Kimam

J. Patrick Gray

Frederik-Hendrik Island, Kolepom Island, Kimaam Island, Dolak Island, Yos Sudarso Island

“Kimam” is the name given to the inhabitants of 102-mile-long Yos Sudarso Island, Papua, Indonesia. The island is located between 137.7 to 139.1 degrees east longitude and 7.4 to 8.5 degrees south latitude. It has an area of 4,534 square miles and is separated from mainland New Guinea by the narrow Muli Strait. When Indonesian administration replaced the Dutch in 1963 the name was changed from Frederik-Hendrik to Yos Sudarso Island. Other names for the island include Kolepom, Kimaam, and Dolak. The island’s topography can be visualized as a saucer, with the coastal areas higher than the center of the island. During the rainy season (January to May) water fills the interior of the island and then drains slowly away during the dry season (June to December). The interior is marshy and does not completely dry out between rainy seasons. The predominant vegetation in the interior consists of reeds and rushes. The coasts have broad mangrove belts, and the vegetation in the few areas of the north-east, west and south that remain above water even in the rainy season includes savanna grass and eucalyptus forests.

At the time of Serpenti’s fieldwork (1960-1962), the population of the island was around 7,000, for a population density of about 1.5 persons per square mile, distributed among twenty-five to thirty villages. The island’s population in 2018 was estimated to be around 11,000 people.

The three main languages spoken on the island are members of the Kolopom family of the Non-Austronesian Trans-New Guinea language phylum. Kimaghama is the most widespread, being spoken in villages throughout the island. Riantana is limited to villages in the northwest, while Ndom is spoken in a few villages in the southwest. The languages of Mombum and Konorau are limited to the villages of Wan and Koneraw on the south coast, and the small island of Komolom off Yos Sudarso’s southeast coast. Linguistic differences are not associated with differences in other cultural domains.

Traditional holds that the Kimam left the Digul River region on the mainland to escape headhunting raids. Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz landed on the island in 1623, but permanent missionary and government presence was not established until the 1930s. Both the colonial administration and Catholic missionary activity were centered in the eastern village of Kimaam. The government enacted several schemes to concentrate the population and to suppress traditional practices. Bachelors’ hut ceremonies, and ceremonies used to gather sperm for headhunting and gardening magic, had disappeared by the time of Serpenti’s fieldwork (1960-1962). The government required villages to obtain permission to hold the dances that were part of a competitive feasting tradition associated with mortuary rites, yam magic, and bachelor hut ceremonies. Prior to Dutch pacification headhunting raids between villages on the island occurred, but the Kimam were more frequently victims of raids by the mainland Marind-Amin and Digul River tribes. Cultural traits such as dances and totemic names sometimes diffused from the Marind-Amin to the Kimam.

Settlements on the coast are located on or near a river, while those in the central swamp are usually situated near small lakes providing fishing grounds. Village populations range from less than 100 to over 700 people, with larger villages exhibiting more dry land and less annual flooding. Dwelling-islands contain separate day and night huts, usually located next to one another. Daytime huts are simple shelters with a roof of sago or nipah (Nypa fruticans) leaves and no walls. Night huts (paia) are beehive-shaped, water- and mosquito-proof houses made of sago leaves, rattan, and dried grass. These huts have an upper level used for sleeping and storing food. There is some cultural variation on the island, with villages on the west and south coasts exhibiting different house forms. The government encouraged the Kimam to abandon the paia and by the 1960s this house form had disappeared from most villages. Traditionally, each paburu (village sector) built its own bachelors’ hut (burawa), a bigger paia that required a larger dwelling island. Members of the opposed paburu were not allowed to enter the other paburu’s bachelors’ hut. In larger villages each kwanda (ward) might build its own burawa. The initiation ceremonies requiring bachelors’ huts had disappeared by the 1940s.

