people of the jungles from down under
talking with the anchesters : the soul healing power of ginger

man of the Huli-people in Papua Neuguinea

The old man raises his voice, raspy at first, unmelodic and as if he weren't quite sure what he had to say yet, faltering and breaking off and trying again. Sometimes it seems as if joy and courage are driving him forward, at other times it seems as if great pain is choking his throat. What he says hesitantly, in a rising and falling singsong, sounds understandable, although I don't understand the language, babbling as if a small child were telling:
"It's pidgin English! " says our local guide in a not exactly much better understandable standard English." This is how the English and German missionaries in the north of Papua New Guinea spoke to their dark-skinned protégés. Here in the highlands, in every village, in every secluded side valley, there is a language that is completely independent of one another. You only understand your own clan language. That is why Pidgin was introduced as a common language without grammatical hurdles“
Of course we knew that and are equipped with a gibberish dictionary with pictorial symbols. We leafed through it with a bit of a smile: Laplap, for example, stands for towel; Piece of cloth (the German colonizers must have called out to their boys: Take the rag to clean! You have now heard: the rag!! The repetition of what was desired resulted in an uncomprehending lap lap), lickklick= small for little, little stick or trousers for one of turnip-shaped and hollow garment worn by the men, with which they had to cover their strictest nakedness at least when going to church ("no entry without trousers!!")
Because the missionaries classified their apparently lagging behind in terms of civilization as also being mentally retarded, the language tries to use a " to adapt to a child's level of babble.
The old man feels misunderstood and has now stopped singing. Our interpreter explains: “The old man lost his even older father more than three years ago. His wife just got sick of malaria six months ago. Both weigh heavily on him. But since the men all live together in the men's house and as a boy you are almost exclusively raised by the old male villagers, the bond with your father and your mother's brother is particularly strong and goes so far that you eat some parts of the deceased men , so that they live on in the individual members, internalized by the community. It is particularly important here to open the skull of the deceased, which was heated while the meat was being grilled, the brain as the seat of consciousness with banana, mashed sweet potatoes, Mix ginger and coconut juice and eat together. In this non-literate society, one thinks that the knowledge of the ancients will be preserved. The coconut corresponds to the human skull and at a time when head hunting is forbidden, it must also partially replace it. Here in the highlands, however, nobody cares, since the police and military need days to walk through the jungle from the capital Port Moresby to here. In order to calm the spirits of two hostile villages internally, there is anyway the possibility of making amends by paying reparations in the form of bred pigs. where headhunting is prohibited, also partially replace it. Here in the highlands, however, nobody cares, since the police and military need days to walk through the jungle from the capital Port Moresby to here. In order to calm the spirits of two hostile villages internally, there is anyway the possibility of making amends by paying reparations in the form of bred pigs. where headhunting is prohibited, also partially replace it. Here in the highlands, however, nobody cares, since the police and military need days to walk through the jungle from the capital Port Moresby to here. In order to calm the spirits of two hostile villages internally, there is anyway the possibility of making amends by paying reparations in the form of bred pigs.
The old man has meanwhile taken a human skull out of a cleft in the vertically rising rock. A closer look reveals several others, all painted with red ocher in strange patterns. He clutches his skull tightly to his chest, rocking and humming softly, almost like a woman singing a lullaby to her child.
Whenever a tear rolls down his sparse beard, he pauses and almost bashfully wipes it away with the back of his hand. Nevertheless, men do cry here.
For some other skulls, a small house was built on sturdy stilts. In addition to the skull, we discover tobacco leaves, an old ballpoint pen, some paper and a few roots of ginger.
"Ginger is very valuable here and doesn't thrive very well at this altitude," explains the local guide. "The taste here is pungent and bitter, but it warms the body in this cool climate. They want to do something good for the dead and bring them valuable gifts. In this way one hopes to continue to receive the advice of the deceased wise old ones in the dreams.
But you get the ginger from the little “bird” house again, because….:
The tubers have heard the loving and counseling words of the dead that can no longer be said. But the ginger root can pass on the unspoken. If you take them, they warm our breasts, like the words of loved ones, at first sharp and painful. But soon a warm feeling of happiness flows through us; this clears our minds and then invigorates our bodies. In this way, the deceased play a part in what we do.

