The Bird's Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya has long been an area neglected by New Guinea Studies. Only in the late seventies, interest began to focus more intensively on this scientifically important border area between Austronesian and Papuan languages and cultures. In the early nineties, this led to the creation in The Netherlands of the Irian Jaya Studies programme ISIR, which organizes and coordinates multi-disciplinary research on the Bird's Head Peninsula. Within this framework, study of the peninsula has reached a peak, with research being conducted in the area by scientists from different disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, (ethno)botany, demography, development administration, geology and linguistics. The diverse perspectives of these disciplines are subject to constant internal debate. Through ISIR and other research initiatives, there is a growing body of data on and insights into the various disciplines concerned with this fascinating area, with each discipline developing its own specific perspectives on the Bird's Head. These perspectives were presented during the First International Conference Perspectives on the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, organized by ISIR in cooperation with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences LIPI (Jakarta) and the International Institute for Asian Studies ILAS (Leiden) and held at Leiden University, 13-17 October 1997. Researchers were informed on current perspectives in many disciplines to facilitate integration of findings into wider, interdisciplinary frameworks and to stimulate international debate within and between disciplines. As a result of the Conference, the forty-two contributions in these Proceedings present a wealth of recent developments from various disciplines in New Guinea Studies.
Table of contents:Preface. SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, NATURAL SCIENCES. Andrew J. STRATHERN: Comparisons past and present: pathways and projections for Irian Studies. Aprilani SOEGIARTO: Strengthening partnership through cooperative research. ANTHROPOLOGY, DEMOGRAPHY, ETHNOHISTORY: FROM INLAND TO COAST. E.K.M. MASINAMBOW: Anthropological fieldwork and international cooperation. Ien COURTENS: "As one woman to the other". Female ritual healers in Northwest Ayfat. Louise THOONEN: "We have accepted the father first". The arrival of the Catholic Church in Northwest Ayfat. Jaap TIMMER: Lost power, concealed knowledge, and the return of the Kingdom among the Imyan of the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. Hendrika LAUTENBACH: Demographic survey research: data gathering (problems) on the subject of fertility in the Bird's Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya. Dianne VAN OOSTERHOUT: Fertility and the mediating body in Inanwatan, south coastal Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. Jan POUWER: The enigma of the unfinished male: an entry to East Bird's Head mytho-logics, Irian Jaya. Jelle MIEDEMA: Culture hero stories and tales of tricksters. The Bird's Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya in a comparative perspective (II). Paul HAENEN: History, exchange, and myth in the southeastern Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. BIRD'S HEAD ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELATED AREAS: INLAND, COAST, AND BEYOND. John LIEP: Connubia in the making: a comparative view on the kain timur complex. Pamela J. STEWART: Ritual trackways and sacred paths of fertility. Volker HEESCHEN: New Guinea myths and fairy tales seen from the Irian Jaya mountains. Pamela J. STEWART & Andrew J. STRATHERN: Pathways of power, rumors of fear: the imagination of space in montane New Guinea. David MEARNS: Urban social forms in Eastern Indonesia: multiple logics and lived experience. Christopher J. HEALEY: Political economy in the Kepala Burung region of Old Western New Guinea. Sarlito WIRAWAN SARWONO: The Amungme and the Kamoro in Mimikma Timur: a psychological analysis. Roosmalawati RUSMAN: Youth, education and employment in Irian Jaya. HISTORY. F. HUIZINGA: Relations between Tidore and the north coast of New Guinea in the nineteenth century. Tom GOODMAN: The sosolot exchange network in Eastern Indonesia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Jeroen A. OVERWEEL: "A systematic activity". Military exploration in Western New Guinea, 1907-1915. P.J. DROOGLEVER: Documents on the contest for Western New Guinea/Irian Barat, 1945-1963. A.K. OGLOBLIN: Commemorating N.N. Miklukho-Maclay (recent Russian publications). LINGUISTICS: BIRD'S HEAD, AND BEYOND. William A. FOLEY: Toward understanding Papuan languages. Christine BERRY: The art of the storyteller in Abun society. Philomena DOL: Form and function of demonstratives in Maybrat. Gilles GRAVELLE: Syntactic constructions and the Meyah lexicon. Cecilia ODÉ: The bird said 'I am here': a prosodic study of the waimon story in Mpur. Ger P. REESINK: The Bird's Head as Sprachbund. Lourens DE VRIES: Some remarks on the linguistic position of the Inanwatan language. Andrew PAWLEY: The Trans New Guinea Phylum hypothesis: a reassessment. Miriam VAN STADEN: Where does Malay end and Tidore begin? GEOLOGY, BOTANY, ARCHAEOLOGY. Nana RATMAN: Geology of the Bird's Head, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Rien A.C. DAM: Cenozoic geological development and environmental settings of the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. T.R. CHARLTON: Yapen island: a right-lateral paradox in the left-lateral 'North New Guinea Megashear'. Implications for the biogeography and geological development of the Bird's Head, Irian Jaya. M.J.S. SANDS, R.J. JOHNS, M.J.E. COODE & J. MARSDEN: Flora of the northeast Vogelkop. Kenneth P. APLIN: Vertebrate Zoogeography of the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. J.M. PASVEER & K.P. APLIN: Late Pleistocene to modern vertebrate faunal succession and environmental change in lowland New Guinea: evidence from the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Matthew SPRIGGS: The archaeology of the Bird's Head in its Pacific and Southeast Asian context. Truman SIMANJUNTAK: Review of the prehistory of Irian Jaya. Peter BELLWOOD: From Bird's Head to bird's eye view; long term structures and trends in Indo-Pacific prehistory.
