The People of the Lower Arafundi: Tropical Foragers of the New Guinea Rainforest

Roscoe, Paul; Telban, Borut

doi:10.2307/3773948

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…SOURCES: SeeRoscoe, 2002Roscoe, , 2005; also for Arafundi, Lower, seeRoscoe & Telban, 2004; for Asmat, Casuarina, see …”

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confidence: 99%

Fish, Game, and the Foundations of Complexity in Forager Society: The Evidence From New Guinea

Roscoe

2006

Cross-Cultural Research

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Drawing ethnographic data from the foraging communities of New Guinea, an underused resource in hunter-gatherer research, this article examines the relationship between subsistence form and four aspects of cultural complexity: density, settlement size, settlement form, and settlement permanence. On the basis of global data, it is commonly proposed that in forager communities, these characteristics are directly related to the degree of dependence on aquatic resources. For serendipitous reasons, the New Guinea data allow these propositions to be assessed with some precision, and the results strongly corroborate them. The implications of these findings for understanding the generation of complexity in forager societies are briefly discussed.

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“…SOURCES: SeeRoscoe, 2002Roscoe, , 2005; also for Arafundi, Lower, seeRoscoe & Telban, 2004; for Asmat, Casuarina, see …”

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confidence: 99%

Fish, Game, and the Foundations of Complexity in Forager Society: The Evidence From New Guinea

Roscoe

2006

Cross-Cultural Research

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“…Indeed, Dominy and colleagues have demonstrated that bone daggers are considered to represent male hunting ability, physical and ritual strength and status (Dominy et al 2018, 5). Also, in the Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, peacemaking ceremonies include the exchange of cassowary bone daggers, bows and shells, which highlights the value of these portable objects (Dominy et al 2018, 3; Roscoe & Telban 2004, 106).…”

Section: The Ethnography Of Cassowary Bone Daggersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rock Art and (Re)Production of Narratives: A Cassowary Bone Dagger Stencil Perspective from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

Tsang¹,

Katuk²,

May³

et al. 2022

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Cassowaries (Casuarius) are one of the largest indigenous animal species of New Guinea. Researchers have long been trying to understand their local socio-cultural significance. Here we present new results from interviews recorded in 2018 on ethnography associated with bone daggers, a material culture ornament and tool carved from the cassowary's tibiotarsus. We present a ‘storied notion’—a contemporary narrative from oral history of why cassowary is not simply a bird, and briefly describe cassowary bone ornamentation in Auwim, East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. By exploring the material history of Casuarius through a ‘storied notion’ approach, we reveal that cassowary bone daggers in rock art are narrative ideas of the species from its landscape to ornamentation and through to people's cosmological beliefs surrounding Casuarius. We argue that the cassowary bone dagger stencil can be seen as part of the life history of this animal.

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“…Rock art remained unknown until it was reported in 1987 Jones 1987a, 1987b, see also Gabriel and Gorecki 2014). The anthropologist Nancy Sullivan then led later expeditions beginning in 2005 (Edwards and Sullivan 2008) and others such as Borut Telban (Roscoe and Telban 2004).…”

Section: Rock Art In the Upper Karawari-arafundi Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They speak both the local language 'Tape' and the PNG-wide lingua franca Tok Pisin (Bartole 2018, 63). Inhabitants of Auwim are thought to originate from two major clans (Wandukumbay and Mungkumbay), which is comprised of at least 20 sub-clans (Roscoe andTelban 2004, Tsang 2018, 1). The current population largely depends on fishing, hunting, and collecting fruits and nuts.…”

Section: New Insights From the 2018 Missionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rock art and long-distance prehistoric exchange behavior: A case study from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

Tsang

Pleiber

Kariwiga

et al. 2020

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology

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Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists, archaeologists, and others have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various ethnographic descriptions relating to cultural material objects stenciled on various rock art sites in Auwim, Upper Karawari-Arafundi region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea (PNG). In addition to the rock art, the broader area has one of the most environmentally intact freshwater basins with lowland rainforests in Melanesia, and is famous for its architectural carvings and spirit houses. This paper reports new research that articulates local ethnographic knowledge about rock art with the art-work itself. The rock art panels contain a wide range of stencils primarily consisting of hands but also, importantly, several objects, one of which is the kina, gold-lip pearl (Pinctada maxima) shell. The kina shell stencils are, among other things, indicative of the remarkable distance over which the shells were traded and traditionally used. The Auwim case study is important because it is one of the relatively few sites across PNG for which we still have ethnography of rock art and therefore provides us with important insight into the pastpresent rock art practices, and concurrently notions of cultural continuity.

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The People of the Lower Arafundi: Tropical Foragers of the New Guinea Rainforest

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Fish, Game, and the Foundations of Complexity in Forager Society: The Evidence From New Guinea

Fish, Game, and the Foundations of Complexity in Forager Society: The Evidence From New Guinea

Rock Art and (Re)Production of Narratives: A Cassowary Bone Dagger Stencil Perspective from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

Rock art and long-distance prehistoric exchange behavior: A case study from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea

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