1. Contemporary Traditional Asmat Culture, Part
1
Who Are The Asmat?
By: Ismerai Garcia, 1-24-11,
Culture And Geography

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

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

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

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

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

7. Asmat body masks are full-length costumes
made of plaited cordage composed of rattan,
bark, and sago leaf fiber.

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

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