Beyond Paint

and Feathers

Author: Eric Carmen Publisher: Ryan Publishing 1997

By Martha Waradin

BEYOND Paint and Feathers is not, as stated by the author in his pref ace, an academic work nor is it for the academic scholar searching for answers to satisfy their intellectual minds.

It is a book however, that is written in a simplistic or text book manner that anyone who has an appetite for curiosity about other people’s cultures, beliefs and tradi tions can easily digest.

Beyond Paint and Feathers is a collec tion of data gathered over a number of years in the 1980 s (1981-1986, 1989).

It is based on the beliefs and accounts of incidents that are an integral part of the lives of the people of the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea.

Professor Eric Carmen does not only attempt to narrate through this book the beliefs and practices of a particular group of people but has made clear distinctions between certain words and terms used to describe an incident or situation.

This has created an interesting, colour ful and sometimes bizarre picture of peo ple who though living the lifestyle of the 20th century, still very much practice what their forefathers did before them.

For instance, though words like sangu ma and posin (pidgin for poison) both refer generally to sorcery, one form differs from the other.

An act of sanguma is said to have taken place when the victim shows signs of phys ical assault set on him by the sanguma man.

The victim either dies immediately or after a few days. There are various versions I

of what actually takes place with sanguma.

In the West Sepik, they believe that either a poison arrow or sago palm needles are inserted into various parts

of the victim’s body causing agonising death.

Posin, the other form of sorcery, is claimed to have occurred when someone takes a piece of the victim’s personal item, like hair, cigarette butt, finger nails or left over of whatever the victim has eaten, and casts a spell on it. The victim dies through some type of magical process.

The belief in sorcery is such that the vil lagers often deny themselves the necessary western medication or proper hospital treatment to cure them of treatable illness es.

Often curable illnesses, such as diar rhoea or malaria, are ignored by people believing it is the work of some form of sorcery, witchcraft or the spirit world. This results in the villagers turning to village healers or contact with the spirit world to

help them.

Contact with the spirit world is sought when the healers believe that it is “sik bilong pies” (sick of the village).

This is believed to be caused by the spirit world and not by a human being through sorcery, posin or witchcraft. The illness is thought to come about because the victim must have done something wrong to upset the spirit world.

The spirits could be of a dead ancestor or a masalai. Masalais are spirits believed to inhabit forests, rivers or any forbidden place, but not worshipped.

When the reason for the illness is estab lished, peace offerings are made and par dons sought. ■