Council of War - a photo on Flickriver

Council of War

Portrait of a Dani tribesman (West Papua).

The Dani are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Baliem valley in the central highlands of West Papua (the Indonesian province of New Guinea).
Found only in 1938 by the American aviator and explorer Richard Archbold, they remained until then technically still in the stone age.
This discovery is still one of the last contact in the history of the planet between the Western civilization and another unknown and independently evolved.
Their horticulture advanced technique suggests a long stay in the valley while other hypothesis suggest that the transition from hunting and gathering to the cultivation age have taken place in the last two centuries.
The basis of their diet is made up of sweet potato. Pig breeding is very widespread but its meat is consumed infrequently and mainly during very important ceremonies. Hunting is little practiced.
Dani men wear a penis sheath called "koteka" obtained by emptying and drying a pumpkin.
During the ceremonies or in war it is customary to adorn the body with colourful feathers, fur hats and bracelets.
The women wear short skirts made of vegetable fiber and they often use one or more nets spread around the head and ornaments hanging to the neck as a protection from the spirits.
There are only few working tools used by Dani and all of them are built using stone, bone and bamboo.
The introduction of the metal, due to the influence of the West, took place only a few decades ago.
The weapons used by Dani are spears, bows and arrows.
Dani family is usually made up of a man with one or two wives and children. Polygamy is permitted but in general it is also limited due to the high cost of weddings.
Particular importance is attributed to the spirits of the dead, able according to their beliefs to attack the living individuals.
To date, they surveyed just over 300 Dani tribe, including some made by now by a few individuals.

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Taken on: August 12, 2013

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Sets appears in: • Indonesia & West Papua

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Camera: Nikon D600, f/9.0, 1/200 sec, 65mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D600
Lens:	24.0-85.0 mm f/3.5-4.5
Aperture:	f/9.0
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	65mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Fired, Return detected
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 24.0 (Windows)
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