Villages are comprised of man-made islands constructed of clay, drift grass, and mud. The basic unit of the village is the patha (dwelling island). The patha may contain a single nuclear family, but usually has several families—most commonly the families of a father and those of one or more sons, or the families of a group of brothers. Each patha is associated with a much larger number of islands used for growing crops. Smaller villages have dozens of these islands, while larger villages may have hundreds. A family may leave a patha by building a new dwelling island. A set of patha linked in this manner form a territorial unit called a kwanda (village ward). The kwanda of a village are grouped in a higher-order territorial unit, the paburu (village sector). Most villages are comprised of two paburu in a ceremonially antagonistic relationship. In larger villages the wards within a paburu may also engage in ceremonial antagonism.

The main root crops are yams, taro, sweet potatoes, cassava, and sweet potatoes. Across most of the island yams are held in the highest esteem due to their role in competitive feasting. Although yams are the highest prestige food item, taro is a more important food source in most villages. In southern villages sweet potatoes replace yams as both a food source and in competitive feasting. Cassava is a recent introduction and has little role in ceremonial life. Trees grown on garden islands include sago, coconut, and banana. Sago is more common on the eastern part of the island, and villages in the west sometimes trade pigs to for sago from eastern villages. Kava, usually called by the Marind name wati, is an important intoxicant present at most social gatherings. Tobacco and areca nut are also grown on the islands. Many swamp plants are eaten. The most important is a fern called mapiè which is ground into a flour that is commonly eaten during periods of scarcity. Organized hunts provide meat in the form of wild boars, kangaroos, and cassowaries. Small animals such as lizards, rats, land snakes, and birds are also eaten. Bird eggs are consumed, as are ant larvae, grasshoppers, and sago grubs. Villages located on tidal rivers use poison to harvest fish throughout the year. Fishing in the interior villages is dictated by the level of the swamp. In the rainy season the fish are too dispersed to make fishing worthwhile, so water snakes are hunted. As the water level lowers over the course of the dry season villagers collect fish with traps and dams. Other aquatic sources of nutrition include turtles, crab, shrimp, and crocodiles. There is fewer than one domesticated pig per household. Serpenti described the food situation as precarious and stated that malnutrition is common. Every five to seven years southern villages experience tidal waves that result in famines, and early arrival of the rainy season may cause famine in interior villages.

The Kimam practice a form of intensive agriculture that consists of planting crops on man-made islands in the swamp. Garden islands are built on foundations of cut reeds covered with layers of clay scooped from the water around the island. Ditches from two to three meters deep are made around the island. Alternating layers of drift grass and clay are added until the island reaches the height appropriate for the crops planted on it. Garden islands are usually less than three meters wide. Additional layers of grass and clay are constantly added to maintain the fertility of the soil and the structural stability of the islands. Gardeners practice crop rotation and may leave islands fallow between planting seasons. Villages that lack enough area for root crops often create gardens of clay layered with compost and sand on higher ridges in the swamp. These gardens may be located hours away from the village by boat.

Plaited mats decorated with root fibers were a common barter item prior to the arrival of the Dutch. Missionaries arranged for these to be sold in the mainland city of Merauke.

The most important manufactured items are wooden dugout canoes. Every adult requires a small canoe used for short trips between dwelling islands and to surrounding garden islands. These are maneuvered by standing upright. They are in constant use and wear out after a year or two. Larger canoes used for travel between villages and from villages to their more distant gardens usually have multiple owners and last longer. Villages without suitable trees for canoes trade sago or European goods for canoes produced by villages having access to such trees. Few ornamental items are produced. Traditionally, adult men wore a small piece of coconut to cover the penis and very old men used only a penis string. Older boys in bachelor huts wore large sea shells over the penis. Adult females wore an apron made of rushes. Plaited rattan anklets and armlets were manufactured, as were ornaments worn through the septum and the ears. Manufacture of hair appendages ceased after the bachelor huts disappeared. Tools manufactured for hunting and fishing include bamboo spears, bows and arrows, and throwing clubs. Nets and dams are used for fishing. Drums are manufactured by men. The Ndom-speaking villages manufactured bullroarers for their initiation ceremonies.

