Abstract
Mountain Tribes of New Guinea. Some hitherto un-described tribes of New Guinea are the subject of a communication from Mr. E. W. P. Chinnery (Man, August). They inhabit the great central mountain ranges which are now being examined by administrative officers. Along the Papuan border from Mt. Joseph to Mt. Hagen, and on a wide expanse of grass-covered plateau between the Western Kratke Mountains and Mt. Hagen, are groups of people with methods of garden culture and certain customs not found elsewhere in New Guinea. Of the three groups of these peoples, the western half of the second group and the whole of the third or north-western group have only recently been examined. The so-called Kukukuku groups usually live in small family houses near their gardens; but in the western Tauri there are many large stockaded villages of round houses with conical roofs. Both men and women dress alike. The men are usually clean-shaven and the hair is cut short with a tuft on the top to hold a loop from which is suspended a long cape of tapa cloth for protection against cold and rain. The men use a short bow and arrows, and carry a stone-headed club. They chew betel nut, but do not smoke tobacco. Cannibalism has been reported of the people between the Garfuku River and Kratke Mountains. During inter-tribal warfare the women accompany the men with spare arrows. On the Bena Bena tributary there is a cane-swallowing ritual not previously observed in New Guinea. Some of the adult men wear a long length of thin cane doubled and looped round their necks. They send the women and children away and then push the bent part of the cane down the gullet for several inches, leaving the two ends protruding from the mouth. It is said that a man may have three canes down his throat at the same time. At one performance two important men grasped the ends of the cane and danced around the performer, who still had the rest of the cane down his throat.
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Research Items. Nature 134, 328–329 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134328a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134328a0