Religon and Customs of The Dani Tribe

   The Dani tribe, of the Balieum Valley, based their actions around their belief in the ghosts of the recent dead as well as water and land spirits. They believed that these ghosts wreaked havoc on the tribe, causing bad luck, sickness, disaster, as well as future misfortunes. They kept these ghosts away from their land by wearing mud masks during a recent death to scare the ghosts away or by building small houses in which they would lure the ghosts into in order to keep them away from the tribe, preventing any harm or damage.

      The Dani tribe's practices though changed in the 1950s when the Western Dani region experienced a nativistic cargo cult-like movements that swept ahead of the Christian missionary advance. These movements had no effect on the more conservative Grand Valley Dani, but recently in the 1990s, many Dani are practicing Christianity. Although they accepted Christianity many of ceremonies they still incline to culture old derived by their fathers. Dani believe in rekwasi. All religious ceremony accompanied by a singing, dance and offerings against their fathers.

    During the time of the war, ceremonies became frequent. Battles themselves were seen as ceremonies directed at eliminating the ghosts. There were also ceremonies celebrating the death of an enemy or funerals for people killed by the enemy. At the cremation ceremony for someone killed in battle, one or two fingers of several girls would be chopped off as sacrifices to the ghost of the dead person. Men occasionally chopped off their own fingers or cut off the tips of their ear. (Today, the practice has been prohibited – but many women are left as a living example of a long time tradition.)These actions were signs of personal sacrifice and mourning. Funeral ceremonies as well as wedding ceremonies continued after the main event. Both were concluded in the great pig feast held every four to six years, in which the entire alliance participated.     

     The Pig Feast, one of the main festivals in Dani culture, is held for many important occasions where one or more pigs will be slaughtered and then prepared and cooked in a traditional earth oven. The whole village and neighbors and guests are invited. The ceremony last almost an entire day and ends in sitting and talking until late in the afternoon. Sometimes tourists get an invitation, but it is also possible to arrange a (paid) Pig Feast, where traditional dances, mock-war are also shown. The Dani people will then wear their traditional clothes and paintings.Throughout the compound, all are dressed in traditional costume. The men wear koteka and the women dress in grass skirts. The men's faces are painted; beautiful headdresses made of exotic feathers adorn their heads.

   The Dani also believe that their fate was determined by a race between a snake and a bird as seen in Anthropologist Robert Gardner films in 1964 called Dead Birds. The Dani have a legend about a race between a bird and a snake. The race in the document was to determine the lives of human beings. Should men shed their skins and live forever like snakes, or die like birds? The bird won the race, dictating that man must die.This relates to the tribe’s belief in their Ataikin, their thought of a seed like soul, and seeds keep the birds alive. (In 1961, as a member of the Harvard-Peabody study, filmmaker Robert Gardner began recording the Dani of the Baliem River Valley. In 1965, he created the film Dead Birds from this experience.)
 
      Other aspects of the Dani's culture:

• The Dani had no art beyond decorations on arrow points and personal ornaments of furs, feathers, and shells..
•  They too had no internal medicine, but they did rub rough leaves on their forehead to relieve headaches. For serious battle wounds, they draw blood from chest and arms. Until the recent introduction of malaria and venereal diseases they were quite healthy.



If somebody dies, Dani women color their body with mud.  



Dani women have their finger segments cut for deceased relatives.

               

Manna Communication
             April 17, 2011,  The Dani people of West Papua, Electronic Document. 
                  http://mannaismayaadventure.com/2011/04/17/dani-people/, accessed November 5