Asmat Shields from the Braza River: Weapons and Ancestors

• Written by Gunter Konrad and Walter Böhning
• Photographs by Gunter and Ursula Konrad
• Presented here with permission from Gunter and Ursula Konrad. No part of this monograph including photographs may be copied or presented elsewhere without the express written consent of Gunter and Ursula Konrad.
• Note: All photographs here are linked to larger size files.

Issuing from the central massif of Irian Jaya (Indonesian New Guinea), the Braza merges with the Sirets in the Northeast of the Asmat district and becomes the central watercourse traversing its wide tract of alluvial land. While following the middle and upper reaches of the Braza in 1971, Heidelberg University's Braza Expedition came upon an untouched Stone Age civilization, although the riparian tribesmen of the West, like those living beside the Vriendschap and Kolff rivers in the East, have long been acquainted with metal tools and other cultural assets through contact with traders, crocodile hunters and missionaries. In view of the trading network, which is extensive everywhere else in New Guinea, it might have been expected that such articles would rapidly spread throughout the region.

All our efforts notwithstanding, we failed to make contact of any kind with the natives of the upper Braza. They were occasionally sighted on the riverbank, but fled while still a long way from us. Their gardens are situated some distance from the river. The Braza is only knee-deep at this point and easy to wade, so their small, crudely hewn dug-outs, 2-3 metres in length, are not used unless the river is in spate.

On the middle reaches, however, we managed by dint of slow and cautious approaches to exchange a bamboo-shafted stone axe for an iron axe. We not only had to overcome the natives' fear of us but were obliged to demonstrate the advantages of our metal substitute. Once we had lopped off branches and hacked at trees in their presence, they shouted shrilly, danced and nervously plucked at their hair with enthusiasm. They gently ran their fingers over the iron blade again and again, only to withdraw them abruptly and shake their hands as if the shiny metal had scorched them. They were all eager to hold the iron axe and never tired of trying it on the surrounding trees. Once our first barter had succeeded, the way was open for a brief establishment of contact.

On both banks, banana-trees indicated the presence of gardens in which we encountered dwellings of several quite different types. On two occasions we saw tree-houses built 10-15 metres up in the spreading limbs of a jungle giant and approached by a form of ladder. More commonly, houses stood on piles 5-7 metres high and could cover an area of up to 40 metres by 15. Others were only about 1 metre off the ground or built at ground-level, and had roofs with low eaves. Tree-trunks disposed at intervals formed the floors, which were covered with palm-fronds used for sitting or sleeping on. The walls also consisted of overlapping palm-fronds. As many as 100 people lived in residential communities in the larger houses, there being roughly one fireplace to each family. After questioning the natives about their dwelling-place (damai, dadareal), we concluded that about five large residential communities exist beside the middle Braza. We never saw any women or children.

The male aborigines are 160-170 cm tall, and muscular. They wear Coix-seed headbands and necklaces made from the incisors of the wild pig (wu sissi) or the cuscus (fadi sissi), a marsupial the size of a large domestic cat. Bamboo pins bearing elaborately scratched ornamentation are thrust through the nasal septurn and the ear-lobes, which are likewise pierced and considerably dilated. These pins are not solely decorative. They also serve to keep dry the fine wisps of rotang wool which, like the rotang bands worn on the upper arm, are fire-making utensils. A long thin strip of rotang is wound several times round the waist. The penis is either left exposed or wrapped in a fresh pale-green leaf. More rarely, the upper beak of the djolan (Rhyticerusplicatus) is used as a penis-sheath. Every aboriginal wears a small net bag containing odds and ends, food and utensils.

We found two types of stone axe on the middle reaches of the Braza. In the case of the first type (suinemara), the stone (suine),which is shaped by tapping, fits into a bamboo root (eye-splicing technique). In the second instance, the blade is fashioned by a whetting technique and lashed to an angled piece of root-wood. We also saw cassowary-bone gravers of various sizes. Strips of split bamboo, whose raw edges are extremely sharp, serve as knives.

