Huli people
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (January 2012) |
 Huli wigman, Papua New Guinea | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Over 250,000[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Southern Highlands districts of Tari, Koroba, Margaraima and Komo, Papua New Guinea. | |
| Languages | |
| Huli language, Tok Pisin, English | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional beliefs, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Indigenous Papuan peoples of West Papua and Papua New Guinea, other |
The Huli are an indigenous people who live in the Hela Province of Papua New Guinea. They speak primarily Huli and Tok Pisin; many also speak some of the surrounding languages, and some also speak English. They are one of the largest cultural groups in Papua New Guinea, numbering over 250,000 people (based on the population of Hela of 249,449 at the time of the 2011 national census).[1]
The Huli people are a short, stocky and muscular people with varying shades of brown skin, coarse, tightly bound black hair and brown eyes. There is also a small percentage of red-heads with very light brown skin.
The Huli personality is characterized by a tendency to be very proud, strong, self-assertive and very individualistic, yet modest, religious and community-minded. They regard their culture as being superior to that of their neighbors, though they do borrow cultural elements from them. The Huli are keenly aware of their history and folk-lore as evidenced in their knowledge of family genealogy and traditions. Unlike many other Highland peoples, they have not relinquished much of their cultural expressions to the new and innovative ways of the colonizers and outsiders who settled to live among them in 1951.
They live in the Tagari River basin and on the slopes of the surrounding mountain ranges at an altitude of about 1,600 meters above sea level. The Huli live in a land of perpetual Spring where it rains seven out of ten days and where the temperature ranges from eighty degrees F. during the day to forty-five F. during the night. Occasional frosts do blanket the valley and sometimes destroy the people's mounded gardens.
The Huli landscape consists of patches of primary forests, reed-covered marshes, kunai grasslands, scrub brush, and mounded gardens traversed by rivers, small streams and man-made ditches which serve as drainage canals, boundary markers, walking paths, and defensive fortifications.
The Huli are a Warrior Tribe
In the era before the Australian administration, when warfare between clans was the dominant orientation of Huli Society, war disputes precipitated approximately twelve percent of all compensation cases. Most boys dreamed of becoming great warriors and prepared themselves for that role from the age of twelve, when they first learned to use a bow and arrow. They were obligated to defend their clan unit during warfare with the black palm bow they received upon completion of the first stage of the Tege Pulu initiation rite. The name of the Tege Pulu rite itself signifies warfare or defense since it is derived from Tege which means "to pull a bowstring." The initiated boys then entered the Haroli bachelor cult which trained them in endurance, strength and courage during battle. The parade of initiated bachelors carrying a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other, symbolizes the importance of warfare in Huli society.
The Tege Pulu initiates and young bachelors were instructed in the Huli philosophy of war which maintains that revenge is the obligatory counteraction to breaches of norms. Such breaches demand the infliction of greater damage than received, through poisoning, sorcery and warfare. They were also trained in the manufacture of Huli weaponry: axe, bow, six types of arrows, bark shield and fighting pick.
The young men fought in war parties comprised of the war initiator, his clan unit, and allies from other clan units and clans. The war parties announced a state of war before they began their offensive with the phrase: "he went carrying a fighting bag". This phrase signifies that the men are preparing for war and instructs all women and children to flee with their pigs to friendly clan units. All normal activity ceases as the men discuss their plan of attack and individually perform arrow sorcery to ensure that their arrows hit the target. The war parties engage during the day under the informal direction of a famous warrior by exchanging volleys of arrows at a distance of about fifty to one hundred yards. They also infiltrate enemy lines by traveling through the long deep ditches that crisscross the terrain in order to attack the enemy with fighting picks, axes, or arrows.
Ten to one hundred warriors engage in minor wars that last only a few days and result in few deaths. Major wars last several months, involve two hundred to one thousand warriors and result in many deaths. The most common causes for both major and minor wars are revenge for killings, unpaid indemnities, and pig thefts. Minor wars also break out over adultery, rape, land disputes, and trespassing. Minor wars often flare up into major wars if both parties enlist many allies.
Wars used to be terminated by mutual agreement, by the disbanding of one or both forces or the intervention of neutral parties. Nowadays, wars are rare, and when they do occur the government intervenes before they become major wars. The Tari District police station calls the "riot squad" from Mendi which enforces peace, usually by instilling fear into the people by burning their gardens and houses and killing their pigs if they become involved in the fighting. The government law forbids men to carry any form of weaponry on public roads, in the main towns, or on public property (market places and churches.)
War related deaths and injuries must be indemnified in the same manner as peace-time murder and accidental injuries. The war initiator is responsible for making compensation in the form of pigs to allies who kill an enemy; to allies who sustain battle injuries; to clan unit victims wounded by the enemy and to the kin of a dead clan unit warrior and to the clan unit of the dead enemy. Indemnity is only paid to the enemy when both sides inflict the same number of deaths, although the war initiator's clan units often exchange thirty to forty pigs to "make the war sleep." These pigs are killed and eaten at separate mortuary feasts.
History
There is every indication the Huli have lived in their region for many thousands of years and recount lengthy oral histories relating to individuals and their clans. They were extensive travellers (predominantly for trade) in both the highlands and lowlands surrounding their homeland, particularly to the south. The Huli were not known to Europeans until November 1934, when at least fifty of them were killed by the Fox brothers, two adventurers unsuccessfully looking for gold who had just parted with the more famous explorers Mick and Dan Leahy.[2]
Notable Huli
References
- ^ a b "Papua New Guinea National Population and Housing Census 2011: Final figures", Port Moresby PNG National Statistical Office 2014
- ^ Chris Ballard, "La Fabrique de l'histoire", in Isabelle Merle and Michel Naepels, Les Rivages du temps: Histoire et anthropologie du Pacifique, Paris: L'Harmattan, « Cahiers du Pacifique Sud contemporain », 2003, pp. 111-34.
Sources
- Lomas, G.C.J. (1998). "The Huli People of Papua New Guinea: A study in sociolinguistic change". Retrieved 2006-06-22.
- Allen, M.R. (1967) Male Cults and Secret Initiations in Melanesia. Cambridge University Press, New York.
- Frankel, S. (1980) "I am a Dying Man: Pathology of Pollution," Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 4, pp. 95–117.
- Glasse, R. (1974) "Masks of Venery: Symbols of Sex Antagonism in the Papua New Guinea Highlands," Homme 14:2, pp. 79–86; 1968; The Huli of Papua, Mouton and Company, Paris.
- Hage, P. and F. Harary. (1981) "Pollution Beliefs in Highland New Guinea," Man 16, pp. 367–375.
- Lomas, G.C.J. (1998). Huli People of Papua New Guinea
- Meshanko, R. (1985) The Gospel Amongst the Huli, Master's Dissertation, Washington Theological Union, Washington, DC.
- Teske, G. (1978) "Christianizing the Sangai," Point 2, pp. 71–102.
- Sébastien Cazaudehore,[1] La tourmente du Serpent, Editions Vega, 2021 ISBN 978-2381350097.
- ^ "La tourmente du Serpent". 29 March 2021.