Dani People
Encyclopedia
Lani (ethnic group)
The Lani are an indigenous people in Western New Guinea, usually labelled 'Western Dani' by foreign missionaries, or grouped—inaccurately—with the Dani people who inhabit the Baliem Valley to the east.-Etymology:...
group to the west, are a people from the central highlands of western New Guinea
Western New Guinea
West Papua informally refers to the Indonesian western half of the island of New Guinea and other smaller islands to its west. The region is officially administered as two provinces: Papua and West Papua. The eastern half of New Guinea is Papua New Guinea.The population of approximately 3 million...
(the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n province of Papua
Papua (Indonesian province)
Papua comprises most of the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands. Its capital is Jayapura. It's the largest and easternmost province of Indonesia. The province originally covered the entire western half of New Guinea...
).
They are one of the most populous tribes in the highlands, and are found spread out through the highlands. The Dani are one of the most well-known ethnic groups in Papua, due to the small numbers of tourists who visit the Baliem Valley area where they predominate. "Ndani" is the name given to the Baliem Valley
Baliem Valley
The Baliem Valley, also spelled Balim Valley and sometimes known as the Grand Valley, of the highlands of Western New Guinea, is occupied by the Dani people. The main town in the valley is Wamena...
people by the Moni people, and, while they don't call themselves Dani, they have been known as such since the 1926 Smithsonian Institution-Dutch Colonial Government expedition to New Guinea under Matthew Stirling
Matthew Stirling
Matthew Williams Stirling was an American ethnologist, archaeologist and later an administrator at several scientific institutions in the field...
who visited the Moni.
Language
Linguists identify at least four sub-groupings of Dani languagesDani languages
The Dani languages are a family of clearly related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Dani and related peoples in the highlands of Irian Jaya. Foley considers their TNG status to be established. They may be most closely related to the languages of Paniai Lakes, but this is not yet clear...
:
- Lower-Grand Valley Dani (20,000 speakers)
- Mid-Grand Valley Dani (50,000 speakers)
- Upper-Grand Valley Dani (20,000 speakers)
- and the Lani or Western Dani (180,000 speakers)
The Dani languages
Dani languages
The Dani languages are a family of clearly related Trans–New Guinea languages spoken by the Dani and related peoples in the highlands of Irian Jaya. Foley considers their TNG status to be established. They may be most closely related to the languages of Paniai Lakes, but this is not yet clear...
differentiate only two basic colours, mili for cool/dark shades such as blue, green, and black, and mola for warm/light colours such as red, yellow, and white. This trait makes it an interesting field of research for language psychologists, e.g. Eleanor Rosch
Eleanor Rosch
Eleanor Rosch is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in cognitive psychology and primarily known for her work on categorization, in particular her prototype theory, which has profoundly influenced the field of cognitive psychology...
, eager to know whether there is a link between way of thought and language.
First contact
A small fringe group of the Dani, living south of Puncak TrikoraPuncak Trikora
Puncak Trikora, until 1963 Wilhelmina Peak, is a 4730 or high mountain in the Papua province of Indonesia on New Guinea. It lies in the eastern part of the Sudirman Range of the Maoke Mountains. Behind Puncak Jaya at , it is either the second or third highest mountain on the island of New Guinea...
and presenting themselves as the Pesegem and the Horip tribes, were met on October 29, 1909, by the Second South New Guinea Expedition led by Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz
Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz
Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz was a Dutch explorer in New Guinea and diplomat in South Africa....
, who stayed several nights in their village. First contact with the populous Western Dani was made in October 1920 during the Central New Guinea Expedition
Central New Guinea Expedition
The Central New Guinea Expedition was a Dutch scientific expedition which was seeking from the north coast of the island to reach snow-covered Wilhelminatop of the Central Plateau of Dutch New Guinea...
, which group of explorers stayed for six weeks with them at their farms in the upper Swart River Valley (now Toli Valley). The Grand Valley Dani were only sighted in the summer of 1938 from an airplane by Richard Archbold
Richard Archbold
Richard Archbold was an American zoologist and philanthropist. He was independently wealthy, being the grandson of the capitalist John Dustin Archbold. He was educated at private schools and later attended classes at Columbia University though he never graduated...
.
Culture
Sweet potatoes are important in their local cultureCulture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, being the most important tool used in barter
Barter
Barter is a method of exchange by which goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral, and usually exists parallel to monetary systems in most developed countries, though to a...
ing, especially in dowries
Dowry
A dowry is the money, goods, or estate that a woman brings forth to the marriage. It contrasts with bride price, which is paid to the bride's parents, and dower, which is property settled on the bride herself by the groom at the time of marriage. The same culture may simultaneously practice both...
