Word: sepik
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Nowadays the once feared tribes of the upper Sepik live peacefully among their fruit and vegetable gardens, catching fish in gossamer-fine nets stretched across creek beds or floated out into the river. Their remoteness has protected them from many of civilization's problems, but it has also brought them few modern comforts. They have no electricity, purified water supply or hospitals; there are few working schools or telephones, and the only communication is via radios at the handful of mission stations dotted across the region...
...borders and ship out containers full of historic pieces, which are highly prized on the international market. In December last year, p.n.g. police were tipped off about two small boxes left at a DHL courier's office in the sleepy port town of Wewak, near the mouth of the Sepik. Both were to be shipped to private addresses in Germany and appeared to have been given security checks by the shipping agent. But when detectives carefully opened the lids and parted the plastic bags filled with sawdust, they found two skulls complete with human hair, clay facial features and eyes...
...Sepik heads might have fetched thousands of dollars apiece from collectors in the U.S. or Europe. Exporting the skulls without the rarely given special permit carries a maximum six-month jail sentence, Eoe says: it breaches not only the Cultural Property Preservation Act but part of the criminal code related to interfering with human remains. Yet in p.n.g., where corruption is pervasive and police are so poorly resourced they struggle to obtain fuel for mobile patrols, investigating non-violent crime is not a priority. Time has learned that none of the people involved in the apparent attempt to export...
...Sometimes, however, it's the collectors who are the ones conned. The skilled carvers of the Sepik are also master forgers - and skulls feature prominently in their repertoire. Anthropologist Garnier examined images of the seized skulls for Time, and believes they are, as Stuttgen claims, modern imitations. Should they prove to be genuine, he says they could be worth more than $12,000 in Europe, especially in the Netherlands, which has become a clearing house for such items. Even if they are not ancient items, however, the bones have to be sourced from somewhere. Eoe says the villagers may have...
...Tambanum village, about 65 km south of Wewak, more than 1,000 people from the Iatmul tribe live along the banks of the Sepik, and on the tiny creeks and tributaries that carve up the district. They know the power of the skulls. One of their people, they believe, paid a terrible price for selling a head. The man, Toni Kawa, "went into the bush and when he came back he started vomiting; and just from vomiting he died," says a fellow villager who preferred not to be named. "Then his wife died. The only way (to stop...