island in the ocean of dense forest that surrounds it
(although banana
and breadfruit may be planted within the village).
It is also the realm
of the public; in the village all overt aspects of the individual's
behaviour are on view. Thus who shares food with whom, who co-operates with whom, the way men t r e a t t h e i r wives and the way that women t r e a t t h e i r husbands are a l l the subject of public s c ru ti n y . This contrasts with the garden s e tt in g where i t is more l i k e l y tha t the only other people around are one's closest fri en ds and r e l a t i v e s . Even more stro ngly the v i l l a g e contrasts with the small family gardens and the houses b u i l t in or near them; these have always existed but they are more numerous than formerly was the case, when the danger of raids from enemies was greater.
Many fa m ili e s have a house - or at least hearth space - in more than one v i l l a g e . This appears to have been a more widespread practice before contact and is also more usual among the East Mianmin than i t is among those in the west. Even so i t is not unusual f o r a family to have a main house in the v i l l a g e of the group to which the head of the household is most f i r m l y a f f i l i a t e d and a c c e s s to another, at le a s t, in the v i l l a g e of in-laws or m a tr i k i n . Often the secondary dwelling w i l l be one which the head of the family helped to bu ild. (The p r i n c i p l e of 'one married woman, one hearth' which the East Mianmin espouse (Morren
1974:140) does not appear important among the West Mianmin. Houses th a t are shared by two f a m ili e s f o r part or a l l of the time often simply have bigger hearths than normal; the same applies to the hearths of polygynous households). The extent to which a group's members maintain more than one residence - apart from garden houses - is d i r e c t l y related to the rate and con fi gu ra ti on of exogamous marriages w i t h i n i t (see Chapter Three). Maintaining more than one residence means maintaining gardens in d i f f e r e n t areas and t h i s e n t a i l s investing considerable time away from the settlement to which the head o f the household is p r im a r i l y a f f i l i a t e d , since neighbouring settlements are r a r e l y less than f i v e hours' walk away from one another, and fre quently one or two days. Under such circumstances fa m ili e s decamp f o r months at a time, taking t h e i r possessions with them and shutting up t h e i r houses.
Dual residence seems to be more frequent among the East Mianmin than i t is among the West Mianmin (Morren 1974:204-206). This may be due to the greater density of population found in that area which means th a t a f a m i l y ' s two residences are l i k e l y to be less d i s t a n t , geographically and s o c i a l l y , than they are among the more widely dispersed West Mianmin. Having said t h i s , though, i t should be
emphasised tha t w i t h i n the West Mianmin area there is v a r ia ti o n in the degree to which autonomous re s id e n ti a l groups are isolated from t h e i r neighbours and in the degree to which the group i t s e l f is dispersed over the t e r r i t o r y i t e x p l o i t s . These matters w i l l be dealt with more f u l l y in Chapter Two.
Contact History
The Mianmin have a r e l a t i v e l y short h i s to ry of d i r e c t contact. The East Mianmin came under the control o f the Australian Administration gradually during the nineteen f i f t i e s and the West Mianmin did so in the foll o wi n g decade. However the West Mianmin Census Division was not o f f i c i a l l y declared 'safe ' u n t i l 1972. In th a t year the o f f i c i a l
category, 'Rest rict ed Area', was removed from the statutes and the three areas th a t remained in i t at tha t time ( t e r r i t o r i e s belonging to the West Mianmin, the Biami of the Western Province and the Hewa of the northern fring es east of the Mountain Ok) were opened to unarmed c i v i l i a n s .
The t e r r i t o r i e s of the Mountain Ok were f i r s t entered by Leonard Schultz-Jena in 1910 during his expedition to esta blish whether the Sepik River rose in Dutch or German New Guinea (Poole 1976b:336). Later in 1914 some contact with the Mianmin may have been made by Behrman's expedition to explore the valleys of the Sepik and August. Thurnwald, the exp ed iti o n' s an thro po logis t, entered the Ifitaman and contacted the Telefolmin l i v i n g there (Poole 1976b:337; B. Craig 1969).