The inhabitants of the middle reaches of the Braza, unlike their neighbours upstream, show many signs of artistic activity. Neatly scratched ornamentation is found on bamboo tobacco-pipes and horns like those of the coast, as well as on the nose- and ear-pins mentioned above. Spears and arrows are furnished with strong barbs or flat bamboo blades, depending on their various uses, but the richly decorated war-shields merit special note. These defensive and offensive weapons have, as we shall see, undergone some measure of development into weapons of intimidation.

The development of the shield began with the simple stick, which was used to fend off blows as well as deliver them. The stick evolved not only into a weapon for striking but also into a parrying-stick equipped with a hand-guard. Enlargement of the protective surface gave birth to the parrying-shield of leather, basketwork or wood, the characteristic haft or grip still running lengthwise. The size of such shields is limited by weight and manipulability. The use of trees as cover may have given rise to the second type of shield, which represents a form of mobile 'tree cover'. Being heavier, these shields have two horizontal handles of which the lower is gripped through the upper.

These shields usually protect the entire body and are described as carrying-shields. New Guinea also provides examples of the suspended shield which the archer hangs on his person to enable him to use his weapon freely. Although classification of the various types according to mode of handling is relatively easy, classification by shape and size alone is impossible because carrying-shields can be light and small and parryingshields large and cumbersome. The shields discussed here have a hollowed grip running lengthwise and should, by usual standards, be classed as parrying-shields. However, their very size (up to 215 cm x 52 cm) indicates how unwieldy they are and implies another function as well. The natives carry them for long distances, either under one arm with the decorated side against the body, or on their heads as a protection against rain. In battle, the left hand holds the shield while the right hand wields spear or bow. Positions are taken up in a series of swift leaps, often coupled with zigzag changes of direction. As soon as a new vantage-point is reached, the shield is rested on the ground and propped against the left shoulder. This leaves both hands free to manipulate bow and arrow. This mode of handling would justify classification of the shield as static, especially as the jungle does not lend itself to rapid changes of position in battle and large shields are not used for parrying purposes. The previous supposition that shields with a single grip are incompatible with bow-and-arrow warfare because archery requires both hands does not, therefore, apply to the Braza area. The importance of the bow in local skirmishes can be gauged from the ratio of arrow- to spear-scars on the shields we examined, which was roughly four to one.

Although the natives are adept in negotiating dense jungle undergrowth with their big root-wood shields, the practical value of such aids seems very dubious because there are no open battle-grounds and plenty of trees to hide behind. To anyone watching the tribesmen as they handle their shields, it becomes obvious that primary importance attaches to the demonic carving that adorns them. It seems fair to assume that, in addition to their technological development, the Braza shields underwent a culturally specific change of function. The artist's minatory treatment of his motifs is in itself a means to success, whether in pitched battles, surprise attacks and defensive operations, or in coming to terms with oneself and the mythical links with one's ancestors. The Braza tribesmen's shields are aids in a war of nerves. For instance, the sight of a few shields during a surprise attack can put a numerically superior foe to flight. A shower of spears and arrows, if still necessary, will complete the enemy's demoralization but is really no more than a way of activating the magical power of the attackers' shields. Being personifications of ancestors, these war-shields bear their names, wield their supernatural power and vitalize the ambivalent relationship of the living to the omnipresent dead, who can exert an influence which is never accurately predictable. A warrior is never alone with his shield. He is safeguarded by the ancestor symbolized upon it, endowed with confidence and compelled to show courage. Set up close to the entrance of a house, a shield protects the occupants against invasion by enemies and evil of all kinds, just as in Goethe's Faust Mephisto is prevented from crossing the threshold by a pentagram. The natives' emotional links with the ancestors embodied in their shields could also be discerned in their reluctance to turn them upside down. In battle this is said to betoken surrender.

Figure 4.Richly adorned young man.

