Kombai people

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The Kombai are a Melanesian tribal people from the Indonesian province of Papua in western New Guinea. The Kombai have become prominent to the outside world primarily because of their traditional tree house dwellings, which often reach heights of over 20 meters. They live adjacent to the Korowai people, who also live in treehouses, and have some similar cultural practices. The two ethnic groups do interact, although as they speak different languages, mutual intelligibility is sometimes problematic.

A television series on on the Travel Channel (U.S.) entitled "Living with the Kombai" was shown in January 2007. In the series, two men traveled to Papua and spent several months living with an extended Kombai family. Their adventures included hunting for a large lizard and wild pig (not a captive pig, see religion section), and fishing by constructing a rudimentary dam on a stream. They also helped chop down large trees with a stone axe, made sago from the Sago Palm tree, and also using its fibers to build a treehouse nearly 80 feet off the ground.

The subsistence patterns of the Kombai people are somewhat related to th/ose of the Asmat people on the southwest coast of Papua, although the Kombai are ethnolinguistically very distinct.

[edit] Religion

Occasionnaly, they may sacrifice a pig (A most sacred animal, only usually used to settle disputes between tribes and family). To do this, they tie the pigs legs together, and take it to a river side. They shoot it with arrows, [utmost caution and respect for a quick death is utilized.], before mentioning the three elements; Fire, Water and Air. They then skin the animal, scrape the fat and offer this fat to their god, Rafufu. Women aren't allowed to watch this entire procedure; it will render the sacrifice useless, and will need to be done again without women watching. Another rule of sacrifice is that no one is allowed to bathe in that very river for the next two days, as Rafufu will be drinking the spilt blood of the pig, and is said to absorb the passion it produces.