FORMAT B:ANTHRO.FMT STYLE Paper 10.5 inches,TopMargin 4 lines @tct("‰" "e ¾") @tct("‹" "i ¾") @Modify(Hyphens, numbered "%<%;-%]") @Modify(Numbered, font draft, indent -10, spacing 1, justify no, above 3, below 3) BEGIN HEADER Draft Version: I Too Am A Man END HEADER Draft Version: BEGIN CENTER I TOO AM A MAN How manhood is measured, and how scores are settled: Pinihas Bunggu, Simon Ti Eis, and Phil FieldsBEGIN ENOTEPinihas Bunggu narrated the story that became the basis of this article. Simon Ti Eis filled out the background history and cultural meanings of the various customs described. Phil Fields was responsible for the translation and overall organization of the analysis.END ENOTE END CENTER For the Orya, successfully killing an enemy traditionally marked the transition to manhood, and was the normal prerequisite for being able to marry. Victorious men were given the right to to wear a nose piece which corresponded to the sex of their victim as their badge of manhood. As the modern world has impinged upon them, Orya warlike practices have been stopped, but the standards by which they measure manhood have yet to be revised. Thus, Orya men frequently express their frustration in the words, "We have become women," and this is a powerful force in social disintegration. The history narrated here by Pinihas Bunggu gives a glimpse of life as it was at the end of the "good old days", and reveals much about why they went to war, how they waged war, and how they made peace. A major underlying motivation for war is found in the words, "I'll show them that I too am a man." HEADINGB Pinihas Bunggu At the time we began our work among the Orya people, Pinihas Bunggu was the head of the Bunggu clan. After living with the Orya people for several months, (and not making much progress in learning the language,) I asked the village leaders to find a man to teach me the language. Pinihas was wisely selected, and we spent hours and hours together. He took his job seriously, and felt it his personal responsibility that I speak properly. He was the son of S‰nwal, the powerful war chief in this story, by his third wife.BEGIN ENOTES‰nwal had three wives simultaneously.END ENOTE I remember him once lamenting that he did not come up to his father's physical stature, who he said had thighs like trees. Pinihas, however, was only about five feet tall, and about 51 years old in November 1985 when he told me this story. He died of cancer in 1987. The Bunggu clan are believed to have been the original inhabitants of the entire Guay area, descendants of a man by the same name. The original Bunggu was a country bumpkin, living alone in a swinging hammock in the forest. He is the subject of hilarious stories of how he had to be taught the normal things of life: how to kill pigs (he had lived previously only on bird meat), how to have sex, how to kill men in battle, and how to decorate himself afterwards. He divided his land with the other major clan figure, Gw‰r (also called Guay) who was the main character of the paradise lost story of Martin Maware.BEGIN ENOTEMartin Maware's story is the basis of the article Of Paradise Lost in this volume.END ENOTE HEADINGB Chief S‰nwal Bunggu If Bunggu started as a country bumpkin, his clan had learned its lessons by the time of chief S‰nwal, who was certainly a man to be reckoned with. S‰nwal was a mambli, which means he was renowned as having killed men. When young, he had killed first a woman, and then a man, in two separate raids to the coastal village of Marengge. (The coastal language groups to the east of Sarmi were the usual targets of Guay's war raids.) During these two raids, he was the only one who was successful in killing, hence the beginning of his reputation. Later he killed a man from Sawe, one of the Orya villages.BEGIN ENOTEThe Sawe people were angry at one of their own sons, S‰nwal's cousin (esya), who would not stay at home, but always lived in Mawes. They therefore told S‰nwal to kill his own cousin. He went with his war partner to Mawes, where he feigned friendship and asked the cousin to pick a coconut for him. As he was coming down the coconut tree, S‰nwal killed him with his machete.END ENOTE Being established as a leader, he was appointed as a chief (Korano) by the Dutch government. According to the people, the government realized that unless they worked with this man, killing would continue. He had, however, served for a long time in his position as chief by the time of the events related here, so we see him helping the younger men get experience. HEADINGB Backround: Tauhle's grudge In saying that men went to war to prove their manhood, it doesn't rule out that there were other excuses. Hopefully, the following background will help the reader penetrate the dense fog of Orya intrigue. The Orya village of Sawe is just a few hours walk