The Religion of the Dani Tribe

Figure 1

“Religion is a system of beliefs and ritual ways of relating to supernatural beings and forces through divined ways in communicative traditions like prayers.” For the Dani tribe, they use religion as way to heal or cure and to earn prosperity for the tribe. Since they are born, the Dani believe they have a soul or ghost inside of them, “edai-egen”. The soul fully develops at the age of two, and is seen throbbing below the sternum. If very sick or have serious wounds, the soul is believed to hide towards the backbone. The Dani have curing ceremonies to bring back the soul, because it believe that if the soul is lost, the person would fall into a mental state of sickness. Men are usually the ones who perform the rituals or magical powers to cure someone (fig1); however, if it is a serious condition, the leaders take over because they are known to possess more powerful powers. During war, ceremonies are frequent, to bring the Dani warriors’ soul fortune. If one of the Dani kills an enemy, there is also a celebration ceremony, but if death occurs in the Dani tribe, one or two fingers of girls are chopped off as a sacrifice to the soul of the dead

Figure 2

(fig 2). The Dani believe that in death, the soul of the dead becomes a “malicious maggot” that needs to be driven off or persuaded to leave the dead and far away from the village. As you can tell, the Dani’s tribe religion is very concerned with the edai-egen because it not only describes the soul of the person, but it brings unity to the tribe. Unlike other tribes who value the hunt or kill of a person or animal, the Dani honor the “goodness” of a person.

Citations:

Heider, Karl G. 

1970 The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea. Wenner-Gren 

Foundation.
Codrington, Stephen                                                                                                      
 2005 Planet Geography. Solid Star Press

Dani Labor

The Dani people, also known as Ndani are people from the central highlands of western New Guinea. Just like all the other cultures around the world, the Dani people have their own ways of dividing up work labor. Work is often assigned along gender lines, or to different age groups. (Heider 2004). The Dani are bonded together by their sameness. They are very independent, so they don’t depend on each other for their survival in the world. Everyone can, and is expected to do, just about any work that is performed by their labor group (Heider 2004).

 

The Dani men build the houses, as well as organize fields for fixing. When the men aren’t doing heavy work, or engaging in wars, they lace together the skirts worn by the women and weave bark and shell bands. It also should be noted that while it may not strictly be classified as labor, only men perform the various ceremonies and rituals (Heider, 1996). The Dani women are in control of planting the sweet potatoes, taking care of them, and collecting them. They also are assigned the duties of raising children, tending and feeding the pigs, and making salt (Schwimmer, 1997), as well as knitting and transporting nets. These tasks are made difficult by ritual finger amputation which is performed only on girls as a part of the morning observances (Schwimmer, 1997).

The Dani children on the other hand are given different labor tasks, as soon as they are able to do them. As for the boys they collect firewood, and the girls care for the children as well as help feed the pigs.

Sources

Heider, Karl G.
1996 Grand Valley  Dani: Peaceful Warriors, 3rd Ed. Wadsworth Publishing.

 Schwimmer, Brian.
 "Dani Gender Roles", University of Manitoba, 1997. Retrieved July 11, 2004 from http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/dani/gender.html

Heider, Karl G.
2004 Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology Through Film. 3rd Ed. Allyn & Bacon.

Bon Appetit

        

          Hear the chatter of a community of rich brown skinned people tending ever to respectfully to their gardens. Now hear the calls of a pig as it is about to be sacrificed for a momentous ceremony. An auditory scene like this can be heard in the tribe of the Dani. Their food resources primarily take place in their symmetrical gardens, where the sweet potato is undoubtedly one of their main crops, with over 70 varieties, along with bananas and cassava (a starchy root used as source of carbohydrates). Other foods may include vegetables - when obtainable. The women are in charge of maintaining these gardens and they are also responsible for raising their husbands' pigs. Much wealth is associated with the number of pigs a male owner has, for the pig is the only source of protein for this tribe because of the small source of game in the area, so there is very little demand for hunters in this community. The men use their pigs as an exchange for bargains or political achievements, and only for ceremonial occasions are the pigs prepared for a sacrifice and eaten at a feast.
          Such a ceremony is the notorious Pig Feast that is held in honor for weddings, births, funerals, and other occasions. A host will typically provide one or more pigs to be traditionally sacrificed by a bow and arrow and cooked, by the women, in an earth oven. This process begins by heating up stones in the oven while wrapping the staple crops (sweet potato, banana, and cassava) and the pig meat in banana leaves. Once the stones are hot enough they make up the first lay in the earth oven followed by the food packages. To keep it moist, grass is put over the packages and the oven is covered and left for a couple of hours. Many times, the whole community and neighboring tribes are invited to partake in the celebration. Let the festivities begin!


