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Geb out and cleaned off the
barnacles with digging sticks and
stone axes. The men then sexually
assaulted Geb and treated his
wounds with their seed. That night
the first banana grew from Geb’s
neck. People came from all around
to try the new fruit, which had the
secret name of Kandéwa. A banana
déma has lived near a deep pool at
Kondo ever since.
A myth of the Mahu-zé phratry
goes on to relate how the banana
déma Wangai and Warungai
attended a feast at Sangar. It hadTHE DÉMA
Skulls decorate the tomb of a
headhunter warrior in a longhouse
in New Guinea. Headhunters believed
the skulls contained a sacred force that
would enable their déma to multiply.been organized by the déma
Wokabu to celebrate the first pig
hunt. It was customary on such
occasions for guests to take gifts of
the new fruit. At this pig feast,
Wokabu’s wife Sangon ate so much
she repeatedly had to defecate. Her
feces formed the first sago palm,
which became a staple foodstuff and
a totem of the Geb-ze phratry.
Meanwhile, Geb was still a
prisoner. After being assaulted for
the second time, he decided to
escape. He climbed up to the sky
on a yam tendril and became the
moon—the spots on the moon are
his wounds, and the other marks
ringworm. As both a red-skinned
man imprisoned in the west, and a
white-skinned boy trapped in the
east, Geb unites the opposite
powers of sun and moon in the
figure of one dualistic déma.Uaba and Ualiwamb
Geb and Piakor’s son, the fire-
déma, Uaba, is also the sun
incarnate. When Uaba was to be
initiated into the Mayo cult at
Kondo, he brought with him a
young woman, Ualiwamb (also
called Kanis-iwag, Betel Woman),
to take part in the otiv-bombari, aKondo and spent all his time
fishing. He stayed so long in the
sea that his body became covered
with barnacles. One day, two
women of marriageable age came
along the beach. Geb was so
ashamed of his body that he hid in
the sand. When the women saw
him, they told some men, who dugEverything comes
from the déma. That is
the way the Marind see
it when they refer to the
déma as the originators
of all things.
Jan van BaalUS_310-315_Dema.indd 314 21/12/2017 12:06
315
sexually promiscuous ritual that
formed part of the Mayo ritual.
However, before the ceremony got
underway, Ualiwamb ran away.
Pursuing her westward, Uaba
eventually reached the coast, where
he saw her enter a hut with a large
amount of sago. He waited until
nightfall and then followed her.
The next morning, groans were
heard coming from the hut, and
Uaba and Ualiwamb were found
locked in sexual intercourse, unable
to separate. The people put them
on a stretcher and carried them
back to Kondo, preceded by the
déma Rugarug-évai, who laughed
and scoffed at them all the way.
When they arrived at Kondo,
Uaba managed to kill Rugarug-
évai, but he still could not free
himself from Ualiwamb.
Meanwhile, Aramemb had been
searching for Uaba ever since he
had set off to find Ualiwamb. When
he came to Kondo, he entered the
hut where Uaba and Ualiwamb lay
entangled, and seized Uaba in an
attempt to shake or twist him free.
The friction sparked the first fire
(rapa), which shot out of Ualiwamb.
As the flames erupted around
her, she gave birth to the firstcassowary and the first stork,
whose feathers were singed
black by the flames.
Fanned by the monsoon winds,
the primal fire spread, creating a
broad beach on the coast, valleys
that became riverbeds inland,
and many natural features in the
landscape. The fire also caused
animals to flee into the sea, but
the lobster was scorched by the
flames and turned red.
In some versions of the myth,
the cassowary déma, Dawi, tried
to beat out the fire with its hunting
club, an attempt that led to a
piece of land covered in coconuts
breaking away and being caught in
an iguana’s jaws. This story helped
to explain the origins of the nearby
island of Habee and its appearance,
which resembled an animal’s head.The story of Sosom
In the Aramemb phratry, Uaba’s
brother is a giant called Sosom,
who wears a string of enemy heads.OCEANIA
Kar-a-kar, déma of sweet potato,
is evoked during funeral rites. This
oil painting of Kar-a-kar is by Pater
P. Vertenten, a Belgian missionary in
New Guinea in the early 1900s.Controversial rituals
Marind-Anim girls and boys
were indoctrinated in the way
of the déma from an early age.
The sexual assault of Geb, the
prolonged copulation of Uaba
and Ualiwamb, and other myths
were reenacted in six-month-
long cycles of initiation rituals.
Elaborate costumes were worn,
and the performers temporarily
embodied the spirit of the déma.
These ceremonies were
intended to promote the fertility
of humans, livestock, and crops.
They were held, among otherreasons, to facilitate marriage
and to mark a woman’s return to
menstruation after giving birth.
Ceremonies such as the otiv-
bombari, intended to make a
woman fertile, were viewed as
a duty by the Marind-Anim. Yet
the sexual behavior in these
rituals shocked outsiders, who
viewed it as cruel and immoral.
The Marind-Anim lived
under Dutch rule from 1902 to- By the 1920s, the Dutch
authorities had outright banned
otiv-bombari, as well as orther
Marind-Anim rites, such as
headhunting and cannibalism.
The story of Sosom is the root of
the ritualized homosexuality that
was practiced among the Aramemb.
Castrated by the people for his
unruly behavior—or in some
versions of the story, by the mother
of a girl with whom he had become
locked in sexual intercourse—
Sosom then chased the women
away with his growling and
initiated the men in homosexual
rites. The Marind-Anim believed
that it was through such rites that
boys became strong and learned
to be men.Grand celebration
Traditionally, the Marind-Anim’s
annual cycle of ritual reenactments
of the déma stories ended in an
intervillage feast, and a déma-wir:
in this grand retelling of the myths,
the protagonists competed to put
on the best show. The characters
performed dramatic dances in
elaborate costumes while déma-
nakari (“little sisters”) represented
their déma’s minor attributes and
acted out the many subplots. ■US_310-315_Dema.indd 315 05/12/17 4:17 pm