. Likewise pigs feast
Meal
A meal is an instance of eating, specifically one that takes place at a specific time and includes specific, prepared food.Meals occur primarily at homes, restaurants, and cafeterias, but may occur anywhere. Regular meals occur on a daily basis, typically several times a day...
s are extremely important to celebrate events communally; the success of a feast, and that of a village "Big Man" (man of influence) or organiser, is often gauged by the number of pigs slaughtered.
The Dani use an earth oven
Earth oven
An earth oven or cooking pit is one of the most simple and long-used cooking structures . At its simplest, an earth oven is simply a pit in the ground used to trap heat and bake, smoke, or steam food...
method of cooking pig and their staple crops such as sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
, banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
, and cassava
Cassava
Cassava , also called yuca or manioc, a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae native to South America, is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates...
. They heat some stones in a fire until they are extremely hot, then wrap cuts of meat and pieces of sweet potato or banana inside banana leaves. The food package is then lowered into a pit which has been lined with some of the hot stones described above, the remaining hot stones are then placed on top, and the pit is covered in grass and a cover to keep steam in. After a couple of hours pit is opened and the food removed and eaten. Pigs are too valuable to be served regularly, and are reserved for special occasions only.
Ritual small-scale warfare between rival villages is integral to traditional Dani culture, with much time spent preparing weapons, engaging in both mock and real battle, and treating any resulting injuries. Typically the emphasis in battle is to insult the enemy and wound or kill token victims, as opposed to capturing territory or property or vanquishing the enemy village. The Dani practiced cannibalism
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
well into the 20th century, as documented by missionaries who were invited to witness tribe members dismembering the body of an enemy slain in battle the day before as the fallen warrior's kin watched from a nearby hilltop.
Changes in the Dani way of life over the past half century are tied to the encroachment of modernity and globalization, despite tourist brochures describing trekking in the highlands with people from the 'stone age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
'. Observers have noted that pro-independence and anti-Indonesian sentiment tends to run higher in highland areas than for other areas of Papua. There are cases of abuses where Dani and other Papuans have been shot and/or imprisoned trying to raise the flag of West Papua
Flag of West Papua
The Morning Star flag was a flag used in a supplemental fashion on Netherlands New Guinea to the Flag of the Netherlands...
, the Morning Star.
Ethnographic studies
In 1961, as a member of the Harvard-Peabody study, filmmaker Robert Gardner began recording the Dani of the Baliem River Valley. In 1965, he created the film Dead BirdsDead Birds (1965 film)
Dead Birds is a 1964 documentary film by Robert Gardner about the Dani people of New Guinea. It was produced as part of the Harvard-Peabody Expedition to study the highlands of New Guinea, at that time one of the only remaining areas in the world uncolonized by Europeans.The film has been selected...
from this experience. Gardner emphasizes the themes of death and people-as-birds in Dani culture. "Dead birds" or "dead men" are terms the Dani use for the weapons and ornaments taken from the enemy during battle (wim). These trophies are displayed during the two day dance of victory (edai) after an enemy is killed.
Michael Rockefeller
Michael Rockefeller
Michael Clark Rockefeller , was the youngest son of New York Governor Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Todhunter Rockefeller and a fourth generation member of the Rockefeller family...
, son of former Vice-President of the United States Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, was a member of the Harvard-Peabody study and involved in the production of Dead Birds. While conducting further research on the Asmat people
Asmat people
The Asmat are an ethnic group of New Guinea, residing in the Papua province of Indonesia. Possessing one of the most well-known and vibrant woodcarving traditions in the Pacific, their art is sought by collectors worldwide...
elsewhere in New Guinea, Michael Rockefeller disappeared. His body was never found.
Further reading
- Gardner, Robert. (1968). Gardens of War: Life and Death in the New Guinea Stone Age. New York: Random House.
- Heider, Karl G. (1970). The Dugum Dani: A Papuan Culture in the Highlands of West New Guinea. Aldine Publishing.
- Heider, Karl G. (1996). Grand Valley Dani: Peaceful Warriors (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology). Wadsworth Publishing (3rd ed.).
- Matthiessen, Peter. (1962). Under the Mountain Wall: A Chronicle of Two Seasons in Stone Age New Guinea. Viking Press. ISBN 9780140252705
- Monbiot, George. (1989). Poisoned Arrows: An Investigative Journey Through Indonesia. Abacus ISBN 0-7181-3153-3
- Zuckoff, Mitchell. (2011). Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II. Harper ISBN 978-0061988349