Because there is no heating in our House of Cultures in Diedorf in winter, there is always a little fresh candied ginger ready for our guests.... not so spicy, from controlled local cultivation: made in Thailand.
The old man raises his voice, raspy at first, unmelodic and as if he weren't quite sure what he had to say yet, faltering and breaking off and trying again. Sometimes it seems as if joy and courage are driving him forward, at other times it seems as if great pain is choking his throat. What he says hesitantly, in a rising and falling singsong, sounds understandable, although I don't understand the language, babbling as if a small child were telling:
"It's pidgin English! " says our local guide in a not exactly much better understandable standard English." This is how the English and German missionaries in the north of Papua New Guinea spoke to their dark-skinned protégés. Here in the highlands, in every village, in every secluded side valley, there is a language that is completely independent of one another. You only understand your own clan language. That is why Pidgin was introduced as a common language without grammatical hurdles“
Of course we knew that and are equipped with a gibberish dictionary with pictorial symbols. We leafed through it with a bit of a smile: Laplap, for example, stands for towel; Piece of cloth (the German colonizers must have called out to their boys: Take the rag to clean! You have now heard: the rag!! The repetition of what was desired resulted in an uncomprehending lap lap), lickklick= small for little, little stick or trousers for one of turnip-shaped and hollow garment worn by the men, with which they had to cover their strictest nakedness at least when going to church ("no entry without trousers!!")
Because the missionaries classified their apparently lagging behind in terms of civilization as also being mentally retarded, the language tries to use a " to adapt to a child's level of babble.
The old man feels misunderstood and has now stopped singing. Our interpreter explains: “The old man lost his even older father more than three years ago. His wife just got sick of malaria six months ago. Both weigh heavily on him. But since the men all live together in the men's house and as a boy you are almost exclusively raised by the old male villagers, the bond with your father and your mother's brother is particularly strong and goes so far that you eat some parts of the deceased men , so that they live on in the individual members, internalized by the community. It is particularly important here to open the skull of the deceased, which was heated while the meat was being grilled, the brain as the seat of consciousness with banana, mashed sweet potatoes, Mix ginger and coconut juice and eat together. In this non-literate society, one thinks that the knowledge of the ancients will be preserved. The coconut corresponds to the human skull and at a time when head hunting is forbidden, it must also partially replace it. Here in the highlands, however, nobody cares, since the police and military need days to walk through the jungle from the capital Port Moresby to here. In order to calm the spirits of two hostile villages internally, there is anyway the possibility of making amends by paying reparations in the form of bred pigs. where headhunting is prohibited, also partially replace it. Here in the highlands, however, nobody cares, since the police and military need days to walk through the jungle from the capital Port Moresby to here. In order to calm the spirits of two hostile villages internally, there is anyway the possibility of making amends by paying reparations in the form of bred pigs. where headhunting is prohibited, also partially replace it. Here in the highlands, however, nobody cares, since the police and military need days to walk through the jungle from the capital Port Moresby to here. In order to calm the spirits of two hostile villages internally, there is anyway the possibility of making amends by paying reparations in the form of bred pigs.
The old man has meanwhile taken a human skull out of a cleft in the vertically rising rock. A closer look reveals several others, all painted with red ocher in strange patterns. He clutches his skull tightly to his chest, rocking and humming softly, almost like a woman singing a lullaby to her child.
Whenever a tear rolls down his sparse beard, he pauses and almost bashfully wipes it away with the back of his hand. Nevertheless, men do cry here.
For some other skulls, a small house was built on sturdy stilts. In addition to the skull, we discover tobacco leaves, an old ballpoint pen, some paper and a few roots of ginger.
"Ginger is very valuable here and doesn't thrive very well at this altitude," explains the local guide. "The taste here is pungent and bitter, but it warms the body in this cool climate. They want to do something good for the dead and bring them valuable gifts. In this way one hopes to continue to receive the advice of the deceased wise old ones in the dreams.
But you get the ginger from the little “bird” house again, because….:
The tubers have heard the loving and counseling words of the dead that can no longer be said. But the ginger root can pass on the unspoken. If you take them, they warm our breasts, like the words of loved ones, at first sharp and painful. But soon a warm feeling of happiness flows through us; this clears our minds and then invigorates our bodies. In this way, the deceased play a part in what we do.Because there is no heating in our House of Cultures in Diedorf in winter, there is always a little fresh candied ginger ready for our guests.... not so spicy, from controlled local cultivation: made in Thailand.

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Haus der Kulturen michael stöhr aus Diedorf

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