Dinner with cannibal: confession about food people and offer to sell a daughter for 4 pigs

Today I go to the jungle with women to catch spiders, grasshoppers, frogs and beetles! We will catch everything that moves. I dive into the jungle behind the hostess and can barely film what she catches. It’s a spider, it’s a perennial grasshopper … Check dry leaves, stumps. And everything is kept in your bag. If she finds edible leaves, she takes them too, but the whole company wouldn’t have enough to eat, so together with her husband she chops down a tree and collects inhuman beetles, larvae and pupae that live there, which look like from the movie “Alien against a predator”. Everything will travel to your stomach with delight. A child with dripping saliva helps to sort the beetles, that is, he twists his hard legs and mustache. At night, the family returns to feeding on today’s catch, and this time I’m just watching.

At night, we all sat by the campfire and communicated with the help of a magician. The locals talk about their only animals: dogs and pigs. Dogs help to hunt and pigs are slaughtered only on special occasions. They are donated during weddings or used for special rituals. The price of the bride – 4 pigs. The magician translated what the host asked me to do. It turns out that he offered me his daughter as a second wife for about 2,000 euros (the value of four pigs). I considered this offer cheap, but declined. The biggest investments are after marriage.

I noticed that her daughters were smiling at me strangely all day, I noticed it at night, looking at the photos, but I did not understand the purpose. Women here marry early, usually just after menstruation. Men lead a little later, up to twenty. After the wedding, the girl is already considered an adult woman. They try to educate their children, tell them about the balance of nature, its meaning, health, sexuality, pass on their knowledge about the world around them.

The next day we go with another family from the Korovai family, we are going to invite her to a party. A short hike through the jungle with a very painful bite on my hand, and I’m already a guest. I tried not to touch, scratch, or cry, so my hand started to feel numb after 5 minutes.

The log cabin in another town is even taller than my family’s. I overlooked it, I admired it. There live two men and a very muscular woman. Despite the breasts, the body looks like a man.

Korovay builds tree houses up to 15m high to defend himself. In the past, this was important because other clans kidnapped women and children as slaves or cannibals instead of food. The raised house protects against evil spirits that inhabit the earth. Also, the house upstairs has fewer insects and less rain.

They build huts on the trunks of the felled trees with additional supports. The floors are made of boards, the walls are made of soft sago the bark of the trees, the roof of palm fronds and all the knots tied with rattan vines. The ladder is made of carved bamboo. If the house wears out, it will not be repaired.

In general, the cabin serves as long as they degrade the surrounding environment, that is, it cuts sago trees to feed, catch beasts, etc. Later they move to other areas and build a new house. Before building a house in a new place, the Korovians perform rituals to drive out evil spirits.
As my last night approaches, the inhabitants of both towns gather in the tribe and say goodbye while dancing. The women finish making skirts and the entire Korean community sits by the campfire and prepares the food. I help them prepare sago flour and worms. Offering food to each other also makes the other family take away. Everything is very friendly and community. I noticed how they like to eat worms. If a pancake without a worm is offered, he declines, and if it has a worm, he happily puts it in his mouth.

2006 an Australian television channel of the 60 Minutes tribe filmed the film. A couple of days after filming, a tribal representative approached them and told them that their 6-year-old nephew is considered a witch and is in danger of being eaten by cannibals. The film crew refused to help, but after a while they changed their minds and decided to get the boy out of the area. However, the Indonesian authorities prohibited them from interfering. To prevent the film crew from taking the girl away, they lied about visa problems and sent her from the jungle to the big city. There are sources that claim that tribes practice cannibalism to this day, but anthropologists suspect that families in contact with the outside world do not.

In the past, clans have been in conflict with each other over robbery, murder, or evil spells. The ritual of cannibalism evolved as a form of revenge and punishment for evil shamans. The defendants were killed, body parts divided into an entire clan and eaten.

Men are now responsible for the safety of families and try not to conflict because the Indonesian authorities have prohibited fighting through violence, fearing that cannibalism will resurface.
At night, with the help of a magician, I asked the host if he had practiced cannibalism. The host replied that he had practiced, but his children had not. The broader speeches did not go down and my question of what human taste did not answer.

We have to say goodbye to the tribe this morning. Gift my t-shirt. A necklace of pig’s teeth is in my hands. When nature leaves, we cry. Of course I cried when I got there … Same way back and an hour by boat to the next less disgusting town …

The new town is fun. There is a school here and there is a boardwalk, so there is no need to traverse the land. Before dark, I overlook the area and watch the boats sail towards the dock. Parents with children return from fishing, that is, those who have not caught anything. Some reach out for firewood, others to fish, shoot birds, or empty nets.

The next day I sail back to Dekai City for seven hours. On the way downstream, we stop at an old woman. She caught and sold three big fish for dinner. The next morning I am faced with a new problem. On the way to the airport, a road full of people, felled trees, is on fire, riots are taking place. There are many soldiers and police everywhere. The magician told them to stand up so the soldiers could see that there was a tourist in the truck, only then could they continue driving.

Anyway, the officials did not clear the road and managed to get out, but when they reached the airport, the problem did not end. There is no plane. He had to fly from another town, but did not arrive due to the unrest. Three hours later the plane appeared and I successfully ascended to the sky, looking out the window and recounting the indelible impressions I experienced on the Korovian tribe.

After descending, I learned that serious protests and riots had started across the western island of Papua. The rioters burned many buildings, including the government palace. The protesters were unhappy with the authorities and demanded the independence of Papua. It was on this day that Indonesia’s independence from the Dutch was celebrated, so I was able to watch the school parades in the big city. The country’s government disconnected the Internet a few days later and dispatched troops to western Papua cities. I finished my expedition just in time!

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