The Kapauku: New Guinea “Capitalists”?

The Kapauku name was given to them by neighboring groups to the south, and their neighbors to the north, the Moni Papuans, call them “Ekari”. They themselves call them “me” which means “the people.”  They live in the central highlands of western New Guinea, now Irian Java. Although they are generally treated as a single cultural group, there are variations in dialect and in social and cultural practice across Kapauku territory.

Most of the region is above 1,500 meters, with three large lakes (Paniai, Tage, and Tigi), and five vegetation zones, including much tropical rain forest. Rainfall is plentiful and the average daily temperature ranges from 20° C to 60° C.

The Kapauku village settlement is a loose cluster of about fifteen dwellings, typically housing about 120 people. Dwellings consist, minimally, of a large house (owa), an elevated structure with a space beneath in which to shelter domesticated pigs. The building is divided into halves which is separated by a plank divider. The front half is the emaage, the men's housing. The back section is subdivided into kugu, or individual "apartments," one for each woman and her children. If the owa is insufficient to provide space for wives and children, outbuildings (tone) are added.

The leading authority on the Kapauku, labels their economy as "primitive capitalism" characterized by the pursuit of wealth in the form of cowrie shell money, status distinctions based on such wealth, and an ethic of individualism.

Their survival is based on the sweet potato, to which about 90 percent of cultivated land is devoted, and pig husbandry. The potatoes are grown both for human consumption and to feed the pigs, which are a basic source of income and wealth. Taro, bananas, and spinach greens are usually grown, but play a small part in the Kapauku diet. Hunting contains small importance, but is a sport for the men.

Net bags, for practical and for decorative purposes, are made from woven tree bark, and armbands and necklaces worn by both men and women and aprons as well. Kapauku also assemble stone axes and knives, flint chips, and grinding stones. They make knives from bamboo and weaponry consists of bows and arrows, the latter of which may be tipped with long blades of bamboo.

Trade is carried out intra- and interregionally and intertribally, with trade links extending to the Mimika people of the coast. The two most important trade commodities are pigs and salt. Trade is generally conducted in shell currency, pigs, or extensions of credit, and the bulk of trading occurs during pig feasts and at the pig markets. All distributions of food incur a debt on the part of each recipient to repay in kind to the giver.

Tasks held to be the exclusive province of men include the planning of agricultural production, digging ditches, making garden beds, felling trees, building fences, planting and harvesting bananas, tobacco, chili peppers, and apuu (a particular variety of yam), while the burning of gardens, planting sugarcane, manioc, squash, and maize, as well as the harvesting of sugarcane, manioc, and ginger, are preferentially but not necessarily done by males.

Exclusively female tasks include the planting of sweet potatoes and jatu (an edible grass, Setaria palmifolia) and weeding. Other tasks, such as planting and weeding taro and harvesting sweet potatoes, are usually done by women. All other tasks relating to agriculture are carried out by members of both sexes.

The gathering of crayfish, water beetles, tadpoles, dragonfly larvae, and hogs is largely the task of women; the hunting of large game is an infrequent enterprise and is done only by men. Small game is hunted by young men and boys. Pigs and chickens, while usually owned by males, are tended by women or adolescent children, but only males are allowed to kill and butcher them. The weaving of utilitarian net bags is a woman's job, while the production of the more ornate and colorful decorative bags is the Province of males.

Kapauku consider descent along both maternal and paternal lines, but villages are patrilineal and exogamous, with postmarital residence generally patrilocal. The most important Kapauku kinship group is the sib, a named, ideally exogamous, totemic, patrilineal group whose members share a belief in a common apical ancestor. Two or more sibs group into loosely united phratries that have Common totemic taboos but are not exogamous. Many of the sibs are further split into moieties. Kinship ties with other lineages (through affines) give rise to larger, political unions known as "confederations."

Kapauku kinship terminology is of the Iroquois type, but it diverges in the way in which parallel and cross cousins are differentiated: the sex of the nearest and the most distant link connecting the individual to his or her cousin determines cross- or parallel-cousin status. Kapauku kinship terms differentiate among paternal and maternal relatives, affinal and consanguineal relatives, and generationally.

Marriage is ideally arranged between the families of the prospective groom and brothers and mother of the prospective bride. The preferences of the woman are considered secondary to the possibility of collecting a high Bride price but, in practice, her mother may set a forbiddingly high bride price to discourage an unacceptable suitor. Courtship is often conducted in the context of the pig feast, when young men and women arrive at the host village from neighboring villages to dance and to be seen by members of the opposite sex.

