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The people
The Asmat are nomadic hunter-gatherers, they move from one place to the other on foot or with canoes in the thick primeval forest, hunting wild animals, fishing, collecting nuts and fruits, extracting and producing sago flour, a staple food of the people who live in the expansive swamp region.
Sago is the sacred source of live, the “mother” who gives birth to the “children” (larvae).
The sago grub ceremony (sago palm weevil) is celebrated more or less in the same way all over the Asmat region, and it represents an important social and religious event.
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The Asmat call themselves Asmat-ow, the real people, to differentiate themselves from the souls of the deceased, the other spirits and the rest of the world.
Another interpretation they give to the name Asmat is People of the Tree, since according to the myth of the origins the first human beings were carved in the stem and came to life by the sound of a drum.
They like to compare themselves to trees: the feet are the roots, the body is the trunk, the arms are branches and the head is the fruit of the tree.
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