Dead Birds
This movie is about a tribe on the island of Papa New Guinea. They are called the Dani. This tribe lives in the middle of the island. Near their enemy, another near by tribe. They live in little huts made from mud and wood.
There tribe consists of about twenty to thirty people. If you are a man your day starts out by going to your tower, checking to see if the enemy is going to attack today then, signaling with smoke from a fire if it is ok for the others to start working in there gardens. While these men watch for their enemy they will keep busy by weaving bands decorated with shells and fur for the decoration of the dead. Another job that men do is they break up the soil and help out with the gardening. The young men are also the front line in battles. Women are responsible for most of the gardening.
They also gather banana leaves for soaking up the brine to make salt and preparing food. Children have jobs also, they tend their pigs on the frontier and frequently gather with other children there size and play fight and grow pretend gardens.
The Dani, greatly believe in magic and practice it daily. For instance, no one will come out after dark because they are afraid of the unhappy ghosts will bring them bad luck. They also believe that when you die, you just die and become a ghost.
This is explained by a story they tell about a race between a bird and a snake. Because of these unlucky ghosts, the Dani and other surrounding tribes are at a constant state of war. They are relentlessly trying to avenge a tribal member's death by killing a person from the opposing tribe.
These tribes have rules for battle, they can't attack at night because of the ghosts, and they don't begin the physical assault until the other tribe is ready. These battles can go on for hours at a time. When a death or serious injury is finally avenged, the two tribes will departure back to their homes to celebrate.
If your tribe is the one that has killed one of their men, a happy celebration will occur and members will gather and talk about how brave they were. They might also hold a ceremonial feast in the coming days that consists of killing pigs and cooking them in a large pits, ceremonial dances and stories. On the other hand if one of your members dies they will be placed on a chair and the body will be displayed during mourning. While mourning, members will decorate the deceased with woven bands. Once this ceremony is over, they will give the bands to people that were closed to the deceased. Then lay the deceased in a fire to be cremated.
Women close to the lost loved one will get their fingers cut off to remind them of he deceased and sometimes, mark themselves with yellow clay.
This is a very brief paper describing an extremely interesting tribe.They are a self-sufficient group of people that have very interesting beliefs. They live an incredibly different way of life. They have lived this way for hundreds of years and they will most likely live this way for years to come.