from the coastal village of Kaptiau. Because of this, there are frequent relations between the two villages, enhanced by giving girls in marriage between the groups. Therefore, most people of the two villages could speak at least some of the other's language, and if there are grievances, questions could then be asked of one's relatives in the other group. Tobyas, the head of the village (Korano) of Kaptiau, was a hard man who beat some of the people. As a result, he was cursed and died, and Kanggau's clan was blamed for his murder by sorcery. Kanggau was also from Kaptiau, so normally we would wonder why this would involve the Orya people. The problem came in that Tauhle, a man from the Orya village of Sawe, was the trading partner (dokot) of the deceased Tobyas. Tauhle, and especially his wife Kubu, had enjoyed trade with Tobyas receiving, among other things, manufactured material, which Kubu had tied around herself for her dresses. But when Tobyas died, she refused to be comforted and refused to wear the material. She instead tied only a very short piece of bark cloth around her hips, and did not cut her hair as a sign of mourning. This kind of behavior was evidently useful also to keep a grudge alive. Eventually Tauhle went to MolgaBEGIN ENOTEHere I am following the information given me by Simon Ti Eis, and not that given by Pinihas. Pinihas says the transaction happened at Sawe (Sentence 104).END ENOTE, the traditional mountain hiding place of the Guay people deep in the southern extremity of Orya land. There he gave a 'grudge arrow' (ol‰ nokwa) to Deigwi, with these words, "Use this to kill Kanggau." This was not a symbolic gesture. A real arrow was given, with markings that would make it clear that it was from Sawe. Only that arrow would be left at the murder site. After the murder, the same arrow would be saved by the victim's family, and refitted with a new bamboo point, to be used in revenge against Sawe. The revenge, however, did not come to pass, as Pinihas later tells us. When the warriors from Guay, together with allies from Klatra, came within a days journey of Kaptiau, Sawal, the senior warrior from Klatra, performed sorcery to entice victims to come out from the village. This involved waving a cassowary bone knifeBEGIN ENOTEThe gwaho is made from the long thigh bone of the cassowary. The wihet, used later, is shorter, made from the cassowary's shin bone.END ENOTE toward Kaptiau and invoking the name of Kanggau's paternal grandfather. Pinihas gives the details on how the two victims actually made their fated decision to leave the village: BEGIN NUMBERED @Set(counter=95) So that's how it happened, on a Sunday, they killed the two men who were cutting tobacco at Somte Peninsula.BEGIN ENOTEPinihas' discourse style is typical of Orya story tellers, with conclusions, flashbacks, snatches of plot and background mixed like a stew. For the reader's benefit, I have reorganized the story to follow chronological order, and have unified some themes. A complete interlinear display of this story, including morpheme by morpheme glosses and free translation, will be placed in the Oxford University Archives and is available from the author. Clarifications directly inferred from the text are given in (parentheses), but other clarifications given by Simon Ti Eis are given in [brackets].END ENOTE On Sunday when the people were entering (the church) is when the two men were coming toward here. That old man (Kanggau) was going out to pick tobacco, because his nephew (na‹ml‹),BEGIN ENOTEThe Orya kinship system is much like that of the Kaure, described by Dommel and Dommel in this volume.END ENOTE Yonas, had said (on Saturday), BEGIN HYPHENS "(Let's do it) later, tomorrow." END HYPHENS Yonas had come (on Saturday) asking for tobacco, BEGIN HYPHENS "Give me some tobacco." END HYPHENS Then Kanggau answered, BEGIN HYPHENS "I'll go pick tobacco tomorrow at Togwa (river) delta. Don't you have legs? You never go along." END HYPHENS That is how he spoke to him. Then Yonas said to him, BEGIN HYPHENS "OK, tomorrow let's go. Later we'll go off and cut." END HYPHENS But that was the Sunday the dangerous men from Guay and Klatra were going down past Suma (village toward them). He is the one who gave the arrow (in order for the Guay men to kill someone from Kaptiau), Tauhle, a Sawe (village) man, and there at Sawe Deigwi [Deigwi Bunggu, a man from Guay] secretly took the arrow away.BEGIN ENOTEThe custom of giving the grudge arrow is translated by the Orya into Indonesian as 'to sell a man', i.e. betray to be killed.END ENOTE END NUMBERED HEADINGB War Partners: Pinihas gives a very sketchy account of the killing of Kanggau and Yonas because he was only giving background to the story of the murder of Mr. Umal, which he treated in more detail. He is careful, however, to tell who were the