The Eskimo (Part 2)

Clothing and Transportation. Traditionally, nearly all parts of animals killed by the Eskimo were used. Eskimo clothing was made from skins of birds and animals (seal, caribou, and polar bear). Sewn with sinew thread and bone needles, hooded jackets, pants, and waterproof boots were well adapted to cold and wet climatic conditions. Skins were also processed into tents and boats, and bones were made into weapons.
Two kinds of boats were common. The umiak was a large open boat consisting of a wooden frame covered usually with walrus hide; it was used both to transport people and goods and especially in northern Alaska, to hunt whales. The other type of craft distinctive of the Eskimo transportation and their cultural relatives, the Aleuts, was the kayak. This one-man hunting vessels was entirely decked over with sealskin or caribou skin. The hunter sat in a cockpit inside, dressed in tight-fitting waterproof clothing made from seal or walrus intestine. The kayak glided silently through the water and enabled the hunter to move very close to his prey.
Everywhere the Eskimo depended on the Dogsled as a mode of winter Eskimo transportation over both land and the frozen sea. The sled was drawn by 2 to 14 huskies and was usually made from wood; where wood was unavailable (as in certain regions of central Canada), dried salmon was sometimes used as structural material for sleds. In recent years, snowmobiles have largely replaced the dogsled as the Eskimo's primary mode of transportation in many areas.
Social Organization. There were no tribes in traditional Eskimo society. Generally a group of people was known by a geographic term to which was added the suffix miut, meaning "people of". The basic unit of social organization in most areas was the extended family-a man, his wife, and unmarried children, and his married sons and their wives and children. Usually several family groups would join together and exploit the animal resources of a given area.
The leader of the group would be the eldest male still capable of hunting. At times he was called upon to settle disputes within the group and between it and outsiders. If that way of resolving quarrels did not bring peace, disputants might wrestle each other or join in a public joking and insulting contest to determine the winner. Special partnerships between men who were not relatives were important in trade relations, sharing of wives, and protection in travel to other regions. In Alaska, a village usually used at least one man's house for ceremonials and as a place where men and boys did much of their work and often even ate their meals and spent the night; this house was called a kashgee, or by a similar name.
The traditional kinship system of most Eskimo groups resembled that of America society. They called the same kinds of relatives "cousins" and generally practiced bilateral descent, by which they recognized both the mother's and the father's side of the family equally. In the western Bering sea areas, however, the paternal aspect of descent was so pronounced that there was a clan system based upon patrilineal principles. Every person belonged to the clan of his or her father. In those areas, too, the terms for "cousins" were markedly different from the usual Eskimo pattern.
Religion and Art. Eskimo religion was animistic. It imputed spirits, or souls, to most animals and to important features of the landscape. Human beings had several souls, or spiritual substances, one of which was the name. After death it was believed that the name and the personality of its bearer would enter the body of a newborn infant given the same name. To avoid their hostility, souls of the important subsistence animals-seals, walrus, whales, and polar bears-were propitiated through extensive honorary customs and taboos. For example, one of the most widespread customs was for the hunter's wife to offer a dead seal a drink of water as a sign of hospitality when her husband brought the carcass to the entryway of the house. In some areas, especially western Alaska, complex annual ceremonies of thanksgiving were performed in honor of the souls of seals and whales.
The central religious figure was the Shaman (angakok in some of the central Canadian languages). His function were comprehensive; to divine the causes of poor hunting, which often was believed to be brought on by a group member breaking food or hunting taboos; to diagnose and treat sickness; and to serve as the general source of advice in coping with crisis. Most groups believed in a supreme ruler of the sea animals and in a vague deification of the forces of nature. Arts and crafts were expressed mainly in etched decorations on ivory harpoon heads, needlecases, and other tools; in carved sculpture in ivory, tooth, or soapstone; in skin sewing; in dancing and the composition of songs; and in storytelling Elaborate wooden masks were also made by the Alaskan Eskimo.
Eskimo Life Today. Wherever they life-Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Siberia-the Eskimo are now much involved in the modern world. Not only have they wholeheartedly much of its technology, but they also use imported food, clothing, and house forms; similarly, their educational, recreational, economic, religious, and governmental institutions have been heavily influenced by the dominant European, Canadian, American, and Soviet cultures. Traditional practices and beliefs have not so thoroughly changed that most Eskimo can be termed assimilated or acculturated, especially in matters relating to social organization  and child rearing. Significant changes have begun to occur in all areas of their way of life as a result of sustained contact with the outside world.

