The Asmat

The Asmat are renowned for their bold woodcarving and their headhunting and cannibalistic way of life. To understand the Asmat, we must understand the habitat that they live in.

 The Asmat live on the rugged and isolated southern coast of Irian Jaya, in an area of approximately 10,000 square miles. The dominant habitats there are swamps and mangroves.

 The Asmat homeland has been described as ..."...essentially a gigantic mud plain covered by ...tropical rain forest. Numberless rivers intersect it. Beneath the green blanket of forest lies mud...Besides one or two forlorn patches of firm sand, the remnants of old dunes, the spongy soil yields easily to the tread of human feet. Mud is everywhere; even the rivers are grey with it." from The Asmat of New Guinea: The Journal of Michael Rockefeller

 

 The Asmat World View: The Asmat believe all things have a spirit (animism): humans, animals, plants and even special locations such as a whirlpool or the bottom of a river. They also believe that the universe is divided between the world that can be seen and the unseen realm of the spirits. To the Asmat, it was important to maintain a proper balance between the seen and unseen. Birth and death balance the population between the seen and unseen realms, and one cannot take place without the other. An imbalance is manifested in disease, hunger, misfortune and death--caused by unsettled spirits.

 The Asmat remained isolated from "modern" society until the 1950's, protected by their remote and rugged location. On one side is a mountain range covered by dense, almost impenetrable jungles and on the other, the mud flats of waterways with treacherous currents. There are currently an estimated 65,000 Asmat living in 60 villages. In the 1960's, some villages were as large as 1,000-1,500, while tiny ones had only 50-100. But the average was 300-400.

The Crosiers, Catholic missionaries, were the first Westerners to establish a permanent presence near the Asmat territory in 1958. In 1961, Michael Rockefeller disappeared in Asmat territory. He was collecting Asmat art for the New York Museum of Primitive Art and no one knows what happened to him after his boat capsized and he was stranded in a bank in the middle of a river. Some believe he drowned or was eaten by crocodiles. Others believe that he made it to shore, but was killed and eaten by the Asmat. Yet others believe he just went native to be among the Asmat that he so admired.

The Asmat are an ethnic group of New Guinea island, residing in the Papua province of Indonesia. Having one of the most well-known and vibrant woodcarving traditions in the Pacific, their art is sought by collectors worldwide. The Asmat inhabit a region on the island's southwestern coast bordering the Arafura Sea, with lands totaling approximately 18,000 km2 (7,336 mi2) and consisting of mangrove, tidal swamp, freshwater swamp, and lowland rainforest. The land of Asmat is located both within and adjacent to Lorentz National Park and World Heritage Site, the largest protected area in the Asia-Pacific region. The total Asmat population is estimated to be around 70,000. The term "Asmat" is used to refer both to the people and the region they inhabit.

Traditionally, man y Asmat men practiced polygyny by marrying more than one woman. In many cases, men were expected to marry a male relative's wife if that male relative died (otherwise the woman and her children would be left without a source of protection or economic support). Schneebaum reported that many Asmat men had long-term ritual sexual/friendship relationships (mbai) with other men, although the prevalence of this practice has been disputed by others. In the mbai system, male partners were also known to share their wives in a practice called papitsj. It is probable that missionary influence in the last several decades has reduced the occurrence of both mbai and papitsj.

Culture and subsistence

The natural environment has been a major factor affecting the Asmat, as their culture and way of life are heavily dependent on the rich natural resources found in their forests, rivers, and seas. The Asmat mainly subsist on starch from the sago palm (Metroxylon sagu), fish, forest game, and other items gathered from their forests and waters. Materials for canoes, dwellings, and woodcarvings are also all gathered locally, and thus their culture and biodiversity are intertwined. Due to the daily flooding which occurs in many parts of their land, Asmat dwellings have typically been built two or more meters above the ground, raised on wooden posts. In some inland regions, the Asmat have lived in tree houses, sometimes as high as 25 meters from the ground. The Asmat have traditionally placed great emphasis on the veneration of ancestors, particularly those who were accomplished warriors. Asmat art, most noticeably elaborate, stylized wood carving, is designed to honour ancestors. Many Asmat artifacts have been collected by the world's museums, among the most notable of which are those found in the Michael C. Rockefeller Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

Traditionally, many Asmat men practiced polygyny by marrying more than one woman. In many cases, men were expected to marry a male relative's wife if that male relative died (otherwise the woman and her children would be left without a source of protection or economic support). Schneebaum reported that many Asmat men had long-term ritual sexual/friendship relationships (mbai) with other men, although the prevalence of this practice has been disputed by others. In the mbai system, male partners were also known to share their wives in a practice called papitsj.It is probable that missionary influence in the last several decades has reduced the occurrence of both mbai and papitsj.

