topics: |  travel | adventure | first-contact

This is a great book with first hand stories of great journeys - Scott's last diary, Jon Krakauer (before Everest), and others, from the adventure magazine Outside.

The following excerpt is based on one of the chapters, dealing with the reactions of a native tribe in Papua when they encounter the "civilized" world for the first time in their history,

Fifty years after the initial trip, two of them re-visit the island and meet the same tribesmen - the kids have now grown old - and find out their reactions.

First Contact: New Guinea Highlanders Encounter the Outside World

Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson, p.125-138

[Two Australian film-makers visit the Highland to seek out the elders who still remember the visit of Michael Leahy and Michael Dwyer to PNG in 1930 summer. The people used stone axes and thought they were the the only people in the world. They were amazed at the efficacy of steel axes and blades.]

Fifty years later the highland people recall these events with a certain amusement. But their belief in a spirit world gave them a ready-made framework into which the coming of the Australians and their carriers fitted easily, enabling them to come to terms quickly with an even for which they were totally unprepared . . . It was only a short steo fir the highlanders to imagine that they recognized particular individuals -- prominent men, fathers, brothers, sons.

Sole Sole from Gorohonota: "We were all gathered there watching these
strange people when one of the white men pulled out his teeth.
Everyone just ran in all directions.  [Michael Dwyer had false teeth,
which he used to disperse crowds.]

The highlanders were anxious to detect any areas of similarity between
themselves and the strangers.  Did they eat?  Drink?  Sleep?
Defecate?  "Because they wore lap laps [skirts] and trousers," says
Kirupano Eza'e of Seigu, "the people said 'We think they have no
wastes in them.  How could they when they were wrapped up so neatly
and completely?' We wondered how excreta could be passed.  We wondered
much about that."  [They used a screened latrine pit.]

But the highlander's curiosity could not be left unsatisfied for
long.  "One of the people hid," recalls Kirupano, "and watched them
going to excrete.  He came back and said, 'Those men from heaven went
to excrete over there.'  Once they had left many men went to take a
look.  When they saw that it smelt bad, they said, 'Their skin might
be different, but their shit smells bad like ours."

The strangers bodies were covered in a strange material.  They must
have something important to hide.  "We had only our traditional dress
to cover our private parts," says Gasowe of Makiroka village in the
Asaro.  "So when we  saw the strangers, we thought they must have a
huge penis they were trying to cover up.  We thought it must be so
long it was wrapped round and round their waists." . . . Reinforcing
these assumptions were more mythological stories - dealing with the
exploits of men with giant penises.  [131]

As for the night lanterns, it seemed these men from heaven had brought
the moon with them, or a piece of it. [133]

--

'First Contact,'' produced and directed by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson,
is an astonishing record of the meeting between the Leahys and - by the
film's estimate - about a million tribesmen whose existence had been unknown
to the outside world. In addition to the Leahys' footage, which captures this
clash of cultures with an un-self-consciousness that is virtually absolute,

Some of the natives, who are now in more or less modern dress, remember their
original perceptions of the white men in amusing detail.
When they saw the prospectors' rucksacks, for instance, ''we thought their
wives must be in those bags.'' The Leahys' khaki trousers fostered another
misconception: ''We thought they must not have body wastes in them because
they were wrapped up so neatly.'' Among their other, less benign
recollections is the Leahys' shooting a pig to show the natives what guns
could do, and to discourage any would-be thieves. This is actually captured
on film, as is the tribe's first exposure to airplanes, gramophones and tin
cans.  - Film review http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9800E0DD1F39F934A35751C1A965948260