Table of contents:Preface. SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, NATURAL SCIENCES. Andrew J. STRATHERN: Comparisons past and present: pathways and projections for Irian Studies. Aprilani SOEGIARTO: Strengthening partnership through cooperative research. ANTHROPOLOGY, DEMOGRAPHY, ETHNOHISTORY: FROM INLAND TO COAST. E.K.M. MASINAMBOW: Anthropological fieldwork and international cooperation. Ien COURTENS: "As one woman to the other". Female ritual healers in Northwest Ayfat. Louise THOONEN: "We have accepted the father first". The arrival of the Catholic Church in Northwest Ayfat. Jaap TIMMER: Lost power, concealed knowledge, and the return of the Kingdom among the Imyan of the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. Hendrika LAUTENBACH: Demographic survey research: data gathering (problems) on the subject of fertility in the Bird's Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya. Dianne VAN OOSTERHOUT: Fertility and the mediating body in Inanwatan, south coastal Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. Jan POUWER: The enigma of the unfinished male: an entry to East Bird's Head mytho-logics, Irian Jaya. Jelle MIEDEMA: Culture hero stories and tales of tricksters. The Bird's Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya in a comparative perspective (II). Paul HAENEN: History, exchange, and myth in the southeastern Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. BIRD'S HEAD ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELATED AREAS: INLAND, COAST, AND BEYOND. John LIEP: Connubia in the making: a comparative view on the kain timur complex. Pamela J. STEWART: Ritual trackways and sacred paths of fertility. Volker HEESCHEN: New Guinea myths and fairy tales seen from the Irian Jaya mountains. Pamela J. STEWART & Andrew J. STRATHERN: Pathways of power, rumors of fear: the imagination of space in montane New Guinea. David MEARNS: Urban social forms in Eastern Indonesia: multiple logics and lived experience. Christopher J. HEALEY: Political economy in the Kepala Burung region of Old Western New Guinea. Sarlito WIRAWAN SARWONO: The Amungme and the Kamoro in Mimikma Timur: a psychological analysis. Roosmalawati RUSMAN: Youth, education and employment in Irian Jaya. HISTORY. F. HUIZINGA: Relations between Tidore and the north coast of New Guinea in the nineteenth century. Tom GOODMAN: The sosolot exchange network in Eastern Indonesia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Jeroen A. OVERWEEL: "A systematic activity". Military exploration in Western New Guinea, 1907-1915. P.J. DROOGLEVER: Documents on the contest for Western New Guinea/Irian Barat, 1945-1963. A.K. OGLOBLIN: Commemorating N.N. Miklukho-Maclay (recent Russian publications). LINGUISTICS: BIRD'S HEAD, AND BEYOND. William A. FOLEY: Toward understanding Papuan languages. Christine BERRY: The art of the storyteller in Abun society. Philomena DOL: Form and function of demonstratives in Maybrat. Gilles GRAVELLE: Syntactic constructions and the Meyah lexicon. Cecilia ODÉ: The bird said 'I am here': a prosodic study of the waimon story in Mpur. Ger P. REESINK: The Bird's Head as Sprachbund. Lourens DE VRIES: Some remarks on the linguistic position of the Inanwatan language. Andrew PAWLEY: The Trans New Guinea Phylum hypothesis: a reassessment. Miriam VAN STADEN: Where does Malay end and Tidore begin? GEOLOGY, BOTANY, ARCHAEOLOGY. Nana RATMAN: Geology of the Bird's Head, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Rien A.C. DAM: Cenozoic geological development and environmental settings of the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya. T.R. CHARLTON: Yapen island: a right-lateral paradox in the left-lateral 'North New Guinea Megashear'. Implications for the biogeography and geological development of the Bird's Head, Irian Jaya. M.J.S. SANDS, R.J. JOHNS, M.J.E. COODE & J. MARSDEN: Flora of the northeast Vogelkop. Kenneth P. APLIN: Vertebrate Zoogeography of the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. J.M. PASVEER & K.P. APLIN: Late Pleistocene to modern vertebrate faunal succession and environmental change in lowland New Guinea: evidence from the Bird's Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Matthew SPRIGGS: The archaeology of the Bird's Head in its Pacific and Southeast Asian context. Truman SIMANJUNTAK: Review of the prehistory of Irian Jaya. Peter BELLWOOD: From Bird's Head to bird's eye view; long term structures and trends in Indo-Pacific prehistory.