The geographical distribution of sago trees and of trees suitable for canoes determined the shape of intervillage trade. Sago was often traded for canoes and pigs. Plaited mats were also traded between villages. Strings of dog’s teeth and nautilus shells are used a payment in bride-price and in other transactions.

Men are responsible for the construction and maintenance of both garden and dwelling islands, and for the buildings on dwelling islands. Women help in raising the level of dwelling islands by towing drift grass to the site, but men cut the grass up and add it to the island. Only men plant, tend and harvest root crops, as the magic involved in growing these is antithetical to women. Females may assist in harvesting crops such as cassava. Males carry out all rituals necessary for gardening and for curing illness. Men tend islands planted with sago, cut the trees down, and remove the pith. Women then beat the pith to make sago flour. Women gather the mapiѐ ferns and process them into flour. Men cut down trees to make canoes and houses. They also make paddles, eating utensils, tools, and drums. Women make bricks for cooking ovens. They are also responsible for gathering firewood. Only men hunt in organized groups, but women often carry the kill home. Both sexes fish with poison, but males also fish with spears and with bow and arrow, while females use nets, hooks, and fish traps. Women are responsible for catching water snakes. Women have the primary responsibility for cooking and looking after children, but men often assist in both these tasks. Pigs are raised exclusively by women, but only men may kill them.

The village owns the reed marsh surrounding it. Each village sector has rights of disposal over a specific part of the village common area, and all sector members can gather, hunt, fish, or use trees in this parcel. Sector members may claim specific sites by investing labor in the location, but these rights last only while the individual uses the site. Women retain rights in the area owned by their birth sector. The rights to garden islands are held by the village ward, with each ward holding a planting area (paku) that only ward members may enter. Within the paku a man may make a new garden island where he wishes. The gardens a man creates during his life are inherited by his sons, with his eldest son serving as the caretaker for his siblings. When the eldest son dies the gardens are passed to the next oldest member of the sibling set. The gardens are not transferred to the next generation until the last son in the sibling set dies. Women cannot inherit garden islands. The same inheritance rules apply to sago and coconut plantations.

Kinship is not generally traced past the generation of the grandparents. Descent is bilateral. Because village ward and sector identities play the major role in social life, there are few social activities governed solely by kinship ties. The basic kinship grouping consists of sets of real or classificatory siblings (jaeentjewe). The jaeentjewe group of ego’s parents, that of ego’s generation, and of ego’s children’s generation are grouped together as ego’s tjipente. Cooperation between these kin units bridge the antagonistic relationships between village wards and sectors. Adoption is very common. Boys are adopted to tend and inherit garden islands, and to look after their adoptive parents in old age. Girls are often adopted to permit sister-exchange marriages. Marital residence is virilocal.

Kimam kinship terminology is of the Hawaiian type. There are separate terms for eldest sibling and younger siblings. When this criterion of relative age is extended to cousins it reflects actual differences in age, not whether the cousin is the child of the parent’s older or younger sibling. The Ndom speaking villages use an Iroquois terminology for cross-cousins, reflecting the special relationship between mother’s brother – sister’s children in these groups.

The ideal marriage is direct exchange of sisters. Parents may arrange these direct exchange marriages when their children are quite young. If a man has no sister, he must provide a classificatory sister. A woman’s elder brother has an important say in arranging such exchange marriages. Government and missionary demands that individuals have a say in marriage resulted in direct exchange marriages becoming less common, replaced by bride-price marriage. Bride-price marriages also gained popularity because they offered a source of European trade goods. Marriages by elopement did occur, with the bride’s group demanding bride-price or the women’s first-born daughter to satisfy an exchange marriage. Polygyny is accepted but is not frequent. Widowers should preferably take widows for a second wife. For second marriages, no compensation in the form of sister exchange, adoption, or bride-price is necessary. Sororate marriages occur only if both partners are widowed. Levirate marriages are common in some villages.