killers, since they were the ones to be honored. Following Pinihas' summary, I will fill in some details, as this portion of text illustrates the war partner relationship between pairs of Orya men: BEGIN NUMBERED @Set(counter=75) Now (of course) Deigwi had put sago by (saved it) for the purpose of killing Kanggau. But it didn't happen. He missed (with the grudge arrow given by Tauhle). Those two brothers shared the honors. Tahyal [Sawal's younger brother] killed one, Kanggau. The other (Yonas) was killed by what's his name, Aulu. He (Yonas) ran of course. Kanggau himself they killed as he was cutting tobacco. Deigwi's arrow missed him and hit a breadfruit tree. Then right away Tahyal shot him, with a cuscus bone tipped arrow in the leg. The one who was decorated for his death lives over there, Tidores. The one who was decorated because of Yonas was Paulus, Paulus was decorated. END NUMBERED Throughout my discussion, I have been calling the kinds of raids just described above as war, which is how the Orya people describe them (eijan, or in Indonesian perang). The preparation period for a war usually lasted two months, in which the primary activity was, as in sentence 75, preparing sago for the journey. The round trip would take them almost a month, so the sago basket carried by each man must have weighed at least 50 pounds. In describing the skirmish briefly, Pinihas does not elaborate on the role of the fighting partners (eijone). This was so much a part of his understanding of how war is fought that he did not think to explain. Normally fighting partners were close relatives, and in a raid the younger would follow close behind in the steps of the older. Aulu and PaulusBEGIN ENOTEPinihas used two types of names in referring to characters in his narrative. The earth name is the name given by the family, usually given by one of the mother's relatives about a year after birth. The Christian name is given by a minister at the time of baptism. Most Christian names, like Paulus, will be recognizable to the reader. At the time of the events of Pinihas' story, some people had not become Christians (such as Aulu), and so only had an earth name. However, others evidently were more frequently referred to by the earth name even though they had a Christian name. People often also have more than one earth name. (One reason for the number of names a single person is that parents in law cannot pronounce the earth names their sons or daughters in law, and vice versa. They will instead call them by an alternate name, a synonym if possible.) If Pinihas used more than one name, the alternate name is given in parentheses.END ENOTE were true older and younger brothers (aya, oso respectively) from Klatra village. The older always took the lead, so it was Aulu who caught the young man Yonas as he was trying to escape by swimming in the Togwa river. He caught him by the hair and stabbed him with a cassowary bone knife (gwaho), and Paulus gave the death stab (ba‹staka) also with a gwaho. Deigwi missed Kanggau with the arrow given by Tauhle, (but the arrow was pulled from the breadfruit tree and shot into Kanggau after he had already been killed). Instead Tahyal (from Klatra) shot Kanggau, and Tidores (from Guay) gave the second shot with a bamboo tipped arrow. Tidores was Tahyal's father's younger brother's son. In the war partner relationship, the younger man was seen as an understudy or apprentice of the older man. Later, at the victory celebration, it was the junior partner who was more lavishly decorated. Thus we see the senior partner enabling his younger relative to become fully initiated into manhood. HEADINGB The Victory Celebration: We could forgo the bloody details that follow, except that they again reveal how power for manhoodBEGIN ENOTEMuch like mana.END ENOTE was gained from the death of enemies. Following the deaths, the bodies were stabbed again, and the bone knives (which are naturally hollow) were used to suck the blood of the victims. This was drunk by the one who gave the death stab (Paulus and Tidores), and rubbed on the bodies of both pairs of eijone. A final portion of the blood was drawn up in the bone knife, and the handle plugged with leaves. The knife was then worn with the point up so as not to spill the blood on the return trip to the home village. A portion of this blood was given to the warrior's sons, and the rest mixed with other ingredients and rubbed on the bodies of both victorious war partners at the big victory celebration. The returning heros also celebrated on their way back home: BEGIN NUMBERED @Set(counter=87) OK, so from there they were coming back, but this one Apolos (his father, Kanali) who lives down there at [Orya village of] Suma did it. His father (Kanali) was going to the coast.BEGIN ENOTEOther informants say that Kanali and the others were going