The Eskimo

The Eskimo are the native inhabitants of the seacoasts of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of North America and the northeastern tip of Siberia. Their habitation area extends over four countries; the United States, Canada, the USSR, and Greenland. Of the more than 90,000 Eskimo in this region, the greater part live south of the Arctic Circle, with approximately 28,000 on the Aleutian Islands and in Alaska; 17,000 in Canada; 1,500 in Siberia; and 45,000 in Greenland.
The world Eskimo is not an Eskimo word. It means "eaters of raw meat" and was used by the Algonquin Indians of eastern Canada for these hardly neighbors who wore animal-skin clothing and were adept hunters. The name became commonly employed by European explorers and now is generally used, even by Eskimo. Their own term for themselves is inuit (the Yupik variant is Yuit), which means the "real people". 
The Eskimo inhabit one of the most inclement regions of the world. Their land is mostly tundra-low, flat, treeless plains where the ground remains permanently frozen except for a few inches of the surface during the brief summer season. Although some groups are settled on rivers and depend on fishing, and others follow inland caribou herds, most Eskimo traditionally have lived primarily as hunters of maritime mammals (seals, walrus, and whales), and the structure and ethos of their culture have always been fundamentally oriented to the sea.
One of the most striking aspects of traditional Eskimo culture is its relative homogeneity across more than 8,000 km (5,000 mi) of the vast expanses of the Arctic. The main institutional and psychological patterns of the culture, religious, social and economic are much the same.There are some differences in traditional kinship systems, however, especially in the western regions, and the language is divided into two major dialectical groups, the inupik speakers (Greenland to western Alaska) and the Yupik speakers (southwestern Alaska and Siberia)
Traditional Way Of Life
The ability of the Eskimo to adapt successfully to a cold and harsh environment depended on a highly inventive material culture and particular values and psychological traits. An essential ingredient in this was the Eskimo's skill in making tools and other useful devices from all kinds of materials. Clothing sewn from skins, the toggle harpoon fashioned from ivory or antler and fitted with stone blades, sled runners made, in emergencies, from frozen strips of meat, and the well-known igloo, or snow house, are examples of indigenous cultural adaptations developed from available natural materials. Broad cultural values stressed the importance and excitement of hunting and the need to appease the souls of animals killed in the hunt. Courage and hardihood were emphasized in the training of young Eskimo, as was a strong sense of fatalism in facing the disappointments and frustrations of life, such as the death of loved ones.

Settlement. Settlement patterns varied according to the location of particular groups, the time of year, and subsistence opportunities in a given area. Permanent villages of stone houses existed in Greenland, which marks the eastern fringe of Eskimo inhabited areas, and in Alaska; along the Siberian shore villages were made up of houses composed of drift-wood and earth. In the central areas there were no such settled communities, although a given group might well return to the same location, a favorite fishing of hunting site year after year. In Eskimo areas an annual cycle took place in which groups spent the winter together in a larger settlement and then dispersed into smaller, family-sized bands during the summer. Such seasonal congregating and breaking up settlements occurred even in Greenland and western Alaska. During the summer, people would leave the permanent communities and live in animal-skin tents at favorite spots for seal hunting, for fishing, or for collecting birds, eggs, and plants. The Igloo (from an Eskimo word meaning "home") was constructed of packed snow and used only during the winter, when villages of these structures  were built on the firm ocean ice of the central Arctic to facilitate seal hunting through holes in the ice. Such dwellings were also used as temporary structures in Greenland and in parts of Canada and Alaska.
Subsistence. Traditional Eskimo subsistence patterns were closely geared to the annual cycle of changing seasons, the most important feature of which was the appearance and disappearance of solid ice on the sea. During summer, when the sea was free of ice, small groups of families traveled to their camps by open boat. In late spring and throughout the summer they hunted the northward-migrating caribou herds by killing them at river crossing or by driving them into large corrallike structures. Fish swimming upstream for spawning were netted of speared especially in weirs, net enclosures set in waterways. As fall approached, the Eskimo began to reassemble in the settled communities once again, where seal and bird hunting were the principal activities.

