Tsembaga: Cultural Introduction, Political Life, And Comparison With Montenegro

6 Pages 1446 Words

The book “Pigs For the Ancestors” by Roy A. Rappaport is a study of Tsembaga, a group of approximately two hundred Maring-speaking people living in the Madang District of the Australian-administered Territory of New Guinea. This fieldwork has taken place from October 1962 to December 1963. The amount of contacts with Europeans at the time of study was slight (Rappaport 8).
The Tsembaga occupy an area slightly more than three square miles; the land is very mountainous and, for the most part, is heavily forested. Tsembaga are “bush-following horticulturalists”, some of their staples are taro, yam, sweet potato, manioc, and some other greens. Pig husbandry, hunting, trapping, and gathering also play a part in Tsembaga life. The tools used by Tsembaga for gardening include the digging stick, the steel ax, and the “bushknife”. Bows and arrows, spears, axes, and wooden shields are used in hunting and warfare (Rappaport 13).
Rituals play extremely important role in Tsembaga’s life. They help to protect people from the possible parasitism and competition of their pigs, to allocate people over land, to regulate the frequency of warfare, to ease the severity of intergroup fighting, and facilitate the exchange of goods and personnel between local groups (Rappaport 4). The Tsembaga form a single territorial unit, and all Tsembaga may hunt, trap, and gather in any part of the territory. The members of other local groups cannot use the recourses of the Tsembaga territory, and Tsembaga cannot use the recourses of other groups. Although the entire territory is open for the hunting and gathering of all Tsembaga, it is divided into “subterritories,” smaller areas claimed by less inclusive groups. Membership in these groups is very important when it comes to the rights in garden land (Rappaport 18).
The Tsembaga are divided into five patrilineal clans, which range from fifteen to seventy-eight persons. Although all the clans claim ...