The next recorded entry of Europeans i n to Mianmin t e r r i t o r y was by Karius and Champion in 1927. They crossed a cane suspension bridge over the Sepik beneath the Three Pinnacles Mountain. This t e r r i t o r y belongs to a West Mianmin group known as the Kari (Champion 1932: Chap.XIII).
Thereafter there were a few encounters between Mianmin and whites and a l l of them were apparently without any c o n f l i c t . Then in 1939 the epic Hagen-Sepik patrol led by J.L. Taylor and J. Black entered
Mianmin t e r r i t o r y . The patrol did not enter the t e r r i t o r y of any West Mianmin group although members o f the Kari group were involved in the events which took place. However news of these events reached even the most westerly groups and helped to form a view of white men and t h e i r
power which was to play an important part in the course of subsequent co n ta cts .
A f t er resting in the Ifitaman Valley f or several weeks the patrol headed northwards into Mianmin t e r r i t o r y . They camped in the Thurnwald Range in the v al ley of the River San (Taylor 1971:39; Morren 1974:45). Early the following morning the patrol was attacked by a large force of Mianmin warriors. Tayl or 's servant was k i l l e d by an arrow which entered his chest and four other members of the patrol were injured. Morren reports that the Mianmin believed the patrol to be a Telefolmin raiding party. His informants were able to recall t h e i r surprise on seeing the e ff ec ts of the p a t r o l ' s firearms on the flesh of the men shot (1974:45). Morren also reports that the Mianmin on the May River claim that one of the white men l a t e r led a raid on a v i l l a g e in which sixteen Mianmin were shot (1974:46).
In 1938 prospectors had b u i l t a small landing s t r i p in the Ifitaman and during the Second World War t hi s was enlarged by the A l l i e d Forces. A f t e r the war t his s t r i p served the Administration and Telefomin Patrol Post was set up. The years that followed saw the Administration gradually extend i t s influence over the Mountain Ok area. The Mianmin already had a reputation with the Administration f or b e l l o c i s i t y because of t h e i r attack upon the Hagen-Sepik p at r ol . This was compounded by the obvious f ear that t h e i r name inspired among the Telefolmin and Eliptaman residents. Further confirmation came from the discovery that in the eleven years between the Hagen-Sepik patrol and the v i s i t of P.0. Rogers to the Eliptaman Valley in 1949 the Mianmin were said to have k i l l e d 138 of i t s inhabitants and to have taken away and consumed the bodies (West:1950). One w r i t e r of popular accounts of l i f e in Papua New Guinea dubbed the Mianmin the "Kukukukus of the west" in one of his books (Simpson 1953:216). Carriers who refused to accompany patrols planning to enter Mianmin t e r r i t o r y added to the impression the Administration had of them as f i e r c e and
aggressive cannibals.
When Assistant D i s t r i c t O f f i c e r H.H. West mounted the f i r s t large scale patrol into Mianmin t e r r i t o r y he set the tone of Mianmin-
Administration r e la t ions when he removed a g i r l from a Mianmin v i l l a g e who had been taken captive on a raid on the Telefolmin years e a r l i e r
(West 1950). Shortly a f t e r the second patrol into the East Mianmin in 1953, the Telefolmin mounted t h e i r attack on the Administration patrol which resulted in the deaths of Of fi cers Harris and Szarka and two constables. ^
In 1956 a series of events occurred which profoundly affected the e n t i r e area of the West Mianmin although they only took place on i t s eastern margins. In that year two men were k i l l e d by Atbalmins. They had crossed the Sepik to make contact with t h e i r in-laws ( f o r they were married to captured Atbalmin women) believing that
h o s t i l i t i e s had indeed ceased as the Europeans had said.' A r e t a l i a t o r y raid was mounted by both East and West Mianmin which resulted in a number o f Atbalmin deaths. The administration at Telefomin heard o f these events and mounted pat rol s to investigate. Nobody was arrested but i t was emphasised tha t h o s t i l i t i e s should end permanently. Only a few days a f t e r the patrol l e f t them the Mianmin mounted a large attack on the Atbalmins which resulted in some nineteen o f the l a t t e r being k i l l e d and eaten. Exactly what happened next is not e n t i r e l y c lea r to me. C ertainly Assistant D i s t r i c t O f f i c e r Ron N e v il le (who l a t e r became a prominent businessman and p o l i t i c i a n in Papua New Guinea) led a patrol from the fou rth of January to the f i f t h of March 1957 which arrested a number of men of a clan said by the Administration to be called 'Ulapmin'. Morren has i t tha t Neville mounted two pa tro ls which resulted in a number of Mianmin deaths and the a r re s t of 25 men (1974:51). Kari informants say tha t a white kiap
led a patrol to t h e i r settlement and a f t e r some shooting, which l e f t two men and a woman dead or dying, burned down houses and the c u l t temple, destroyed a number of gardens and arrested a number of men.
