Gender Issues in the Korowai

Being a patriarchal society, the lineage of an individual is traced through the father’s side of the family. There is a separation between men and women giving each gender a role to live their life by. Men are the dominant figures, making executive decisions, hunting for food, and practicing the special knowledge passed down by ancestors. In contrast from a young age women are taught to care for the household, gather food, and take care of the children. Women marry as soon as their first menstruation and are seen as adults from that point forward.  Young males leave to live with elder men when they are 15, to learn lessons about heath, the cosmos, and the spirit world. After these lessons are provided by the elder’s young men must pay a dowry before marrying leading to an age difference between spouses.

Papua Heritage Foundation. “Life up in a Korowai tree house.” info@papuaheritage.org. Accessed November 4, 2013 

 

 

Family, Kinship and Marriage in the Korowai

Family, Kinship and Marriage

 

The Korowai household finds itself located 20 meters off the ground in their famous tree house dwellings. Practicing patriarchal polygamy, a single tree house may consist of up to 15 individuals. These families consist of one dominant male with one or more wives and all unmarried children. The children are taught by the females about morals, until boys reach adolescents (age 15). By which time they move in with men to become part of the hunt and learn the special knowledge of the ancestors. Girls on the other hand learn the roles of women at the earliest possible age and are married after their first menstruation, to a man of around 20 years old. 

Papua Heritage Foundation. “Life up in a Korowai tree house.” info@papuaheritage.org. Accessed November 4, 2013