Haroli

The Huli Haroli

Most visitors to modern day Papua New Guinea plan a visit to the Southern Highlands to see the fierce Huli warriors who are known for their colorful traditional dress, muscular torsos and physical strength. The Huli warriors, who were finally reached by outsiders in 1936 and colonized in 1951, are one of the last discovered peoples on the face of the earth. Their traditions and way of life hearken back to primordial times -- long before metal tools scarred the earth and man became a killing machine through technological advancement.

The Huli learned the ways and myths of their ancestors through rites of passage or initiation rites that included participation in the Haroli bachelor cult. The cult epitomizes Huli male anxiety about health, physical development, community standing, and sexual mores, especially menstrual pollution. Initiated young men enter the cult for a period of two to three years under the guidance of a permanent bachelor leader ("daroali") whom each member pays with pigs and cowrie shells. The men are taught the spells, lore and techniques necessary to care for one’s body and wig; ensure health and beauty; and protect them from premature aging. They are trained to be self-reliant and observe premarital chastity.

The Haroli Way of Life

The Haroli sing various prayers to the gods to ensure their good appearance as well as hymns in praise of nature throughout the night until the sun rises as they burn special woods. These are sung in a secret language called "Tua ili" which is only spoken on Haroli cult grounds and is taught by the "daroli" to the initiates. The prayers and hymns include:

1) Leg band chant

2) Face chant

3) Water chant

4) Waist band chant (so the "hago" belt will fit securely around the waist)

5) Apron chant (so the pubic apron will lay flat)

6) Tangent chant (so the leaves will cover one’s backside)

7) Four prayers to ensure a strong, healthy and full wig. These four prayers are chanted as the bachelors sprinkle water, which was previously be-spelled by the water chant, over their hair.

The novices remain in the cult forest ("ibagiyanda") for four months at the beginning of their training in order to avoid the sun, care for their hair, and grow the "manda hare" or red wig. They ritually fast from sweet potatoes and drink large amounts of water to develop a tight skin and muscular definition. Once a month they perform an eye-washing rite under a waterfall to remove the stigma of female images from their eyes. This purification rite, which is also performed by the neighboring Enga bachelors, is continued each month for the duration of the novitiate.

After the four months of initial separation, the novices are given a bog iris plant ("padume") and are shown the magical bamboo tubes ("tugu nagira"). The "Ipa Kiya" myth states that the "padume" plant grew out of the menstrual blood-saturated ground and decomposed body of an ancestral woman, "Pepeko Wane Padume", who was murdered by a Huli man. Its magical properties include curative powers; a sensitivity to the presence of spirits, poisons and female blood; and the power to ensure male health and fertility. Each novice cultivates a "padume" plant to ensure their individual health and the group’s health. If a novice breaks the taboos about association with women, the plant will wither and die causing him or another novice to fall ill and suffer misfortune. The strongest taboos warn against the help of women in gardens; talk of female genitalia or coitus; mere female association; and any breach of chastity. The penalty for offensive talk about coitus or female organs is one or two pigs. A member who breaks the rule of chastity is usually expelled and fined four to five pigs payable to the group.

The bamboo tubes are related to the bog iris plant as they contain a portion of the female blood shed long ago that generated the plant. The tubes protect men from the evil emanations of menstruating women. The neighboring Enga people have strikingly similar beliefs about the bog iris plant and bamboo tubes which they use in their "Sangai" fertility and initiation rites. However, their myth states that the murdering boy was turned into the bog iris plant while the female victim was transformed the bamboo tube. The bog iris plant has the same properties for both the Enga and Huli. The Enga tubes are believed to bring about dreams for the bachelors as well as indicate the ritual and sexual purity of the bachelor leader. The bachelor leader is accused of breaking the separation taboos if water is not found in the tubes upon their ritual exhumation from their permanent burial site. The exact ritual usage of the Huli bamboo tubes is not known. However, they are an essential element of the bachelor cult ritual.

After the novices receive their bog iris plants they are free to return to their individual men’s houses. They must observe the female separation taboos and return to the cult forest once a month for a few days of instruction and ritual observances.

On the last day of the two or three year novitiate, the novices are admitted to the central bachelor’s house which is surrounded by a great fence. There they are tricked and bullied by elder bachelors and shown once again the magical bog iris plants and bamboo tubes. They sing bachelor spells and songs throughout the night until dawn breaks when they are ordered out of the house and subjected to a painful ritual. The novices are forced to jump into a pool of water that is full of nettles, briars, and leaves of the "nigi" plant, which inflames their skin and causes them to swell and appear as “big-men.” They are beaten with birch switches by senior bachelors who stand on the edge of the pool to ensure that no one attempts to escape this painful bath. The novices then leave the water to dress and pain themselves for a "Mali" or festive line dance, although they use a specific paint reserved for bachelors. They are permitted to wear the "puluyaba" or bachelor’s braid in their string bags, as well as the red, crescent-shaped wig ("manda hare"), both of which symbolize manhood and correspondent sexual taboos. The newly created bachelors then parade in single file throughout their own and adjacent clan territories carrying a strung bow in hand and an arrow in the other. The new bachelors appear very fierce and do not show any signs of emotion nor do they talk with themselves or others. Men who observe the parade praise them in exalted tones, while women remain far from sight so that the bachelors do not run away in fear of menstrual contamination.

Within forty years after the discovery of the Huli by Western explorers, the Haroli bachelor cult, which was the main educational structure of Huli male society, had virtually disappeared. The cult faced stiff competition from employment and Western educational opportunities as well as disapproval by Christian missionaries. The black and white photos are rare pictures of a Tegeanda ritual house which were taken by a Catholic missionary outside of Tari in 1955.

References

Allen, M.R. (1967) Male Cults and Secret Initiations in Melanesia. Cambridge University Press, New York.

Frankel, S. (1980) I am a Dying Man: Pathology of Pollution. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 4, pp. 95-117.

Glasse, R. (1974) Masks of Venery: Symbols of Sex Antagonism in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. "Homme" 14:2, pp. 79-86; 1968; The Huli of Papua. Mouton and Company, Paris.

Hage, P. and F. Harary. (1981) Pollution Beliefs in Highland New Guinea. Man 16, pp. 367-375.

Lomas, G.C.J. (1998). Huli People of Papua New Guinea. Retrieved on 2006-06-22.

Meshanko, R. (1985) The Gospel Amongst the Huli. Master's Dissertation. Washington Theological Union, Washington, DC.

Teske, G. (1978) Christianizing the Sangai. Point 2, pp. 71-102.