The Hand-washing Ritual of the Mulaha Papuans

THE HAND-WASHING RITUAL OF THE MULAHA PAPUANS JOHN H. MENKES, M.D.* Though this be a method, yet there is madness int. For the last eight years the peculiar and as yet poorly explained handwashing ritualseenamongstthe Mulahas ofsoutheasternPapuahas aroused considerable attention in anthropological circles. Fr. Jaques de Saville-Poumade, who in the years 1878 to 1880 traveled up the coast of Papua from Buna to Lae, was the first to observe this ceremony, and an account ofit, as extracted from his work, Voyages d'un homme de Dieu [?], offers a most apt portrayal: It was then, having just settled myself for the night, my favorite Pensées under the knapsack, that I saw three ofdiem emerge from behind the row oftrees on die bank facing my night camp. They descended to theriver, and in my plain view beganto wash their hands in its waters. The procedure took a fair length oftime, each native taking his turn, prefacing and ending his ablution with a bow in my direction, although there was but littlereasonto suppose they had espied me. Their duty done, they climbedthe bank, leaving me in die reassuring hands ofPascal, whose words "status purae naturae" apply so truly to these children ofGod's unspoiled nature. Over the next seventy years only a few travelers penetrated into the region occupied by the Mulahas. Their warlike demeanor and an admittedly not undeserved reputation for cannibalism made all intercourse with them a hazardous undertaking. Following the recent war, however, the number ofWesterners venturing into southeast Papua increased considerably , and reports ofthe Mulaha language and customs soon filtered down to Port Moresby. By 1955 it had become apparent that while, generally speaking, the Mulahas shared many oftheir customs with other southeast * TheJohns Hopkins Hospital, obi North Broadway, Baltimore, Maryland. The author wishes to express his gratitude to the High Commissioner for Papua and to his First Secretary in Charge of Native Affairs for their unceasing encouragement ofhis investigations and for allowing him access to all previously unopened correspondence in their possession. 261 Papuan tribes, their hand-washing ritual was unique, and therefore presented an unprecedented challenge to the anthropologist. Pilman and his group spent several years on the Papuan coast, and in a number ofbrilliantly presented papers described the hand-washing rituals in exquisite detail [2]. Starting with observations not unlike those ofde Saville-Poumade, the authors soon became aware ofa definite law with respect to both timing and locale ofthe ceremony. The first part oftheir study concentrated itself upon the site ofthe ritual. In 73 per cent ofthe instances the natives employed the river within 350 yards of the fording used by them in their travels to the west, particularly in theirperiodic forays against their hereditary enemies, the Ubalis. Only 5 per cent ofceremonies took place at a site more than 600 yards from the crossing, and all these were obviously minor rites. The timing ofthe ceremony, at first thought to be random, could, when plotted linearly, be shown to be in direct connection with these military excursions. About 85 per cent ofthe hand-washing rites occurred during the period from three weeks before to three weeks following the skirmishes. The small number ofrituals not falling within this period were clearly ofa subsidiarynature, andPilmanconcluded that thesewere merely "anticipatory rites." On the other hand, some difficulty was encountered in ascertaining whetherthe Mulahas participating inthe Ubaliforay and in the subsequent cannibalistic banquet were the same individuals as those engaged in the hand-washing ceremony. Pilman, however, states in this connection: "It would indeed be fatuous to argue that these two groups did not overlap completely, for ifthey did not, thehand-washing ritual so closely associated both in time and space to the Ubali wan would have lost all meaning, becoming a purely gratuitous act, which ofcourse it cannot be" [2]. These carefully performed observations carried out over the course of several years led Pilman to the conclusion that the hand-washing ritual representedanabnegationoftheguilt complexengenderedamongst Mulahas by their cannibalistic practices. While this theory is defended by several members ofthe Oxford school of anthropology, American workers, notably Faraday, ridicule the concept of guilt resulting from cannibalism. They argue that cannibalism is thenaturalstateamongstMulahas, andthat it istherefore inconceivable...