Kinship ties play a secondary role to group affiliation in determining the pool of marriage partners. Marriages are usually exogamous at the level of the village ward, but endogamous at the level of the village sector. Marriage between first cousins is prohibited, while second and third cousins may marry if they belong to different wards. There is a strong preference for marriages within the village, but smaller villages are often forced to seek mates in other villages. Such inter-village marriages allow all the members one partner’s village sector to claim hospitality and protection in the village sector of his or her spouse, and thus serve an important role in overcoming the mutual hostility of villages. Relationships between affines are characterized by avoidance. The names of affines cannot be spoken, and they cannot address each other directly. Opposite-sex affines cannot share food, as this is equated with sexual activity. In marriages that are not direct exchanges the bride-receiving group is seen as subordinate to the bride-giving group.

The marriage ceremony involved two rituals. The couple was considered married when they shared a porridge cooked by the bride and her relatives from tubers provided by the groom and his relatives. Only the age-mates of the couple attended this joint meal. The more important ritual was a ceremonial exchange of food that was attended only by older people. This ceremony formalized the contract between the bride’s and groom’s groups. By the 1960s all marriage ceremonies were performed by the Catholic Church, with the joint meal occurring directly after wedding. The ceremonial exchange of food was still required to formalize the contract.

The domestic unit consists of the nuclear family, with its own night hut or area in a common house. When two or more families live on the same dwelling island, each has separate huts. Individuals should not enter the hut or storage area of another without permission. Each family has its own fireplace and prepares and eats its own meals. Multi-family dwelling islands usually contain the families of a father and his sons, or of an elder brother and his siblings. Government attempts to relocate villagers into single-family houses were resisted. Houses meant for single families were divided into two family spaces with separate doors and verandahs used exclusively by single families.

The eldest living brother of a sibling set inherits the gardens of his father. The gardens are then inherited by the next oldest brother until the last brother dies, when they are passed on to the next generation. Everyday items made by a person are usually placed in the grave or destroyed. The ceremonial crops and the trees owned by a man are destroyed upon his death. European goods are inherited by sons or daughters.

As girls age they are assigned tasks contributing to the operation of the household. Around the time of first menstruation girls put on the pubic apron for the first time. This is marked by a feast from which men are barred. Mothers instruct their daughters that menstrual blood is harmful to males and to growing crops. Some western villages have menstrual huts, but in other villages a menstruating woman just moves to separate corner of the house. Between the ages of ten to fourteen boys entered the burawa (bachelors’ hut).₁ Boys entered the bachelors’ hut only during the final mortuary feast of a member of their sector. Entering the bachelors’ hut was equated with the boy’s social death. Upon entry the boy was assigned a mentor from the hut’s second grade. The mentor made incisions on the boy’s upper arms, upper legs, and abdomen. These incisions were smeared with sperm frequently during the boy’s stay in the hut. Sperm from men successful in growing ceremonial crops and from men who have taken heads is very powerful and capable of transferring power to others. The mentor provided his betrothed to the older men to “raise” this sperm. After a year or so at the first level, the boy became a mentor to a boy entering the hut for the first time. Boys stayed in the hut for a few years, leaving when they were ready to marry. While in the hut boys were taught the skills necessary for plant cultivation and the magical chants necessary for growing ceremonial crops. They also listened to myths, and tales of headhunting raids. The Ndom speaking villages did not have bachelor huts; initiation revolved around the bull-roarer cult and boys were isolated in a hut only for a few weeks.

Betrothal usually occurred before either partner was sexually mature. The betrothed of boys in the older grades of the bachelors’ hut were used by older men to “raise” sperm to smear on the boys’ lower grade charges. While residing in the burawa (bachelors’ hut) before marriage older boys were expected to have sexual relations with several “sweethearts,” but not with their future wives.

