Tsembaga__Cultural_Introduction,_Political_Life,_And_Compari

Tsembaga: Cultural Introduction, Political Life, And Comparison With Montenegro The book “Pigs For the Ancestors” by Roy A. Rappaport is a study of Tsembaga, a group of approximately two hundred Maring-speaking people living in the Madang District of the Australian-administered Territory of New Guinea. This fieldwork has taken place from October 1962 to December 1963. The amount of contacts with Europeans at the time of study was slight (Rappaport 8). The Tsembaga occupy an area slightly more than three square miles; the land is very mountainous and, for the most part, is heavily forested. Tsembaga are “bush-following horticulturalists”, some of their staples are taro, yam, sweet potato, manioc, and some other greens. Pig husbandry, hunting, trapping, and gathering also play a part in Tsembaga life. The tools used by Tsembaga for gardening include the digging stick, the steel ax, and the “bushknife”. Bows and arrows, spears, axes, and wooden shields are used in hunting and warfare (Rappaport 13). Rituals play extremely important role in Tsembaga’s life. They help to protect people from the possible parasitism and competition of their pigs, to allocate people over land, to regulate the frequency of warfare, to ease the severity of intergroup fighting, and facilitate the exchange of goods and personnel between local groups tsembaga, clan, rappaport, groups, clans, one, however, land, although, very, territory, men, members, garden, fighting, each, divided, both, three, same, local, group, between, women, vengeance, subclan, structure, political, people, part, marriage, man, male, important, enemy