Language and ethnic sub-groups

Linguistic classification of the native language(s) of the Asmat people is somewhat problematic, but is generally characterized as being a group of closely related languages or dialects (most mutually intelligible to some degree), known as the Asmat family, which is a sub-family of the Trans–New Guinea language phylum. However, some ethnic groups who speak languages in the Asmat language family, such as the Kamoro and Sempan peoples who live adjacent to the Asmat, are ethnically distinct from Asmat.

Asmat may be thought of as an umbrella term for twelve different ethnic sub-groups with shared linguistic and cultural affinities and sense of shared identity. These twelve Asmat groups include Joirat, Emari Ducur, Bismam, Becembub, Simai, Kenekap, Unir Siran, Unir Epmak, Safan, Aramatak, Bras, and Yupmakcain. Further complicating the issue, these groups speak approximately five dialects (Casuarina Coast Asmat, Yaosakor Asmat, Central Asmat, North Asmat, Citak). However, at some important level these groups share a sense of identity and would likely refer to themselves as "Asmat".

History

Until the 1950s, their remote and harsh location isolated the Asmat from other peoples. It was not until the mid-20th century that they came into regular contact with outsiders. Initially, the Asmat had a reputation as headhunters and cannibals, and were left undisturbed.

The first apparent sighting of the Asmat people by explorers was from the deck of a ship led by a Dutch trader, Jan Carstensz in the year 1623. Captain James Cook and his crew were the first to actually land in Asmat on September 3, 1770 (near what is now the village of Pirimapun). According to the journals of Captain Cook, a small party from the HM Bark Endeavour encountered a group of Asmat warriors; sensing a threat, the explorers quickly retreated. In 1826, another Dutch explorer, Kolff, anchored in approximately the same area as that visited by Cook. When the Asmat warriors again frightened the visitors with loud noises and bursts of white powder, Kolff's crew also rapidly withdrew. The Dutch, who gained sovereignty over the western half of the island in 1793, did not begin exploring the region until the early 1900s, when they established a government post in Merauke in the southeast corner of the territory. From there, several exploratory excursions with the goal of reaching the central mountain range passed through the Asmat area and gathered small numbers of zoological specimens and artifacts. These artifacts were taken to Europe where they generated much interest, and probably influenced modernist and surrealist Western artists such as Henri Matisse, Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso.

The first colonial post was established in the Asmat area in Agats in 1938. This small outpost was closed in 1942 due to the onset of World War II. After the war, Father G. Zegwaard, a Dutch Missionary, began patrols into Asmat from the Mimika area to the west. In 1953, Zegwaard re-established the post in Agats, which was to become the government headquarters and the base for Roman Catholic missionaries. It was not until Catholic missionaries established the post in 1953 that significant interaction with the Asmat people began. Catholic missionaries, many with degrees in anthropology, were successful in persuading the Asmat to stop cannibalism and headhunting, while encouraging the continuation of other important cultural cycles and festivals such as shield and bisj ceremonies, which were incorporated into an adapted Catholic liturgy.

Asmat was the launching point for an arduous joint French-Dutch expedition from the south to north coast of New Guinea in 1958 to 1959, which was documented by the team and resulted in a book and documentary film, The Sky Above, The Mud Below, which won an Academy Award in 1961. In November 1961, the 22-year old Michael C. Rockefeller, son of Nelson A. Rockefeller who was then the Governor of the State of New York and member of one of the wealthiest families in the United States, disappeared in Asmat when his boat overturned while on an art collecting expedition. His disappearance, followed by an intensive and ultimately unsuccessful search by the Dutch authorities, has been the source of much speculation as to Mr. Rockefeller's fate. In 1962, the Indonesian government took over administration of western New Guinea.

After a short period under the new Indonesian administration from 1964 to 1968 in which Asmat cultural ceremonies were officially discouraged. Local Bishop Alphonse Sowada was instrumental in facilitating the revitalization of woodcarving and other festivals, which remain strong today. The church, along with Tobias Schneebaum and Ursula Konrad, established the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress (AMCP) in the local town of Agats in 1973, to maintain local pride in Asmat cultural traditions. Each year in early October, the church sponsors a woodcarving competition and auction to recognize outstanding carvers.

Current context

Even today, the Asmat are relatively isolated and their most important cultural traditions are still strong, though their interaction with the outside world has been increasing over the last decades. Many Asmat have received higher education in other parts of Indonesia and some in Europe. The Asmat seek to find ways to incorporate new technology and beneficial services such as health, communications, and education, while preserving their cultural traditions. The biodiversity of their area has been under some pressure from outside logging and fishing, although this has faced significant and not unsuccessful resistance. In the year 2000, the Asmat formed Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Asmat (LMAA), a civil society organization that represents and articulates their interests and aspirations. LMAA has been working with Indo-Pacific Conservation Alliance since 1999, and has established separate traditional sub-councils, or Forum Adat Rumpun (FAR) to implement joint activities. In 2004, the Asmat region became a separate governmental administrative unit or Kabupaten, and elected Mr. Yufen Biakai, former director of the AMCP and current Chairman of LMAA, as its Bupati (head of local government