Both husband and wife are placed under a set of taboos once a woman knows she is pregnant. These taboos are meant to protect the child from both sorcery and from the magic used to grow ceremonial crops. Childhood is marked by a series of feasts displaying stages of growth to independence. The feasts involve the display and distribution of food, and some of them can only be conducted as part of the final mortuary feast for a deceased member of the ward or sector. After each feast some of taboos on the parents and the child are lifted. Women bear the main responsibility for childcare, although men do help. Children accompany their parents everywhere from an early age. There is no systematic training in any sphere of activity. No pressure is exerted on children to learn subsistence activities. Techniques such as plaiting mats, setting out bait, or planting non-ceremonial crops may be explained haphazardly, but most activities are learned by observation and imitation. Serpenti describes childhood as “extremely permissive,” noting that parents do not try to compel children to contribute to the household. Children are not beaten and Kimam parents are reluctant to send children to village schools because teachers do use corporal punishment.

The basic social unit is the dwelling island (patha). Several dwelling islands are grouped into village wards (kwanda). The wards are mobilized for projects that require more labor than can be mobilized by a single patha (e.g., creating garden islands, making large canoes, organized hunting or fishing). Wards are grouped into two ceremonially-opposed village sectors (paburu). The two sectors may cooperate during organized fishing and hunting. Each sector requires the cooperation of the other during the important ceremonial occasions of entry into the bachelors’ hut, mortuary rituals, and competitive feasts (ndambu). Sectors also compete in the building of large canoes, in dances, and in wrestling bouts. Competitions between sectors frequently result in physical violence. There is no territorial unit above the level of the village. Government resettlement schemes lessened the importance of the patha and kwanda in social life, but the dualistic relationship between paburu remained strong in the new villages.

Political power consists of the ability to mobilize men for competitive feasts. A man’s success in growing ceremonial crops is due to his control of garden magic. A man with powerful magic gains followers by providing medicine for other cultivators, eventually gaining the status of great cultivator (warrewundu). These individuals determine the times for planting, for magical rituals, and for harvesting. The distribution of food and wati (kava) at feasts is their hands. Their opinion on nonagricultural matters carries great weight in their sector. They also act as spokesmen for their group in conflicts with other groups. A warrewundu seeking to increase his prestige may mobilize men who have received magic from him to challenge the warrewundu of another local group to ndambu (competitive feasting). This path to influence is closed to women because of the danger they present to ceremonial crops, and to younger men who rarely possess the agricultural skills necessary to successfully grow ndambu crops. A man may study under a warrewundu, but attaining the status depends upon his own gardening successes. Men who have successfully taken a trophy in headhunting raids are also held in high esteem.

Each village tends to view other villages as hostile. There is great fear of the sorcery of other villages. Villages close to one another may establish peaceful relations through barter and marriage exchanges. Other villages might alternate between headhunting expeditions and competitive feasting. Often, children of headhunters were exchanged to ensure the peace between villages. Men usually did not travel outside their own village in small groups for fear of encountering headhunters. Village sectors may experience conflict over sorcery accusations, elopements, and adultery. These may be settled by dancing, wrestling, hunting, or ndambu (feasting) competitions, as well as physical force.

There is little information on traditional Kimam religion. The culture hero Kuruamma was an extremely tall man who could shed his skin like a snake. Death originated from the destruction of his skin by his wives. He established the institutions of mortuary rituals and competitive feasts, and he discovered the underworld (wètewutu) where all humans go when they die. A second culture hero, Adjeriga, is associated with taro planting, and established the practice headhunting. The aga are supernatural beings who appear in a vision to men seeking to become warrewundu (possessor of gardening magic). The vision shows the aspirant a location to search for a physical manifestation of the spirit. This manifestation is the source of his gardening magic.

The most important religious practitioners are the possessors of garden magic (warrewundu) who provide magic for their followers. Sorcerers (undani) are responsible for both healing and killing people. Deaths are usually attributed to sorcerers of the opposite village sector. Men with the strongest garden magic often have reputations as the most powerful sorcerers.