Sources: 

Butt, Leslie.  
2001 Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 15, no. 1, 58.""AN EPIDEMIC OF RUNAWAY WIVES": Discourses by Dani Men on Sex and Marriage in Highlands Irian Jaya, Indonesia."  

"The Dani Tribe, Papua." 
June 6, 2009 Trek Papua. 

"Dani War Ceremony and Pig Feast - in West Papua, New Guinea- Colorado Magazine Online." 
Dani War Ceremony and Pig Feast - in West Papua, New Guinea- Colorado Magazine Online.

Globalization

                The Dani people have a unique history and were discovered by accident in 1938 by a pilot flying over the New Guinea highlands. They are believed to have resided in the highlands for 40,000 years and hadn’t experienced any outside contact until the first explorers climbed the mountain. Much is known about the cultural practices of the Dani, but even more has changed because of the contact with the outside world. For thousands of years the Dani practiced a sedentary form of farming cultivating mostly sweet potatoes and taro (Codrington 2005). Pigs also served as the main source of protein in their diet and were a way to measure the wealth of an individual, the more pigs he owned the wealthier he was (Codrington 2005). The Dani never had an official currency, but instead trades polished stones, slabs of salt, and cowrie shells tied into looped bands (Ploeg 2004). Clothing in the Dani culture is almost nonexistent as the men and women wear very little, even the highlands where they reside is often very cold. Men generally only wore penis sheaths, or bolium, which are made from dried gourds and women wore grass skirts and often carried bags to carry goods and young babies (Codrington 2005).

                Today the Dani still perform many of the same cultural practices, but a lot of their culture has changed because of globalization. The biggest change in the culture was the conversion to Christianity in the 1960’s, upon the arrival of missionaries. The Dani quickly adopted the religious practices and began destroying objects of religious significance such as ancestral stones and shortly after the polished stones and cowries they had used as currency (Ploeg 2004). Marriage was also affected by the missionaries. Originally people could only marry someone outside of their social class, but the missionaries taught them all people were god’s children and social classes were irrelevant in marriage decisions (Codrington 2005). As the Dani continues to meet new cultures and people migrate into the mountain ranges the Dani occupy, culture is continuously changing. Their diet is changing as new food resources become available, the new currency system is changing the way they give payments, and western clothing is gradually beginning to be worn. The Dani people are gradually changing towards a more western society, but they still maintain much of their tradition and practices they've followed for thousands of years.

References

Codrington, Stephen                                                                                                      
 2005 Planet Geography. Solid Star Press

Ploeg, Anton 2004                                                                                                                      
Wealth Items in the Western Highlands of West Papua. Ethnology 43(4): 291-313

Marriage Customs of the Dani

                The Dani are a unique culture that is extremely different from American culture. Marriage is an important social structure that binds groups of people and is used as the distribution of wealth. The Dani are actually required to marry people that are outside of their moiety, or social group.  Like in other cultures the bride’s wealth is exchanged as In the Dani culture people cannot get married whenever they want. They can only get married every five years during ebe akho or the Pig fest. The women that go through the ceremony are all of those who have gone through puberty unless they are sick. The women are married very soon after hitting puberty but on the other hand, men wait several years before they are married.

                Polygyny which is the taking on of several wives or husbands is allowed for men but not women. Each wife will have their own house to take care of but the husband will sleep in the men’s house in the compound. There is another fascinating practice for the Dani. They actually practice abstinence from sexual activity between husband and wife following the birth of the child, usually for a span of about six years. The reason for this practice is still not fully known. The women of this culture also usually only have one or two children in their lifetime because of all of the work put into it and the fact that there is such a large span between parents limits the number of years that a woman will be able to have children.

Sources:                                                                                                                       

Heider, Karl G.

            2004 Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology Through Film. 3rd Ed. Allyn & Bacon.

Heider, Karl G.

            1996 Grand Valley Dani: Peaceful Warriors, 3rd Ed. Wadsworth Publishing.

Heider, Karl G.

            1970 The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea. Wenner-                 Gren Foundation.

Schwimmer, Brian

           1997 Dani Gender Roles. University of Manitoba

           http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/dani/gender.html

Sargent, Wyn

           1974 People of the Valley: Life with a cannibal tribe in New Guinea. Random House.