back to the village, having just been on the coast with Kanggau.END ENOTE From there he and Nikanol heard, -- Nikanol the chief of Sawe, they heard the sound of the muli. (The wing shaped root bases of a tree (muli) were beaten like a log drum.) So Kanali ran right off with Nikanol, throwing down and leaving a blanket. So (as they passed there) the old man with the small bones, what was his name... Kabawa [one of the war party], he danced on it.BEGIN ENOTEMost of the names in this story are suffixed with swe, meaning deceased.END ENOTE So then he danced on the blanket there. It was his own daughter Naulek's blanket that he danced on. After that at Sawe village Kanali told them, BEGIN HYPHENS "The Guay men have just killed somebody. They have killed a coastal man. They've just passed (going back home). I heard the muli and (the sounds of their victory cries), `Hauy‰'y‰'. They killed two, I heard. `Y‰', y‰', y‰', hauy‰',' was what was sounding out." END HYPHENS END NUMBERED The returning warriors celebrated as they returned home, with whoops and short spurts of dancing, and as it happens, just missed meeting with Kanali and several other Orya people from the village of Sawe. As it happens, Kanali was on his way back to Sawe, having just visited with his trading partner (dokot), the newly murdered Kanggau. Upon hearing the victory shouts of the returning Orya and Klatra men, these Orya people ran in fear, even dropping a few things they were carrying. They did not run in fear of the Orya men, as I first supposed, but because they knew that coastal men might not be far behind in hot pursuit, out to wreak revenge on any Orya person in their path. They could tell by the shouts that the men had killed two people. The winged shaped root bases of some trees make good drums when hit with a club. The warriors saw the fresh footprints of the returning Sawe people, and beat the roots within earshot of them to communicate their victory. By giving two bursts of "Hauy‰' y‰' y‰'" they communicated that they had killed two people. This also would have warned them to be on their guard against reprisals. No one from any Orya village would be able to go to the coast until the scores were settled. Naulek, Kanali's wife, jettisoned her bark cloth blanket as she ran, and ironically the small man Kabawa, her own true father, danced on it as he went by. The warriors would also beat the muli when they came within earshot of the home village. The women and children would all come out and join the heros as they danced and sang their way back to the village. The main victory celebration, however, was carried out after at least a month of preparations, since it was not just a celebration of victory, but also carried the function of a male initiation ceremony. This was the first time any of the four men (two pairs of war partners) had killed, so the celebration would mark the most important transition of their lives: that now they were of age, dangerous, able to protect a wife, and therefore more eligible for marriage. At the celebration, the honor of wearing the appropriate nose piece (corresponding to the sex of the victim) was given only to the partner giving the second stab, not to the one who first shot the victim. In this case, Paulus and Tidores became eligible to wear the longer nose piece (mase te).BEGIN ENOTEThe mase te extended on both sides about the width of the face. The mase te that I have seen were made from ivory, perhaps brought into Irian by the Chinese traders. The mleyan, worn to celebrate the killing of a woman, was just about the width of the nose.END ENOTE The hole in the septum had been made when they were still very young, and other decorations had been worn there as they waited to achieve manhood. Other than this victory celebration, there were no other ceremonies performed by the Orya people to mark the transition to manhood. HEADINGB Covering the arrow shaft: Having achieved their purposes, the men of Guay and Klatra were now "one up" on the people of Kaptiau. This means that they were not at peace, which is defined by the Orya as having things 'leveled' out (s‰sekna). Clearly, the scores would have to be 'leveled', because the coastal people, while being the normal target of raids by the Guay men, were also the source of their trading partners, and some were related to them by marriage. The way this 'leveling' was achieved was by giving a girl (free of charge) to them, as we would say, "to bury the hatchet", or, as they would say, 'to cover the arrow shaft' (‰ptyo keikinghip). Oddly enough, my informants tell me that Tauhle, the man who carried the grudge arrow in the first place, was the one that functioned as the go-between while the negotiations were being made. Until Tauhle told the Kaptiau people, they didn't know that Guay was in on the murder of Kanggau. But