Contemporary Traditional Asmat Culture, Part 1"Who are the Asmat?"

By: Analine HernandezJanuary 24, 2012-Period: 5

Culture and geography

 

The Asmat are an indigenous hunter gatherer culture in West Papua, Indonesia.

 

West Papua is about 1/2 of a very large island just north of Australia in the South Pacific Ocean.

 

The traditional Asmat are one of the hunter gatherer cultures in the world.

 

One tradition of the Asmat is the piercing of the septum of the nose.

 

Another tradition of the Asmat is painting their faces and body for both ceremony and war.

 

Traditional Asmat culture is truly cool because they have people carved out of wood.

 

Sadly though, deforestation, colonization, and assimilation are deeply affecting the Asmat.

 

Irreversibly, this is the ending of one of earth's last traditional hunter gatherer cultures. The modern world is taking over the Asmat.