Traditional pig butchery by the Yali people of West Papua (Irian Jaya) : an ethnographic and archaeozoological example

Abstract

Studies of traditional methods of animal slaughter, food preparation, and consumption offer archaeozoologists an excellent opportunity to study the link between human behaviour and the resulting bone assemblage. Numerous actualistic studies of butchery have been carried out by archaeologists using stone tools, often especially manufactured by the researchers (e.g. Schick & Toth 1993; Laroulandie 2000). In other instances, traditional butchery practices have been documented, but in most cases the artefacts used were metal. Examples come from the Nunamiut of Alaska (Binford 1981), the Bedouin herders of Israel (Klenck 1995), the Peul cattle herders of Mali (Chenal- Velardé 1996), the !Kung hunter-gatherers of Botswana (Yellen 1977), and semi-urban, urban and village communities from Algeria, France, and Sudan respectively (Chaix & Sidi Maamar 1992). Similarly, for a range of different communities, traditional food preparation and consumption practices have been documented and in many instances the resulting food residues examined (e.g. Brain 1969; Yellen 1977; Binford 1981; Gifford-Gonzalez 1989; Oliver J. 1993). In 1989, the opportunity was taken to document traditional butchery, cooking and consumption of a domestic pig by the Yali people of West Papua (or Irian Jaya). Since this community continues to use traditional artefacts made of stone and organic materials, it may offer a good analogue for the study of prehistoric butchery practices. According to the most recent suvrey available, the Yali population comprises c.30,000 people (Silzer & Clouse 1991) who inhabit the eastern part of the well-known Baliem valley of west Papua. They primarily inhabit the Jayawijaya mountains of the central highlands at an altitude of between 1000 and 2000 m (Koch 1968: 85) although some Yali villages can be found at lower altitudes, down to 200 m, in the southern part of the distribution of the group (Boissière 1999: 55). Like many populations living in the mountainous regions of the island, the Yali are subsistence farmers who cultivate sweet potatoes, yam, taro, plantains, manioc, and sugarcane, and raise pigs, the latter serving a central function in their religious and social life (Koch 1968; Zöllner 1977; Boissière 1999). The men hunt small mammals and birds in the surrounding rainforests, while children and women complete their protein requirements by gathering invertebrates, fruits, mushrooms, and other plants.