(I am not concerned with the v e r a c i ty o f these statements so much as with the impact of t h e i r being held to be true on the behaviour of the West Mianmin who e i t h e r took part in the events to which they re la te or heard about them from friends and kin who d id ). The immediate e f f e c t of t h i s episode was to create in the West Mianmin an a t t i t u d e of fear and respect f o r the Administration and white men. Although i t was to be another ten years before many of the groups in the Aki and Tabo valleys were v i s i t e d by the f i r s t p a t r o l s , only one raid was mounted during tha t time. That was a raid on a two family hamlet occupied by isolated Abaus.
Of the twen th-five men arrested fo u r, a l l from East Mianmin groups, were deemed too young to be sent f o r t r i a l and they were sent to the Lutheran Mission in Madang fo r vocational t r a i n i n g . The rest were sentenced to fou r years' imprisonment in Wewak (Morren 1974:51). The detainees returned in 1961 with many fabulous s to r ie s of l i f e in
prison and the coastal town. Some time l a t e r the four young men returned from t h e i r more salubrious - i f no less traumatic - sojourn with the Lutherans. The next few years saw great changes take place in
the East Mianmin area; the western groups learned of these and came to desire them too.
One of those sent to the Lutheran Missionary Society was a remarkable young man by the name of Amusep of the group studied by Morren, the Kome of the Fak Valley. Morren refers to him as a
'prophet' (1974:53). He is c e r t a i n l y a zealous Christian who displayed great i n i t i a t i v e on his return to Fak v all ey. F i r s t he organised the construction of a Bible School and a Church and then set about
providing his group with an a i r s t r i p . "Amusep had selected the s i t e , one o f the few sui ta bl e ones in otherwise rugged t e r r a i n , and the s t r i p i t s e l f was carved out of primary and very old secondary ra in fo r e s t with nothing but simple hand to o ls " (Morren 1974:54). The s t r i p was seen by an Administration patrol whose o f f i c e r assumed th a t i t had been l a i d out and commissioned by the missionaries of the Austra lian Baptist Missionary Society at Telefomin and, upon his re tu rn , reported i t s completion to them. The astonished missionaries inspected the s i t e from the a i r and then landed a plan of the Missionary Avia tion Fellow ship on the s t r i p . This a l l took place in 1966 and ever since planes of the MAF have made regular landings at Mianmin, as the place i s c a ll e d , bringing equipment f o r the school and store and, every month, nurses to s t a f f the c l i n i c there f o r three days. Amusep was made a pastor of the ABMS. He l i v e s in a house b u i l t by the mission and receives a regular wage f o r his services to i t .
Later t h i s highly charismatic f i g u r e made patrols across the watershed to the West Mianmin in order to spread the word and f i n d
r e c r u i t s f o r his school. The West Mianmin were, and s t i l l are, g r e a tl y impressed by Amusep, his s o p hi s tic at io n and knowledge o f the