Free The Ragged Edge of the World by Eugene Linden Page A

missionaries who demonize their beliefs and burn haus tambarans (spirit houses used primarily by males for initiations and rituals), expatriates and teachers who ridicule their backwardness, and mining and timber companies that scorch the earth and poison the streams—Peter Barter’s trips look veritably saintly. Moreover, the culture itself endured strongly in people’s lives despite all these threats.
    We joined a trip on the Sepik Explorer, one of Barter’s boats. Our first stop was Manam Island. Most of my prior knowledge of the Papuan genius for interpreting modernity through a Stone Age mind-set came from readings and from conversations with anthropologists, missionaries and expatriates. On Manam Island, I encountered it firsthand.
    The volcanic island sits 40 miles off the north coast of New Guinea. Since our visit, the volcano has erupted at least twice, most recently in 2004, an event that forced the evacuation of the entire population of about 9,500 people. Our destination was the village of Zogari. While the tourists bargained for artifacts with the villagers on the beach, Tundi and I set off, accompanied by an interpreter, to meet with the local parish priest, Teddy Boaroa. The last expatriate missionary had turned the parish over to local control some decades earlier, and with the white priests gone, the local spirits had been busy.
    When I asked Teddy about the history of the island, he launched into a long story that beautifully merged Christian imagery with the traditional cosmology. We went on to talk to other natives, but just before we reboarded the boat, Teddy came running up to me. In the interim, he had taken the trouble to write down the history of Manam Island as he saw it. Here’s the paper he gave me:

    And here is a rough translation and interpolation as graciously done by Bruce Beehler, the renowned ornithologist and explorer who has spent many years in New Guinea.
    THE STORY ABOUT MANAM ISLAND MANAM ISLAND MOVED FROM SANAE
    Before, Manam Island was not like it is today, in the middle of the ocean. When the land was new, Manam Island was a part of the mainland. This place was called Sanae, near the Catholic Mission Station at the Ramu River mouth. Years ago, it [Manam] left the place called Sanae and came and shifted to the place called Biag at the place called Kayan on the coast. At Biag also it stayed some time, but the place had problems. Insects stung his balls and there were many gnats, so he left Biag and Kayan Place and went back out into the ocean. Just like today where you see Manam in the salt water (ocean). But Manam’s true home is not the ocean but at Sanae. At this time when Manam originated, it had two spirits, a man spirit named Auroka and the woman spirit named Zaria. These two were the original man and woman of the original Manam (as in Adam and Eve). There used to be an image of these two on top of a volcano on Manam. Zaria was on the right and Iabu on the left just as man and woman. I myself saw these images twice when I was twenty-one. The place in Sanae that used to be where Manam stood is today a big swamp. In this swamp there are now Sanae people, not Manam people. Much of their two languages and the people themselves are the same. In the year 1965 I visited Sanae—and the swamp was there as it is today. That’s the end of the story.
    Teddy Boaroa
    The history as told by Teddy weaves elements of the Christian creation story with local tribal creation myths, with some plate tectonics thrown in for good measure. Keep in mind that Teddy was the resident Catholic presence on the island. Both Christian and aboriginal elements are background to the story. For instance, his account seamlessly shifts from the description of the island as a physical place to a personification of the island and has that unidentified “he” reacting to having his balls stung by insects by moving back to the ocean. What struck me about the whole episode was how