his duplicity was revealed at the wedding feast, when the men from Guay brought the girl to 'cover the arrow shaft': BEGIN NUMBERED @Set(counter=104) That was so, but then they (the Kaptiau people) accepted Sipora, in order to cover the arrow shaft. And that's why Tauhle was startled when he was eating rice, when they told about him, that is. When they (the delegation from Guay) indicated him [at the feast for giving the bride and making peace] they (the Kaptiau people) said, BEGIN HYPHENS "Oh yeah! So he's the one who gave the arrow! They wouldn't have killed him for nothing." END HYPHENS Tauhle then therefore was startled (scared out of his skin), when he was eating his rice, "Oh-oh, they've just confessed about me!" he thought, when they took Sipora down to the coast in order to cover the arrow shaft, when they gave her to the coastal people. [Tauhle vigorously denied any part of having given the grudge arrow. By casting doubt on what the men from Guay said he succeeded in saving his own life.] So at that time the coastal people found out like this, BEGIN HYPHENS "Oh... It wasn't for nothing that they killed. He's the one who gave the arrow." END HYPHENS Back when they were only mad at Guay [because they hadn't yet found out about Tauhle], the coastal people of course saved a big machete up [in the rafters], in order to split open a Guay man. It was his, Trasin's [Kanggau's son's machete], put aside to split open a Guay person. But when they took Sipora down, the woman to cover the arrow shaft, then they found out, BEGIN HYPHENS "Oh, so it was Tauhle who gave the arrow. No, it wasn't for nothing they killed." END HYPHENS So then they stopped (wanting revenge), and finally Trasin died, what a pity, without killing a Guay person. That big machete was tied up in palm sheathing [sheath from around the nuts], and there it stayed. It had been well sharpened, like a razor, for the purpose of killing a Guay man. So that's the way it has remained until now. The coastal people never did kill a Guay man. Our ancestors had that custom: If a woman is given, then blood can't then be spilled (again). After that they can't again kill someone. Sipora still lives there until now, and she has one daughter. Of course they still want Klatra to give (a woman). The coastal people have of course said like this, BEGIN HYPHENS "Well, they killed two, those two Klatra men (Tahyal and Aulu) cut off two. The Guay men just decorated themselves." [-Because they were the ones to give the second stab. Note that the coastal people understood the same custom.] END HYPHENS So that is why they now still are saying, BEGIN HYPHENS "Oh, if only Klatra would give us a wife, then there wouldn't be anything (to worry about). It could be finished." END HYPHENS END NUMBERED BEGIN NUMBERED @Set(counter=130) So (the anger) for Klatra is still there, so they tell me. That's what I hear. Klatra hasn't yet given a wife to the coastal people. Eventually the coastal people will kill a Klatra man and hide him [so the murder won't be found out]. (I know this) because my mother's ancestor was a coastal woman. So I hear that (the grudge) for Klatra still remains, but for Guay it is really finished, because they gave Sipora to them. So there is no grudge now for Guay. END NUMBERED The normal method of making peace was followed: Arrangements were made for the giving of a girl without bride price. Actually, the debt was not considered paid in full until the woman had a child to take the place of the dead man, which gives significance to the mention of Sipora's daughter (sentence 120). There are other interesting idioms used to refer to the role of the girl given in marriage. In addition to 'submerge the arrow shaft' (aptyo keikinghip, 104, the shaft being the part that could be refitted with a new tip for revenge), there is also submerging the head (nola dikim keikiknuk, 124), and dipping water with the dead man's skull (nolkam de hosa zeisinhip, 128)BEGIN ENOTEAnother method of making peace was to give a peace child (kwisi). This was practiced in cases of severe repeated fighting, in the time before any of the people became Christians. Warriors from an aggrieved group could come to the outskirts of the offending village and shout for satisfaction in the form of a kwisi. The village chiefs would confer, and agree to steal a child from a mother in the village. The child would be given to the aggrieved party, and they would take it deeper into the jungle, kill it, and hide the body. (The Orya people's tradition thus differs from that practiced by the South Coast Sawi people of Irian Jaya.) After that, the aggrieved warriors would enter the offending village, and talk and eat with their former enemies.END ENOTE For the Orya people, the last figure of dipping water pictures the woman giving sago pudding to the aggrieved