Yali are a major tribal group in

Papua, Indonesia Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri. It is bordered by the ...

, and live to the east of the

Baliem Valley The Baliem Valley ( id, Lembah Baliem; also spelled Balim and sometimes known as the Grand Valley) is a valley of the Central Highlands in Western New Guinea. Specifically in Highland Papua, Indonesia, which is inhabited mainly by the Dani peopl ...

in the Papuan highlands. The Dani word for "lands of the east" is "yali", from where the Yali took it, without it being a self-identification for their tribe.Milliken, W. Ethnobotany of the Yali. Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
(PDF)
/ref> The settlement territory of the Yali lies between the rivers Ubahak to the East and Sibi, Yahulie and Podeng to the West. Their major towns are Angguruk and Kosarek, which are isolated by challenging geography. The major access to their territory is by air. The villages are only accessible by walking for several hours. Their territory is known collectively as Yalimo. To the West live the Dani, to the Northwest, partially in the mountains, the Lani. To the East and South are the territories of the Eipo and Mek. Accounts of the population size vary according to the source. In 1991 it was estimated to be 15,000 or 30,000. The Yali speak a language that is related to that of the Dani, although it has significant differences. The language is in the Ngalik-Nduga subfamily. Today the Yali are of

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

religion, mainly

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. Until the 1970s there were reports of

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

. The Christian missionaries stopped several feuds between villages; old war rituals and ancestor cult were forgotten. The Yali live in villages with round houses on poles, where houses for women and men separate the sexes. Water for drinking, domestic use and wastewater are strictly separated. The Yali are of rather small stature (partially smaller than 150 cm). Traditionally the men are only clothed with a penis sheath (

koteka The koteka, also referred to as a horim or penis gourd, is a penis sheath traditionally worn by native male inhabitants of some (mainly highland) ethnic groups in New Guinea, Indonesia to cover their penises. The koteka is normally made from a ...

) and

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of ...

rings around the waist. Their heads are occasionally covered with hair nets, which have a pointed end at the neck. The women only wear a skirt made of

reed Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * Re ...

. However, T-shirts and trousers or skirts and blouses are becoming more common. The Yali use

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

es and

taro Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in Africa ...

as their staple foods, which are grown using

shifting cultivation Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned while post-disturbance fallow vegetation is allowed to freely grow while the cultivator moves on to another plot. The period of cul ...

. Other food sources are hunting and gathering. For festivities such as weddings pigs are slaughtered, which are only being kept extensively. Fruits are not part of the common diet. A

patriarchal Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of Dominance hierarchy, dominance and Social privilege, privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical Anthropology, anthropological term for families or clans controll ...

society, the men are responsible for building houses and hunting, while women take care growing and gathering food.

References

Ethnic groups in Indonesia Indigenous ethnic groups in Western New Guinea {{Asia-ethno-group-stub

See also

References