Education
The Dani are well known because of the excitement that accompanied the discovery of their complex culture, terraced gardens, and densely populated communities in the mountainous region previously thought to be uninhibited.
Although Europeans has been aware of the existence of the islands of New Guinea since the mid 1500s, knowledge was confined to the coastal fringes.
In 1938, Richard Archbold, an American pilot and also adventurer was circling the world on a flying boat. As he flew over the Baliem area, he spotted from the air the valley’s tracts of symmetrical gardens and circular dwellings.
From the point of view of the outside world Archbold had ‘discovered’ a group of tens of thousands of people called the Dani. Excitement over this New Guinea discovery was intense and the press dubbed the valley “Shangri La.” In the early 1960s, Harvard University organized a large expedition to the region.
The outside world may not have known of the Baliem valley, but people have settled there and cultivated gardens for at least 7,000 years.
Often describe as a Stone Age culture, the people today live much as they did thousands of years ago. Their expert gardening skills are now helped by steel rather than stone tools, but their daily behavior, families and villages carry on almost as they always have.
For food staple, the Dani rely on root crops such as the sweet potato, introduced about 300 years ago, and the indigenous taro, which women cultivate in gardens in the valley floor and mountainsides.
Women also raise pig, which men strategically exchange to promote their status, and to strengthen their political alliance. People identify themselves by membership in a totemic clan. In the past, clans groups into multi layered political units, and large scale pre contact war dominated political activities.
Dani people of New Guinea
- Unrest And Conflict In Southern Thailand
Separatist violence in the Malay-Muslim provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, and Patani is not new, with a history that goes back nearly half a century. The conflict in Southern Thailand has roots in Thailand’s 1902 annexation of the Malay Kingdom of Patani...
- Brief History Of Diamond
Diamond is a strange and wonderful material. It has been known since the most ancient times. The first significant diamond mining centers in the world were in India. It is recorded that the first men to know diamonds, the Dravidians of India, found them...
- The Meaning Of Culture
As anthropologist use the term, culture is the way of life shared by a group of people. It is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture what makes people similar to one...
- Curry Powder In History
Curry powder is a mixture of spices of widely varying composition based on South Asian cuisine. It is a mixture of coriander, cumin and mustard seeds; red and black pepper; fenugreek and turmeric with possible additions of cinnamon and cloves and cardamoms....
- History Of Coffee Until 1600
The word of coffee is probably derived form the former Kingdom of Kaffa. Coffee originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia. Either the Ethiopian province of Kaffa in Ethiopia’s southwestern highlands or the plateaus of central Ethiopia is likely...
Education
Dani people of New Guinea
The Dani are well known because of the excitement that accompanied the discovery of their complex culture, terraced gardens, and densely populated communities in the mountainous region previously thought to be uninhibited.
Although Europeans has been aware of the existence of the islands of New Guinea since the mid 1500s, knowledge was confined to the coastal fringes.
In 1938, Richard Archbold, an American pilot and also adventurer was circling the world on a flying boat. As he flew over the Baliem area, he spotted from the air the valley’s tracts of symmetrical gardens and circular dwellings.
From the point of view of the outside world Archbold had ‘discovered’ a group of tens of thousands of people called the Dani. Excitement over this New Guinea discovery was intense and the press dubbed the valley “Shangri La.” In the early 1960s, Harvard University organized a large expedition to the region.
The outside world may not have known of the Baliem valley, but people have settled there and cultivated gardens for at least 7,000 years.
Often describe as a Stone Age culture, the people today live much as they did thousands of years ago. Their expert gardening skills are now helped by steel rather than stone tools, but their daily behavior, families and villages carry on almost as they always have.
For food staple, the Dani rely on root crops such as the sweet potato, introduced about 300 years ago, and the indigenous taro, which women cultivate in gardens in the valley floor and mountainsides.
Women also raise pig, which men strategically exchange to promote their status, and to strengthen their political alliance. People identify themselves by membership in a totemic clan. In the past, clans groups into multi layered political units, and large scale pre contact war dominated political activities.
Dani people of New Guinea
- Unrest And Conflict In Southern Thailand
Separatist violence in the Malay-Muslim provinces of Yala, Narathiwat, and Patani is not new, with a history that goes back nearly half a century. The conflict in Southern Thailand has roots in Thailand’s 1902 annexation of the Malay Kingdom of Patani...
- Brief History Of Diamond
Diamond is a strange and wonderful material. It has been known since the most ancient times. The first significant diamond mining centers in the world were in India. It is recorded that the first men to know diamonds, the Dravidians of India, found them...
- The Meaning Of Culture
As anthropologist use the term, culture is the way of life shared by a group of people. It is the collective programming of the human mind that distinguishes the members of one human group from those of another. Culture what makes people similar to one...
- Curry Powder In History
Curry powder is a mixture of spices of widely varying composition based on South Asian cuisine. It is a mixture of coriander, cumin and mustard seeds; red and black pepper; fenugreek and turmeric with possible additions of cinnamon and cloves and cardamoms....
- History Of Coffee Until 1600
The word of coffee is probably derived form the former Kingdom of Kaffa. Coffee originated on the plateaus of central Ethiopia. Either the Ethiopian province of Kaffa in Ethiopia’s southwestern highlands or the plateaus of central Ethiopia is likely...