family. Such a woman was given in marriage to a close relative of the deceased man, in this case to Kanggau's grandson (aza).BEGIN ENOTENormally, the obligation to give a girl fell upon the village of the man giving the first blow. In this case, the men who gave the first blows were both from Klatra, so Klatra should have given two girls. Guay should not have been required to give a girl, since Tidores (from Guay) had only given the second blow to Kanggau. However, since Guay gave a girl to cover the debt that was really Klatra's, Klatra also later gave a girl to Guay, to 'level' scores with Guay.END ENOTE Scores were never settled though for the second murder, and so Pinihas predicts that the Kaptiau people will eventually even up the score with the secret murder of someone from Klatra. (133) The sharpened machete was ready for revenge, and Daminggus was almost the victim, since the people from Kaptiau mistakenly suspected he was from Klatra. Note how important family relationships are in avoiding becoming a victim of retribution: BEGIN NUMBERED @Set(counter=156) Well, after Guay had killed Kanggau and Yonas, then shortly afterwards father (S‰nwal) took us all out (to the coast). But what's his name, Daminggus, Kostan who lives over there, his uncle (obwate), (the coastal people) thought about him, BEGIN HYPHENS "Oh, where is he from?... Oh, where is he from?" END HYPHENS Well, Tomas, a man from Kaptiau who was the first Village Head, a relative of my father, from the coast, he said like that ("Where is he from?"). Oh, I forgot to say, we lived there at Togwal delta; father had us live there, he stayed with us. And then Tomas came. Then he went up to his own village and said, BEGIN HYPHENS "Well if it isn't S‰nwal who has come, bringing his children." END HYPHENS Then they (the coastal people) told him (S‰nwal), BEGIN HYPHENS "What reason do you have to be afraid here? Did a sow scream in birth pangs for you? [Or 'Was your mother a pig?' They said this to refer to the fact that they were related to him.] It was the other part of Guay that killed (our relatives), the upper part of Guay people. It wasn't the people from the lower part of Guay." END HYPHENS But they didn't recognize Daminggus, so right away they asked in the coastal language, BEGIN HYPHENS "And who is this man?" [S‰nwal knew enough of their language to understand that question.] END HYPHENS Father answered, BEGIN HYPHENS "Ha, he, you know, is my relation, my brother in law (sowe), who I brought down with me. [Daminggus was S‰nwal's sowe by extension of the term, as explained below (169).] Others wouldn't want to follow me down here at this time, with the arrow shaft new and all." END HYPHENS So, he (Tomas) went and told Trasin (Kanggau's son, the one who had prepared a machete for revenge), BEGIN HYPHENS "If only it was other Guay people. That's S‰nwal, and he has brought all his younger brothers, even Olka [his true younger brother]. That other guy, his brother in law, accompanied him here, Daminggus. He's the one I didn't recognize, E:pta's brother." END HYPHENS He had supposed him to be a Klatra man, because he didn't know him, so he supposed, BEGIN HYPHENS "A Klatra man has accompanied him here." END HYPHENS This is the reason he suspected like that: Father only married Klatra women, so the coastal people thought, BEGIN HYPHENS "That's probably a Klatra man who followed him here." END HYPHENS He's the only one they wanted to kill, but when they heard up there, when he went up and said, BEGIN HYPHENS "No, that's her younger brother, Olka's wife's younger brother accompanied him here, E:pta's younger brother, Daminggus." [Olka was S‰nwal's younger brother.] END HYPHENS So, after that, many of them came down (repeatedly), and the old ones [those who remembered their family relationship to S‰nwal] talked with father. They told father, BEGIN HYPHENS "Why should you fear? Were you born of a sow? Your ancestor, you know, was a girl from here, a coastal woman." END HYPHENS Daminggus of course was afraid. And again father told him, BEGIN HYPHENS "Go ahead and live with them, they won't do anything to you. Of course it would be a different story if a Klatra man had come here. They can't take you away from me." END HYPHENS That's what he told him when he was afraid. BEGIN HYPHENS "As if my ancestor was an interior woman. My ancestor was a coastal woman." END HYPHENS That's what he told Daminggus, and then he left off being afraid. There we lived a long time, and then we came around here again. After that we lived at Bulop delta [a small stream near Suma], and then we went back (to the coast) to sell meat. When we finished selling, then we came back to Ululum [area near Guay] and lived there. Then Y‰ [S‰nwal's older brother] died, and then we left there. Now the talk is finished. END NUMBERED INCLUDE b:\pinihas2.spr