In Greenland and western Alaska, where the ocean surface does not freeze solid, seals and walrus come to open spaces between ice floes for air; in this areas, Eskimo hunters stood by the floes, hoping for a chance to throw their harpoons or pursue the seals in kayaks. The utog method of hunting seals in the spring was also distinctive of the more northerly Eskimo. Seeking warmth, seals often climb onto the surface of the ice to bask in the sun. A hunter would slowly creep toward a sleeping animal, either pushing a white shield of skin before him or else dressed and acting in such a manner that to seal he would look like another animal. He would get close enough to fix a harpoon (or, after contact with Europeans, shoot with a rifle) before the seal, sensing danger, could scramble back into the water. 

The Eskimo Part 2

Traditional People and Conservation

All human beings have traditions, so what do we mean by "traditional people" and what is their special role, if any, in nature conservation in Indonesia?

Many of Indonesia's rural inhabitants live in communities with well established cultural identities and spiritual ties to the land, forest, and sea. Customary or adat law still governs social relations within these communities, including the regulation of how natural resources may be used and must be protected. It is the people of such communities, together with their customary beliefs, knowledge, and resource management practices that form the focus of this issue of conservation Indonesia.
Conservation is the wise and sustainable use of all natural resources, including the protection of species and natural areas deemed by society to be of special value. Conservation is inseparable from issues of economic development, especially in a rapidly industrializing country such as Indonesia, but it also has cultural and spiritual aspects.
People in traditional rural communities need to be involved in conservation for two reasons. First, many of Indonesia's national parks and nature reserves are homelands to traditional communities with historical going back many generations. Considerations of social justice (and law) dictate that the rightful inhabitants of these areas should participate in, and share, the benefits of benefits of development there, including the establishment and management of protected natural areas.
Second, rural people throughout Indonesia are already locally managing forest and sea resources. Any attempt to further develop or regulate those resources should start with an appreciation of the traditional knowledge and practical experience held by local residents, who should be treated not as passive recipients of development benefits but rather as true "local experts" on environmental problems and economic opportunities.

Since traditional communities have deep economic, cultural, and spiritual ties to the land and sea, their residents have a long-term interest in maintaining a sustainable flow of resources and a healthy and esthetically pleasant environment. Thus, traditional people are appropriate and necessary partners in conservation and in its integration with sustainable economic development.

The Dayak Tribe

Learning from The Dayak People How To Manage A Protected Area


One of the principle aims of the Kayan Mentarang Project in East Kalimantan is reconcile the needs and priorities of nature conservation with those of people living around the nature reserve. To this end, WWF and its partners are applying concept from Unesco's worldwide system of protected areas, called "biosphere reserve", that incorporated local, often traditional land-use and management practices with nature conservation and, where appropriate, cultural preservation. 


WWF has proposed that this approach be implemented in Kayan Mentarang in the context of establishing a new national park and buffer zones.
The old conservationist approach of trying to isolate nature from people is being replaced with a more flexible a realistic willingness to work together with local communities to protect natural resources together with the human lives and livelihoods they sustain. Nature conservation for the sake of nature alone is not a viable concept. The conservation is not for nature alone, or only for the pursuits of natural scientists. It is for the common good of the whole world, of which humanity and human science are a part. Conservation science therefore must explore ways in which protection of nature and people's economic well being can be achieved together.

Some of these ways may be found through study of traditional knowledge and practices of people who lived for generations close to nature, such as the Dayaks of interior Kalimantan. This is especially true of people living near protected areas, as their detailed knowledge of the local flora, fauna, and environments can be directly applied to managing those areas. WWF has for several years been supporting and carrying out ethnobotanical, ethnozoological, and human ecological studies among Kenyah and other peoples living near Kayan Mentarang, focusing on such areas of knowledge and resources use such as medicinal plants, hunting and fishing, rattan silviculture and handicrafts, house building, management of agricultural land and traditional rice varieties, and local forest protection under customary law (adat). The object of these studies is not simply to document the existing knowledge and practices, but also to identify ways to  incorporate these into management of the protected area and its buffer zones.

An example of traditional conservation management is the protected forest lands (tana'ulen) and streams (sungai ulen) maintained by most Kenyah Villages in the region. These village forest reserves provide a multitude of useful products for the people's subsistence and for commercial trade. The forest land also include many steep slopes where agriculture, if allowed, might lead soil erosion. WWF is now mapping these traditional protected areas and the resources they contain. This is being done together with the people of villages as part of participatory approach called "primary environmental care", that is, conservation by and for the people. It is hoped that this approach will lead to community-based conservation and local resource management in the framework of a new Kayan Mentarang National Park.

