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HomeNuméros120-121Dossier : Ethnoécologie en OcéanieInside – Outside

Dossier : Ethnoécologie en Océanie

Inside – Outside

Sawos – Iatmul relations reconsidered
Christin Kocher Schmid
p. 113-127

Abstracts

Most anthropologists consider Sawos and Iatmul people living in the Sepik plain of Papua New Guinea to constitute two different cultural-linguistic groups with Sawos being subject to Iatmul economic and cultural dominance. Using an ethnoecological model it can be demonstrated that Iatmul and Sawos are an organic unity successfully adapted to a difficult, instable but resource-rich environment. They constitute two facets of the same culture; the Sawos villages are safe and hidden amongst the swamps on the safe inside while Iatmul villages perch on the exposed river banks on the dangerous outside. Sawos and Iatmul not only trustingly share their food with each other but also crucial raw materials, artefacts, and ceremonies. Extending this model, Iatmul villages can be seen as forts guarding the access to the sago resources of the inland, that is to the Sawos villages, while at the same time they guarantee the Sawos access to the resources of the open river. The bulk of the data on which this article is based were collected in 1972-4 by members of the Basel Sepik expedition and hitherto only published in German.

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References

Bibliographical reference

Christin Kocher Schmid, “Inside – Outside”Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 120-121 | 2005, 113-127.

Electronic reference

Christin Kocher Schmid, “Inside – Outside”Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 120-121 | Année 2005, Online since 27 November 2008, connection on 29 March 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/430; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/jso.430

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About the author

Christin Kocher Schmid

Department of Oceania, Museum der Kulturen Basel, Christin.Kocher@gmx.net

By this author

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Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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