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THE TREETOP PEOPLE OF NEWGUINEA: A SUMMER FILM SPECIALLiving in an unmapped, isolated region ofIrian Jaya, the western half of the bigisland of New Guinea, the Korowai mettheir first anthropologist in June 1993-PaulMichael Taylor of the National Museum ofNatural History, Smithsonian Institution.Curator of Asian Ethnology and Director ofthe Asian Cultural History Program, Taylorhas devoted over sixteen years to the studyof the languages, ethnobiology, and culturesof Indonesia.Along with his research collaborator JohnBurke Burnett and student intern NormanH. Wibowo, Taylor travelled with a four-person film crew to this easternmostprovince of Indonesia, to begin research onthe ecological history of the area, studyinghow the Korowai relate to their rainforestenvironment. The Korowai live in tree-houses soaring thirty to ninety feet abovethe ground, building new ones every fewyears throughout their "gardens." AKorowai "garden" includes not only thesmall cultivated area below the tree house,but also all the rainforest in the clanterritory. Those with rights to thesegardens are known as the "lords of thegarden."The film follows Taylor and his entourageas they travel upriver by dugout canoes andthen by foot through the rainforest wherethey negotiate mud and creek crossings andlong "tightrope" walks across fallen logs.Pushing to the edge of the so-called
"pacification line" (the line beyond whichinter-clan warfare is still active andoutsiders cannot venture), they trekkedthrough flooded landscape, where the wateron the "paths" between treehouse clustersoften reached mid-thigh and containedclinging leeches.Taylor chose this location with the help offormer Dutch missionary Gerrit van Enk,who lived among the Korowai from 1983 to1993. Neighbors of the better-knownAsmat, among whom the late MichaelRockefeller collected beautifully carved
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dugout canoes and elaborately sculptedhouse posts, war shields, spears, and bodyornaments, the Korowai share some of thesematerial culture objects such as shields andbows and arrows. Unlike the Asmat,however, the Korowai have never been thesubject of anthropological study until now.
In addition to the film crew, threeIndonesians were hired as kitchen crew andfield site supervisors. These three, as wellas Paul and his intern Norman Wibowo,knew the Indonesian language that serves asa lingua franca throughout the region ofIrian Jaya, where there are over 250 locallanguages. A few Korowai had learnedsome Indonesian from the Dutch missionaryvan Enk, making it possible for them to tellPaul in Indonesian what their fellowKorowai were saying. Paul could thensimultaneously translate from Indonesianinto English for the film crew, and, at thesame time, begin to learn the local Korowailanguage himself. As the film producerJudy Hallet explained, "Paul's languageability in the field was extraordinary towatch....Because he was so gentle andrelaxed and the Korowai so trusting of him,he provided a perfect bridge between usand people whose language was completelyunknown to us" (Hallet, personalcommunication).According to filmed eyewitness accounts byKorowai adults, the Korowai and a fewneighboring groups practiced cannibalismin the recent past. Taylor believes thesefilmed eyewitness accounts presentevidence that will stand up to expertevaluation. Therefore, Western New Guinea
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where the role of cannibalism still can bestudied.
"Treehouse People/Cannibal Justice" is acollaboration between a scientist, PaulTaylor, and a film producer, Judith DwanHallet, working jointly with HearstEntertainment/Arts & EntertainmentNetwork (U.S.), Tele Images (France) andthe Smithsonian Institution. Each kept afield journal.While Taylor and Hallet shared many of thesame goals for the film, they revealdifferent approaches, perceptions, andexperiences in their "journals." Even theirmethod of writing was different: Halletmade notes in the field, then created a
"journal" after her return, based on herrecords, later recollections, and Taylor'stranslations of interviews he made in thefield. Taylor wrote his journal daily, partlyin English and partly in local languages.When he transcribed the journal later, heclearly distinguished annotations andtranslations made after his return fromthose made on-the-spot. In addition toexpressing different perceptions, these two
"journals" record amusing anecdotes,highlighting not only two cultures incontact, but two different people workingin two very different professional roles.HALLET writes (June 9, 1993): "In the film,we need to introduce New Guinea as a landof mystery, myths, headhunting.... We canshow jungle, faces, stock footage of earlyexpeditions. ...We can talk about MichaelRockefeller and the Asmat." That sameday, TAYLOR records, "Their originalconcept of filming the anthropologist goingto 'contact' a previously uncontacted groupof people is outdated: 1) 'contact' is not agenreof valid anthropological research, and2) even if it were, everybody here is already
'in contact'."On June 12, HALLET writes, "Paul isstarting to learn Korowai. He says one ofthe best ways to start learning a language isby learning how to count." Three days laterHALLET writes, "Paul is spending a greatdeal of time learning the genealogy. Hesays this is a good way to begin to learn