Traditional Conservation of The Yawa Tribe

Traditional Conservation of The Yawa Tribe 
Yapen Tengah Nature Reserve Irian Jaya

In Irian Jaya, almost every tribe has its own traditional laws and customs which help it protect the use of natural resources. Some of these tribal laws or custom regulate access and use of common land, water, the forest and holy places. Sanctions for violation of tribal law are usually also part of these tribal customs.
One of the tribes in Irian Jaya which has such customs and laws in place is Yawa Tribe. The Yawa tribe mainly consists of people living in the two villages of Ambidiru and Mambo within the Yapen Tengah Nature Reserve on Yapen Island off the north coast of Irian Jaya. This tribe is considered to be one of the first group to inhabit the island.
The Yawa Tribe has known about the need to protect nature and manage the use of natural resources for generations. They still abide by these precepts today and put them into practice in their daily life. Their traditional law and customs are primarily connected with the use and protection of natural resources, such as water sources, birds, sacred forest, certain plants (including medicinal plants) and land.
Traditional Medicine
The Yawa Tribe uses certain leaves and tree as one of their traditional medicine to cure headaches, to stop bleeding from wounds and to regulate female fertility. The taput leaf is used to stop light bleeding. If the patient is severely injured, the wound will be covered with special leaves. The rokdop leaf and koi leaf are blended with water and drunk as cure for malaria, that become secret leaf for the Yawa Tribe's traditional medicine.
The Yawa Tribe also uses bark to prevent or promote conception. If a husband and wife want to prevent conception, the wife has to drink a preparation made from a certain tree bark. Ont the other hand, if the husband and wife are trying to have a child, the wife will drink a different preparation, 
Protecting The Water Supply
People of the Yawa tribe place a wooden cross near a water source as a sign indicating that the trees nearby should not be cut down. They are aware of the fact that any disturbance to the forest area surrounding a water source can also disturb the water source itself, another way protecting the water supply with unique concept. This wooden sign is also used by farm owners and mark off fruit trees.
Protecting The Bird of Paradise
The Yawa Tribe's system for organizing hunting of the Bird of Paradise is based on clans, or karet. The Rawai clan, for example, may not hunt the Bird of Paradise within the territory of the Krubaba clan. If a member of one clan transgresses another clan's territory, he must replace the Bird of Paradise he caught with one of equally large and equally beautiful.
Protecting Other Birds
The Yawa tribal custom also protects the wattled brush turkey and the brown-collared brush turkey. These two birds are called Ajinda int the local language. Every clan may collect the eggs of these birds only within its own territory. In Addition, if someone from the Rawai or Pai clan finds Ajinda eggs near where he lives, he will share the eggs with other members of the clan.
Protecting sacred places
A mountain, known in the local language as Gunung Rawai, located to the east of Ambidiru village is considered to be holy to the Rawai clan as it is the place where their ancestors lived. For these reason, there is a prohibition against cutting down trees in this area. There are some other special places as well, such as Paputum, Geyen and Marandoa, where tree feeling is not allowed and which cannot be used for farming because they are considered to be holy places. People in the Yawa Tribe believe that sickness or misfortune will be fall them it they use these places for farming or cut down the trees.
Protecting The Clan Forest
People in the Yawa Tribe, may not cut down trees indiscriminately and the forest is divided up between clan based on the traditional law. If  somebody wants to cut down trees in the area belonging to his clan to build house. For example, he must ask permission from the clan leader first and the issue must then also be discussed among the clan. If a member of one clan wishes to cut down trees in an are of the forests "owned" by another clan, he must get permission from that clan.
Protecting trees
The people know that certain protecting trees help fertilized the soil. Leaves of the salawaku and banyan are used as fertilizer. Leaves from the salawaku free are also used to protect coffee plants. A type of wild grass, known locally as insyumai, is also used to fertilizer crops. The flowering part of this grass is yellow and its leaves form a small circle.
What we can learn
If we look at the traditional laws and customs of the Yawa Tribe, and at their prudent and effective protection. and used of natural resources, we should recognize that more research about local people, and their concepts of conservation, is needed in order to help with the management of protected areas. 
Local customs and tradition, such as those of the Yawa Tribe, should be adapted and used for managing conservation areas. If the customs and laws of the people living near and within protected areas are integrated into a conversion area's management plan, it shows an understanding and a respect for their traditions and their culture and relates to our hope that a conservation are really can be supported and respected by the local people. Without the support of local people, any system of management for a conservation are will make very slow progress and will not have much success. (John A. Maturbongs)