4 - Warfare, alliance, and compensation

Summary

‘We would stop fighting only when we were all tired and heavily wounded. A big-man would stand up and speak of the marriages between the groups involved. So we would decide to exchange cooked pig-meat and make peace.’

Ongka, a big-man of Kawelka Mandembo clan

THE GENERAL STRUCTURE OF WARFARE RELATIONS

Anthropologists have often written of the importance of warfare in New Guinea Highlands societies before their pacification by Europeans, and from these writings one gains the impression that Highlanders are excitable, proud, and physically aggressive men. Barnes (1962: 6) has contrasted African and New Guinea societies in these terms, suggesting that in New Guinea there is a greater stress on individual prowess in killing and less emphasis on traditional alliances between segmentary groups.

There is much truth in this picture, yet it needs correcting in a number of ways. In the first place, it is scarcely possible to make a block contrast between Africa and New Guinea in terms of male aggressiveness. An emphasis on personal strength is, in fact, common in acephalous, segmentary societies throughout the world. Evans-Pritchard (1940) for example, speaks of the Nuer as proud, independent men, quick to fight if they were offended cr their interests were threatened.

Second, the stress on warlike prowess varies in intensity throughout the Highlands. It is very strong in some of the fringe Highlands societies and in Central Highland societies of West Irian (e.g. the Hewa, Steadman n.d., and the Mbogoga Ndani, Ploeg 1965).