12.4 Rolls of steamed sago and palm spathe plates of rice and fish are amassed for distribution at the final feast |
2.2 Gebusi longhouse in late afternoon. House dimensions = 34 ft x 74 ft. |
2.4 Longhouse interior, looking towards the cooking area and front door from the raised sleeping area, with a young boy in silhouette. |
2.7 A young man named Mata prepares to shoot a domesticated pig in the village clearing with his bow and arrow. Gebusi arrows are very long. This lessens the distance the arrow must travel when shot from short distances by a stealthy hunter camouflaged by foliage in the forest. |
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2.15 Two families from Yibihilu cross one of the largest rivers in a canoe loaded with food and other products obtained during a foraging trip in the rainforest. River-crossings require agility, since Gebusi canoes have no keels and are unstable. |
2.18 Clearing trees to make a garden: Yuway chops a tree half-way through. A large tree felled in the center of the clearing will knock it and many other trees over at the same time. Chopping trees with steel axes rather than with ones made of stone has allowed Gebusi to clear larger gardens and construct bigger and more numerous houses. |
2.23 A makeshift garden house with bananas and wrapped sago stored on a high shelf under the thatched roof. In the upper right of the photo, bananas can be seen hanging in their natural “upside-down” position from a mature banana plant. |
2.24 A woman’s “carrying capacity”: A woman, Sefomay, comes back to Yibihilu from the forest in late afternoon. She is loaded with two net bags on top of which sits her young son, Mako, who wears his own small net bag. Leaves on Sefomay’s forehead and a bark cape on her back help cushion the weight of her heavy load. Net bags that women weave from forest fibers are a prime element of Gebusi material culture |
2.25 Three women of Yibihilu carry net bags and forest materials. |
3.22 Sasaga ladles kava into a drinking bowl made of a palm spathe. |
6.26 Imba presents a hardwood bow and set of carved initiation arrows to Yuway. |
10.1 Two men stand in traditional costume prior to a ritual feast in a distant Gebusi settlement, 1998. In earlier decades, strong men who excelled in ceremonial life were often favored by women. Now, however, women often favor men who orient to modern activities in and around the Nomad Station. |
11.16 A man gazes at trade goods in a large store, Kiunga, 1998 | |
