Getting to Know Papuan Dani Culture
Ditulis pada: June 30, 2021
The Dani tribe is the name for a group of people who live together in the Baliem hill area, Papua island. However, the Dani themselves prefer to call themselves the Parim tribe.
Like other tribes in Indonesia, the Dani culture also adheres to the notion of always paying respect to people who have died. They do this by holding ceremonies and parties and slaughtering pigs. Pork is then cooked or grilled and then eaten together.
Dani
Dani belief adheres to a concept called Atou. This means that all the supernatural powers possessed by the ancestors of the Dani tribe have been handed down from generation to generation to men.
According to the Dani culture, these types of magic include magic to have the power to maintain the garden, magic to be able to treat or cure disease while avoiding it, and magic to give fertility to the land used for farming.
To pay homage to ancestral spirits, the Dani tribe created a symbol for themselves called Kaneka. The function of this Kaneka is to be used or raised when a traditional religious ceremony is being held to make all members of the community prosperous and as a symbol when starting a war and ending it.
Family Relations of the Dani Tribe
The culture of the Dani tribe in carrying out inter-community relations uses a system that is divided into three types of levels of kinship, namely:
1. The smallest family relationship. Includes a group of two to three families living together in a complex enclosed by a fence. This system is called ukul or small clan.
2. The relationship between the Dani tribe in which there are several ukul groups. This relationship is named ukul oak or ukul Besar.
3. Territorial relations, namely the unity of the smallest territory of the Dani tribe. It is a combination of a large ukul named uma. This group is always led by men.
Choosing a Dani Tribe Leader
To always live in harmony and peace by upholding the spirit of togetherness, the Dani tribe creates a kind of organization chaired by a tribal chief. He was chosen from generation to generation and received the nickname Ap Cain.
To carry out his duties, Ap Cain was assisted by three other tribal chiefs under his position. They are nicknamed Ap Menteg, Ap Horeg and Ap Ubaik.
Their job is to take care of the garden and pig farms. In addition, he also acts as a mediator as well as a judge when there is a dispute between the Dani tribe.
Even though they are chosen through heredity, the elected tribal leaders still have to fulfill various conditions.
These include having a high knowledge of agricultural science, being friendly and humble, skilled in hunting, having high guts, being able to communicate well, and having high courage to fight when there is a problem with other tribes.
