Contemporary Traditional Asmat Culture, Part 1 

Who Are The Asmat?By: Jesus Guzman, 1-24-11, Period 5, 

Culture And Geography

The Asmat are an indigenous hunter gatherer culture in West Papua, Indonesia. 

West Papua is about 1/2 of a very large island just north of Australia in the South Pacific

Ocean.

The traditional Asmat are one of the last hunter gatherer cultures in the world.

One tradition of the Asmat is the piercing of the septum of the nose.

Another tradition of the Asmat is painting the faces and body for both ceremony and war.

Asmat body masks are full-length costumes made of plaited cordage composed of rattan, bark, and sago leaf fiber.  

Sadly though, deforestation, colonization, and assimilation are deeply affecting the Asmat.

Irreversibly, this is the ending of one of earth's last traditional hunter gatherer cultures. The

modern world is taking over the Asmat.