about a culture....Paul says the kinshipterminology is based on the Omaha skewingsystem.... For us it is practicallyincomprehensible and definitely tooesoteric for our film." TAYLOR writes(June 15): "I translate introductions intoEnglish for the [film] crew. It's their firstintroduction to the Omaha kinship system,since several of Yakob's grandfathers arehis age or younger. I used the example. ..thatthe Italian word for grandchild and nepheware the same ( nipote ): a 'skewing' ofgenerations that reflects the old Omahakinship system of ancient Latin. Thus theexpression 'Omaha skewing rule.'"On June 15, TAYLOR made the followingentry: "The film crew finds the place
'beautiful,' 'gentle,' 'incredible,' etc.—andthe filming schedule still dominates. But myown ideas and opinions are becomingsurprisingly influential, since I'm the onlyone who can speak to the people here andinterpret what they're saying....they're surethey're supposed to film me doing science,but less sure exactly what that entails.Unfortunately, much of it [science] isn't
'filmic'." Later, in his journal (June 21),TAYLOR wrote of the interest the Korowaihad in his field guide on birds. "Everyoneregularly gathers around my copy ofBeehler et al.'s Birds of New Guinea,discussing the many color plates. 'Theythink it's a menu,' someone on the kitchencrew said."HALLET records some of the dialogueamong the Korowai themselves in herjournal. Such conversations were oftenrecorded by the sound recordist (sometimesaccidentally), and translated later. Theyillustrate a continuing Korowai bafflementat the unexpected presence of their guests,and a strong concern for their safety. Forexample, two Korowai men were recordedtalking after they'd been asked to build apalm-frond shower-enclosure for theportable, hand-filled, solar-heated shower:
1st man : "What are they doing? Are theymaking a bird blind?"2nd man : "No, they are making ashower."
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1st man : "But there is no water there.What a funny place for a shower."Another conversation was accidentallyrecorded during a film sequence when atree was being chopped down:
1st man : 'Be careful of the foreigners.They are climbing the platform, and weare cutting down the trees, and theycould be in danger.'2nd man : 'If they fall off the platformand get hurt, who is capable of carryingthem? They are so big.'1st man : 'Oh that would be impossible!No one is strong enough to carry them.'Near the end of their stay, TAYLORlaments the lack of time for intensiveinterviews (June 27): "Judy, Reuben, et al.[the film crew] are understandablyfrustrated by the lack of visual excitementin these interviews. The informant whoallowed a major breakthrough in theinterpretation of cannibalism is the villagechief of Manggel--not a photogeniccharacter to begin with, and less so since heinsists on wearing his one t-shirt (that says
'Cartier' on it). He's very much an outsiderhere, in many ways, as a government-appointed village chief. ..but he's...a centralcharacter in the modernization of theregion."The film traces Taylor and Hallet's journeydeep into the rainforest, to ever moreremote tree house clusters, where they beginto hear about the role of cannibalism in theKorowai recent past. In his journal entry(June 25), TAYLOR states: "I'm nowbeginning to think of cannibalism as partof the Korowai criminal justice system, andto think there are two kinds: 1) the sentenceof death followed by cannibalism given tocriminals on an individual basis--in whicha clan expels one of its own members to bekilled and eaten by a neighboring clan withwhich it maintains reciprocal arrangementsfor carrying out such sentences; and 2) themurder and cannibalization that is theconsequence of interclan warfare, in whichan enemy may be killed and eaten." The
"second kind is widely reported but the firstkind. ..is an exciting new discovery."
HALLET on June 25 writes in her journal:
"The chief of Manggel, Funayare, describesin great detail how you kill and eatsomeone....With such detailed description ofcannibalism, we decide to film a series ofillustrative but abstract scenes by the river.The men can build a fire and wrap sagoleaves around the stones and cook the sagoover the burning coals. These scenes canplay over Funayare's explanation ofcannibalism...Although we never saw it,there is definitely cannibalism practicedhere. ...Paul says it is as bad to define theKorowai as a culture that simply practicescannibalism as it would be to define theAmerican culture based on capitalpunishment and death row."Taylor pointed out that many of the plantsand animals in this lush environment areunknown or of rare species, found nowhereelse in the world. He collected, often withthe help of the Korowai, samples of rareinsects, snakes, mammals, and plants for anIndonesian university that is collaboratingin his research.The film, "Treehouse People/CannibalJustice," will be shown on A&EEntertainment Network, Sunday, July 10,1994 at 8 p.m. Teachers and studentsstudying Southeast Asian cultures,rainforest ecology, and geography, worldhistory, and anthropology will enjoy thisinformative and visually beautiful film.Ann Kaupp