2.6 Namwi shows off a fresh water prawn that she caught in the stream behind her. |
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. |
2.8 Two men carry a hunted pig into the village. (Bruce and Eileen’s house is in the background.) |
2.9 A senior man, Imba, shows off one of the largest river fish he has ever caught. |
2.10 A lizard on a tree branch in the forest. Gebusi eat almost anything that moves – and lizards are no exception. |
2.11 A woman pounds pith from a stripped sago palm trunk with a stone adze. The white pith is then put in a trough hollowed from one of the larger lower branches of the sago palm, shown in the background of the photo. Then the pith is pounded further. |
2.12 A woman stands holding a thin stick used to beat sago pith in a trough. The large base of the felled sago palm can be seen in the background. The pith in the trough is leached with water until the starch dissolves and sediments to form sago flour, which is then dried into flaky chunks and tightly wrapped in special leaves. In its final form, sago flour is almost pure starch and can be stored for many weeks. |
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. |
2.16 Men return by canoe with bananas cut from their garden during a days outing along the Kum River. |
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. |
2.20 A hillside garden by a river. Banana plants grow up through the fallen mass of tree trunks and branches that are left on top of them when the garden is cleared. |
2.21 A mature grassy hillside settlement. Coconut trees flank the houses, and a few banana plants remain at the descending edge of the grassy clearing, to the right of the photo. |
2.22 Leaves of a mature banana plant. Starchy bananas or plantains are the traditional daily food staple in the Gebusi diet. |
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. |
2.28 Small domesticated piglet |
2.29 A large semi-domesticated pig in the village. When pigs roam in the village, they root in the mud, defecate, and are a nuisance and a risk to hygiene and health. But they provide an important source of protein-on-the-hoof. |
3.22 Sasaga ladles kava into a drinking bowl made of a palm spathe. |
3.23 A costumed man drinks a bowl of intoxicating kava. |
6.28 Initiation feast food of sago and greens is prepared at night. |
6.29 Slaughtered pigs are singed, splayed, and laid on top of greens and sago before being wrapped with leaves and steam-cooked for presentation to visitors. |
6.30 The obligation of good eating: Nogo is "force fed" fat from one of the slaughtered pigs. This is a standard practice of "making recipient eat." |
7.15 Gwabi, 1998, standing by sweet potatoes from his garden that he has just harvested |
9.3 A young girl from Gasumi Corners waits long hours in hopes of selling he sweet potatoes and pineapples at the Nomad market |
9.4 A young girl looks over a new garden of sweet potatoes on the outskirts of Gasumi Corners. |
9.5 Large piles of unsold food at the Nomad market. Items left unsold are carried back to Gasumi Corners or given away at the Nomad Station. |
9.6 A pile of food bought for the equivalent of about two dollars U.S. at the Nomad market: sago flour, bamboo shoots, starchy bananas, sweet bananas, peanuts, taro, cassava, sweet potatoes, papayas, squash, and coconuts |
12.4 Rolls of steamed sago and palm spathe plates of rice and fish are amassed for distribution at the final feast | | | |
