Totemic groups are divided into moieties, one consist-ingof groups with land-animal totems and the other consist-ing ofgroups withwater-animal totems While Boazi speakers talkaboutlineages,totemic groups, and moieties as if they all recruitmembers throughpatrilinealdescent and are hierar-chicallyorganized, there areimportant differencesin the re-cruitment of members between lineages on the one hand and totemicgroups and moieties on the other Anindividual al-waysbelongstothesame lineage as his or her father, but in therecruitment ofindividuals to totemic groups and moie-ties,patrilinealdescentissubordinatedto theprinciples gov-erningmarriage exchanges: a man gives awoman to a man in theopposite moietyfrom whomhereceives awife; and a man should belongtothesamelineage,and therefore the same to-temicgroup and moiety, asthewoman he gives inexchange for his wife In casesin which a man gives his uterine sister, or another woman from his totemicgroup,inexchange for his wife, themarriage-exchangeprinciple and the principle ofpa-trilinealdescenthavethesame result-that is, the man will continue to belong to his father's totemic group and moiety But when a man gives a woman from a lineage that is part of anothertotemicgroup, he will change his totemic group, and

insome instances his moiety, to that of the woman whom he has given in exchangefor his wife

KinshipTerminology While descent ispatrilineal, kin-ship is reckonedbilaterally Boazi kinship terms distinguish between cross cousins and parallel cousins, and separate terms are used for father's older brother, father's younger brother, father's sister, mother's older sister, mother's younger sister, and mother's brother Both father's older

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30 Boazi

brother and mother's oldersisterareaddressed and referred

to asthough theyweremembers of thegrandparental

genera-tion In additiontotheiruse with actual kinsmen and

kins-women, kinshipterms (denotingrelative age and

member-ship inthesame oropposite moietyasthespeaker) areused

both inaddressing and inreferringto all Boazispeakers

Marriage and Family

MarriWe. Marriageisbytheexchangeof women,

prefera-blyuterinesisters,betweenmenof oppositemoieties.In

addi-tion to a rule of moiety exogamy, there are restrictions on

marriagesbetweenindividualswhoarecloselyrelated

matri-laterally Marriagesareusuallybetweenmembers of thesame

territorial group, although there is norule of group

endog-amy Marriagesare usually arrangedbythe fathers and the

mothers'brothers of themenandwomeninvolved.Following

marriage, a man is expected to help his wife's father with

hunting and heavylabor This isfacilitatedby a pattern of

uxorilocalpostmarital residence, whichusuallycontinuesat

leastuntilacouplehastwo orthree children Whilepolygyny

was apartof the traditionalcultureofBoazispeakers,today,

under the increasing influence of Christianity, most

mar-riages are monogamous

Domestic Unit The nuclearfamilyisthetypicaldomestic

unit, althoughthe people livingin thesamehouse may

in-cludeparentsorwidowedsistersof thehusbandorwife,and

marrieddaughters and theirhusbandsandchildren.In some

instances, pairs ofbrothersand their families may liveinthe

samehouse.Asmentionedearlier,unmarriedmensleepin a

separatehousealthoughtheyregularlyvisittheir natal

fami-lies ormarried siblings

Inheritance Boazispeakershave few inheritable artifacts

orwealth objects Anindividual'sfewpersonaleffectsare

ei-therburied with the personordistributedtohisorher

chil-dren.A man's sagoswamps andcoconutpalmsare divided

among his sons, and in some cases among his sons and

daughters

Socialization Infantsand childrenareraisedprimarilyby

their mothersortheir oldestsisters.Childrenareencouraged

to be independent and physically competent, and they are

discouraged fromshowingpain andridiculediftheyfall down

orhurtthemselves Forboys,the freedom ofchildhood

con-tinues, withonly slightrestrictions, until they marry Girls,

however, are increasingly pressured to acceptresponsibility

andtobe productivefrom about the age of9 or10

Sociopolitical Organization

SocialOrganization While social relations among

Boazi-speaking men are egalitarian, social relations between the

sexes areunequal,withmenhavingmorepower thanwomen

Traditionally, the only leadership positionwas that ofwar

leader (kamok-anem) This position was generallyoccupied

bymarried men between30and 45 years of age who earned

the position bydemonstrating courage and cunningin

war-fare.Today, eachBoazivillagehasanelectedrepresentative

tothe localgovernmentcouncil whichisthe lowest level of

representative government in Papua New Guinea

Political Organization. The maximal political units are

the territorialgroups, which rangeinpopulationfrom 50 to

1,000 people In Boazi, these territorial groups are called manageizwamor'landpeople."Traditionally,eachterritorial grouplivedin aconstant stateof warwith its neighbors, and eventoday relations between territorial groups are often tense andoccasionallyhostile,and thebordersbetween groups are underalmostconstantdispute A person belongs to the terr-torial group into which he or she is born Each territorial group has two types of members: miavek andbwmatak The formerarepatrilineal descendents of one of the original mem-bers oftheterritorial group The latter areindividuals who have come to livewith the territorial group, either through their own migration or through the migration of one of their patrilineal ancestors Because they are descended from the original members of the territorial group, miavek members have somewhat stronger claims to land and sago swamps Social Control Social control is maintained through threats of physical retaliation and sorcery Both forms of so-cialcontrol have been seriouslyundermined, however, by the colonial andpostcolonial governments and by Christian mis-sionaries Thegovernment has made both physical retaliation and sorcery criminaloffenses,and the teachings of missionar-ieshave led many young Boazispeakers to question the effi-cacy of sorcery

Conflict Warfare was an important part of traditional Boazi culture Boazi speakers were fierce headhunters and cannibals who were feared by many groups in the southern lowlands of New Guinea Even today, conflicts betweenterri torial groups are continual, with most conflicts stemming from disputes over women or land There is also considerable strife within territorial groups, but in these cases individuals have the option of moving to another camp or village

Religion and Expressive Culture Relious Beliefs MostBoazi speakers believe in a combi-nation ofChristianityandtraditional beliefs in ghosts, spir-its, sorcery, and the powerof magical objects Elements of Christianmythology are often mixed with Boazi mythology Boazi speakers believe in avarietyofsupernatural beings in-cluding ghosts, spirits associated with particular locations, and forest and marsh spirits Many forest and marsh spirits play only minor roles in day-to-day life, but ghosts and the spirits associated withparticularlocations are believed to be the source of both benevolent and malevolent magical power Beliefs in traditional supernatural beings are often mixed withbeliefs in Christian supernatural beings

Religious Practitioners Although some Boazi speakers are recognized as having greater knowledge of sorcery and greater magical powers than others, sorcery and magic can, according to Boazi tradition, be learned by any man and by some women

Ceremonies Many traditional ceremonies, including maleinitiation, were closely tied tohead-huntingand there-fore are no longer performed Tame-pigfeasts,whichinclude appeals to spirits and which traditionally preceded a head-hunting raid, are still occasionally held

Arts Boazispeakers produce little representational or ab-stract art Traditionally, they made elaborate trophies from the heads of their head-hunting victims, but these are no longer produced Musical instruments include large hourglass drums and bullroarers Dances to the accompaniment of

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