The natives of the coastal region believe that the souls of their ancestors inhabit dark and chiefly volant creatures such as the djolan, the black cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus) and the flying fox. These find manifold representations in art. Equal in significance, pars pro toto, with the portrayal of entire beasts or insects, e.g. the flying fox and praying mantis (Mantis religiosa), is that of their salient features only. The tusks of the wild boar and the prehensile tail of the cuscus are symbolically represented as a 'C' or 'S', as patterns of circles and hooks. On the coast, the hand motif is often encountered in the form of a flying fox's clawed foot or the elbows and hands of spirits. Already known to us from the coast, these motifs very probably have similar significance when found on the shields of the Braza River. Special attention should be drawn to the hand motif referred to above, which forms a more exclusively symbolic element in Braza shield decoration than it does anywhere on the coast (Figure 5a).

Figure 5a.	Figure 5b.	Figure 5c.
Figure 5d.	Figure 5e.	Figure 5f.

The shields possess an exceptional wealth of motifs considering their relatively small cultural source. The ornamentation displays a wide range of strictly geometrically superimposed lozenges, circles, hooks and spirals, and extends to intricate patterns reminiscent of oriental nomadic rugs (Figure 5f). The painted decoration in white, red and black is strikingly effective, and the deep relief work is accurately executed. The arrangement of motifs shows an artistic sense of space and distribution. The harmonious unity of motif and shield is always preserved, and each shield manifests an aggressivity of its own.

Figure 6a.	Figure 6b.	Figure 6c.
Figure 6d.	Figure 6e.	Figure 6f.

Common to all shields is their clear division into a head, trunk and foot section. The trunk, framed by a protuberant border, forms the self-contained, dominant, motifbearing central section. Noticeable in the head-trunk area and often communicating with the border is some simple ornamentation which is repeated in reverse on the edge of the trunk-foot section. Invariably painted in white and let into the wood, the triangular shape of this transitional ornamentation often functions as the mouth of the shield-head. On other shields, a red angle opening upwards should be construed as the mouth (Figures 7e, 7f and 8a). The foot section is monochrome red and otherwise unelaborated, whereas the head section receives widely varying treatment. Beneath its white apex, which is outlined in black, every shield displays a facial expression of its own. This is achieved solely by means of the pronounced eyes and mouth. Regarding the shield as a whole, one observes that the head and foot sections bear a balanced relationship to the expanse of ornamentation.

Figure 7. The marks characteristic of Stone Age tools are visible only in close-up. The relief was gouged with a bone graver (Cassowary metatarsal). The back bears the marks of a stone axe-blade.	Figure 7b.
	Figure 7c

Combining field studies on the upper Sepik with research into child behaviour, A. Pontius has come to the conclusion that these facial representations correspond to the primitive vision that derives from immature myelinization of the central nervous system in infants. Human eyesight develops by stages, as it were. Although infants of a certain age see eyes as dots and, later, eyebrows and nose as a 'T', for example, it is not until they reach a subsequent stage of development that the features initially observed combine with later elements of visual perception to form a plastic image of the face. Applied to the Braza artists, this would imply that shield carvers portray strictly two dimensional faces and confine themselves to an abstract representation of these basic traits.

Figure 11. Facial representations on shields are limited to the eyes and nose, the mouth being seldom indicated. Spirals and circles are the basic ingredients of artistic abstraction. The composition of certain characteristic eye-shapes is accentuated and resolved into a clearly discernible face. The two superimposed faces on the right have contrary eyespirals. Mouth and nose are put in.

For all their distinctly regional style, the Braza River shields should be classified with those of Asmat on the basis of characteristic features such as shape, grip, relief work, colours employed and individual motifs. The close relationship between a man and his shield in its capacity as an ancestor and 'comrade in arms' can be observed throughout the Asmat area. The assumption that art has received a qualitative as well as a quantitative boost from the introduction of metal tools, e.g. on the coast, is refuted by the shields illustrated here, which were fashioned with Stone Age implements.

Technical execution may have benefited, but the same does not apply to artistic design, assured division of surface areas, or heraldic impact of overall impression. The Braza shields are not only impressive minatory weapons; they also represent the fascinating ancestral portraits of a Stone Age cultural group.