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In the modern world, there is a great number of communities and tribes whose beliefs, customs and traditions seem strange, unusual and sometimes cruel to us. Such tribes exist in spite of technological progress and globalization and neglect almost all creature comforts.
In this piece of writing I am going to talk about the aboriginal community whose representatives are called arboreal people. It’s the community of Korowai, one of the most uncivilized tribes of the 21st century.
The Korowai tribe lives in the forests of Papua New Guinea and is totally isolated from the outside world. Today their population numbers 3000. Korowai cannot boast longevity because the average duration of their lives is just 30 years only.
The tribe members look like small monkeylike creatures, though they are named the most brutal community. It is due to the fact that the whole community is extremely warlike and hardy. They have a warrior cult. The best warriors are mummified after death.
Korowai do not wear any clothes, so they are almost always naked. Only on special occasions they may wear G-strings.
The tribe can eat only larvae and worms for many weeks without losing their physical strength. But their main food is fern palms. Frogs and lizards are their delicacies.
It cannot help being mentioned that Korowai are former cannibals. The tribe not only ate their members and strangers, but also used to sacrifice the most beautiful young girls to their Gods in such a way. Nowadays no one can say for sure whether they really eradicated that man-eating tradition or not.
Korowai’s houses in the trees resemble small children’s huts, but the Korowai believe that these houses defend them from wizards, who could find them if they lived on the ground. Their tree houses also save them from predators and other tribes’ attacks. Inside each house there is a man’s half and a woman and children’s half. Strangers are allowed to sleep only on a woman’s half. Hence, there are two hearths. There are no furniture and utensils in their homes. A small hole in the floor serves as a lavatory.
If someone dies in the house, Korowai move to another hut. And the dead body is given to wild animals. But if the departed was someone’s dear, men cut their earlobe slightly and women do the same with their phalanx in memory of this person.
Korowai domesticate wild pigs, which can be viewed as their sacred animals. The most fascinating fact that is worth being mentioned is that Korowai women breast-feed small piglets. It is a must for each representative of a tribe to own a wild pig, which takes the role of a guard, a carrier and a living toy. If someone steals a wild pig they are immediately sentenced to death. Wild pigs are also used as their currency, it is even possible to exchange a wife to pig.
All women in the tribe are common, but men are allowed to have sexual relations with them only once in a year, so such notion as family ties are unknown in the community.
According to the community’s believes the world can be divided into four parts:
The first part is the so-called public world where people, animals and spirits live.
The second part resembles public world, but it is dedicated only for souls.
The third part is the world with “big waters” where gigantic fish swim. And finally the fourth part is the world for the sun, the moon, the sky and the stars. Korowai claim that life exists only thanks to the interaction of these four worlds.
In conclusion I would like to say that the existence of such extraordinary and remote from the civilization communities proves the diversity of the world we live in and our inability to cognize it the length and breadth to a full extent.