The ceremonial life of the Kimam centers on three principles. The first is that the planting of yams is equated with the burial of a person whose rebirth, in the form of a yam, occurs at the time of the harvest. The second principle is the cooperative ceremonial antagonism between social units, especially the village sectors. The third principle is that a sector’s well-being is demonstrated by its success in competitive feasting (ndambu). Competitive feasts are held for many reasons. The most important is as part of mortuary rites between the component sectors of the village. The ability to display and distribute food to the opposite sector demonstrates a sector’s continued health in the face of death (often believed to have been caused by sorcerers given the food). The fact that several rituals marking transitions in childhood and some of the bachelors’ huts rituals can only be conducted in conjunction with mortuary rituals conveys the same message. Ndambu also may be held to resolve conflicts between groups over food theft, adultery, or wife-stealing. The warrewundu (master cultivators) of opposite sectors may challenge each other to increase their standing in the community. At the feast ceremonial crops are displayed and the largest specimens are measured, with the measurements being announced. Success is judged by the size of the yams and taro on display, and by the quality of food and wati distributed. When a ndambu results from a challenge, the parties try to equalize the food distributed so that the contest is considered closed. If the challenged group does not match the contribution of its challenger, it loses prestige. Most ndambu feature dance competitions. There is some cultural variation on the island. In villages on sandy beaches sweet potatoes replace yams and taro as the main food for display. In Ndom-speaking villages ceremonial crops are only displayed and measured, not given to the opposing party.

There is little plastic art on Kimam aside from plaited mats and ornaments. Drums are made by men. Large canoes were painted and decorated with croton leaves. Body painting is an important art, with boys wearing different color patterns to mark their transition through the bachelors’ hut.

Most serious illnesses and deaths are the result of sorcery or from contact with powerful garden magic. Less serious diseases are treated by bleeding or burning. If the ailment is persistent a sorcerer (undani) specializing in the disease may be consulted. In serious cases the undani will identify the sorcerer responsible and attempt to remove the spell by having the patient drink a mixture of sperm and coconut milk. Sperm was considered to have healing power. When epidemics occurred, sorcerers and other influential men selected women to “raise” sperm that was then coated on poles placed at village entrances and smeared on village members. The custom of young girls engaging in serial intercourse with older men to “raise” sperm to combat epidemics, prior to head-hunting raids, and for sperm-smearing in bachelors’ hut ceremonies resulted in a high rate of venereal diseases that rapidly declined when the practice ceased.

Except for the very young and very old, death is caused by sorcery, usually from another village. Death occurs when the vital essence ([n]rimètje[/n)] leaves the body. After death an immaterial component of the person (wèwe) can bring death or illness to others. The Kimam greatly fear the newly dead, who wish to have the company of their closest contacts with them in death. The body is removed from the house as soon as possible and kinsmen avoid the house throughout the mourning period. Mourners cover their entire body with mud and wear mourning hoods for a period of up to eighteen months. The dead can be buried only by the men from the opposite village sector. Adults are buried in their canoes on their dwelling island. A coconut is placed at the corpse’s feet to trap the wèwe as it dissipates from the body. The coconut is used later used by a sorcerer to determine the identity of the sorcerer responsible for the death. After a burial the village is placed under a series of restrictions (e.g. no fishing, no loud noises, no dancing) that are lifted piecemeal as the various feasts in the mortuary cycle occur. As the corpse decomposes an immaterial component of the body conceptualized as heat or vibration diffuses from the burial island to nearby islands, closing the gardens. At the time of the final mortuary ceremony all the gardens of the paburu (village sector) may be under restriction. These restrictions are removed after the final ceremony. A third immaterial component of the person (numba-numba) is conceptualized as a white shadow that continues to exist after death. The numba-numba travels to the place of the afterlife, the wètewutu. The afterlife is located at the bottom of a deep hole in the earth where food is freely available and dancing occurs. After the numba-numba has completed its journey, the men who buried the corpse open the grave, clean the bones, and anoint them with coconut oil. After reburial the grave is levelled so that it is no longer visible.

The culture summary was written by J. Patrick Gray in September, 2019.

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