Premarital sex, while not approved of because of its possible negative effect on a woman's Bride price, is generally not punished. Premarital pregnancy, however, is severely disapproved. Divorce involves the return of bride price, and the children generally remain with their mother until they reach the age of about 7, at which time they join their father's village. Polygyny, as an indicator of the husband's ability to pay multiple bride prices, is the ideal. A widow is expected to remarry within a suitable period following the death of her husband.

Children learn adult roles through observation and by specific training. Boys leave their mothers' apartments at the age of about 7 to live in the men's dormitory, at which time they are explicitly exposed to the expected adult male behaviors. There is no male initiation ceremony.

Girls, upon achieving their menarche, undergo a brief period (two days, two nights) of semi seclusion in a menstrual hut during the time of their first two menstruations. During this time they are instructed in the responsibilities and skills of adulthood by close female relatives. After these periods of seclusion, girls put aside the skirtlike apparel of childhood and begin to wear the bark-thong wrap of adulthood.

Social control is effected in Kapauku local groups by inducement rather than by force. The main form of inducement is the extension or withdrawal of credit.

Since a headman's supporters are tied to him through his economic largess, the threat of a withdrawal of credit, or of a premature demand for repayment, provides strong inducement for others to accede to the headman's wishes.

Sanctions such as public scolding or shooting an arrow into a miscreant's thigh are common, but in such cases the party being punished has the opportunity to fight back. Kin-based obligations to seek vengeance for the death of a lineage member are often invoked. Less frequently, to punish sorcerers, ostracism or death may be inflicted.

The Kapauku patrilineage is a non localized grouping whose membership claims descent from a common apical ancestor. Its dispersed character makes it inutile for political purposes; rather, its functions pertain to the regulation of marriage, the establishment of interpersonal obligations of support (both personal and economic), and religion.

The sib establishes shared totemic taboos that involve its members in relations of mutual ritual obligation, particularly in the matter of redressing taboo violations. Most day-to-day rights and obligations are incurred within the localized patrilineal group; it is to members of this group that an Individual will turn for assistance in amassing the bride-wealth necessary for marriage, as well as for allies in conflicts arising with outsiders.

One of the most important Kapauku Ceremonies is the juwo, or pig feast. This begins with a series of rituals associated with the construction of a dance house and feasting houses, after which follows a period of nightly dances, attended by people from villages throughout the area. After about three months a final feast is held wherein the sponsors slaughter many pigs and pork is distributed or sold. During this final feast day, trade in items of manufacture is also conducted.

Kapauku leadership is based on personal influence, developed through the accumulation of wealth in shells and pigs, particularly through sponsoring pig feasts. A headman (tonowi) uses his wealth to induce the compliance of others, particularly through the extension or refusal of credit. The most inclusive politically organized group is the confederacy, which consists of two or more localized lineages that may or may not belong to the same sib. Such groups unite for defense as well as for offense against nonmember groups. The leader of the strongest lineage is also the leader of the confederacy, and as such this leader is responsible for putting disputes to an end to avoid the possibility of intraconfederacy feuding. He is equally responsible for representing the confederacy in dealings and dispute settlement with outsiders, deciding upon the necessity of war, and negotiating terms of peace with hostile groups.

Magical-religious practitioners are of two classes: shamans (who practice magic for good purposes) and sorcerers (who practice "black magic").The shaman practices curative and preventive magic, while the sorcerer is concerned with causing harm to others (through illness, death, or economic failure).

The Kapauku believe that Ugatame, who has predetermined all that occurs or has occurred within it, created the universe. Ugatame dwells beyond the sky and is manifested in, but is not identical to, the sun and the moon. It is believed that, along with the physical universe, Ugatame created a number of spirits.

Death, is thought always to be caused by sorcerers or spirits. The soul goes to spend its days in the forest, but it returns to the village at night to assist its surviving kin or to seek vengeance in the case of wrongful death. There is no concept of an afterworld. A principal concern of Kapauku funeral practices is the enlistment of the soul of the departed as guardian of its surviving kin. The more beloved or prestigious the deceased, the greater the care taken, through burial practices.The head is left exposed, sheltered under a cover of branches, but provided with a window.