Cultural Anthropology: Maisin Traditions, Rainforest, and Livelihoods

This essay provides an in-depth examination of the Maisin people, focusing on their cultural traditions, rainforest protection efforts, and economic practices. The paper begins with an introduction to ethnography, the study of culture, and then delves into the Maisin's cultural traditions, including customs, rituals, and the impact of modernization. It highlights the role of women in preserving traditions, particularly in relation to art forms like Tapa designs, and the importance of festivals and ceremonies. The essay then explores the Maisin's efforts to protect their rainforest, emphasizing its significance for their livelihoods, and the challenges posed by logging and oil palm plantations. The paper also discusses how the Maisin have united to protect the rainforest and the role of Tapa cloth production as a significant source of income, enabling them to meet their basic needs. The essay concludes by summarizing the key aspects of Maisin culture and emphasizing the importance of understanding other cultures. The main source of income is through the production of Tapa cloth and harvesting timber from forests.

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Cultural Anthropology
Name
Institution

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CULTURAL ANTHROPLOGY
Introduction
Ethnography refers to the systematic study of culture and people. It is intended to
examine cultural phenomena where the researchers observe all the activities and different events
that are taking place in society (Baskerville & Myers, 2015). Ethnography is, therefore, a means
to represent in writing and graphically the culture of different groups in the community. As a
technique of data collection, ethnography involves observing the behavior of all the participants
in some specific social situation. Ethnographers identify a particular group of individuals or
activity of their interest then they examine what happens in their area of study through their
fieldwork (Parker, 2018). They then explain it to other people through their written accounts.
Therefore ethnography refers to a tool, a technique for researchers in any academic discipline
who want to know the social life people in the society. This paper examines the cultural
traditions of Maisin. This paper also discusses how Maisin protects the rainforest. Lastly, this
paper will consider how Maisin makes a good living for example by selling clothes. The primary
purpose of this paper is to provide people with a sense of both the changing and enduring aspects
of Maisin life.
Cultural traditions
Cultural traditions include customs, rituals, and events that a society shares.
Modernization is rapidly changing cultural traditions, and societies are losing their importance
(Moncada & Madril, 2019). Maisin still preserves tradition as well as art forms. The Oro people,
specifically those who used the Tapa designs hope to establish regional laws that will protect
genetic resources and traditional knowledge. The way food is being prepared describes a culture
in many parts of Oro province; women prepare their food in clay pots particularly during feasts.

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During the festival, the Women of the Orokaiva were summoned to make food in clay pots.
Women play a crucial role during bondo or feasts. The men may help in setting the dates, but it
is their women who will organize the harvest, tend the gardens as well as feed the crowds. The
women advise their men on the people they should invite and those who should bring clout to the
main event. Throughout the generations, the women have been participated in propelling
successful Oro chiefs.
Maisin has festivals such as the tattoo and the Tapa Festival which offer an avenue for
individuals particularly the young generation to enjoy and appreciate traditional arts in their full
glory and color. In the culture of Oro, women are the guardians of the intellectual property that
comprises of tattoo and tapa designs. In Maisin, mourning rites, initiations of firstborn children,
intertribal feasts and funerals were critical ceremonial occasions. All these events were
accompanied by an extensive exchange of expensive shell food, as well as tapa cloths. Intertribal
feasts and initiations were also occasions for days and weeks of dancing. The principal
ceremonies today in Maisin are Easter, Christmas, as well as patronal feast days. Huge feasts and
traditional dances are being arranged on such days by the members of the communities
(Wetherell, 2013).
Maisin attribute sickness to germs or sorcerers and spirit attacks. Those staying in the
village make use of a regional hospital and local medical aid posts, and home remedies as well as
services of village healers (Barker & Hermkens, 2016).Traditionally, the people of Maisin
believed in the spirit of the dead. They think that the spirit of the dead frequently returns to
punish or to aid kin. Many villagers encounter the dead in visions and dreams- attributing both
misfortune and good luck to them. Even though the development of Christianity has changed the
people of Maisin, mortuary ceremonies still present the traditional face of the people in the

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society. The villages usually mourn a death in groups for two days. Bereaved parents and
spouses then attend semi-seclusion for some duration (Bamford, 2009). Most of the people
believe that the spirit of the dead had a considerable influence, both for bad and good, over the
living. Bush spirits always cause severe sickness, particularly to children and women. Jesus and
God are most of the time being encountered in dreams (Barker, 2019). The people also believe
that having faith in both Jesus and God can overcome the evil that is being caused by spirits and
sorcerers. Most of the Maisin are Christians.
Protecting rainforest
Maisin possesses the largest tropical rainforest. Its forest offers the habitat for
approximately twenty thousand species of plants, two hundred species of mammals, seven
hundred and fifty species of birds, one thousand five hundred species of trees, half of the total
land coverage are endemic to the island. Most of the known species in the universe reside in
Papua New Guinea. Rare animals and plants such as the most abundant butterfly, the largest
orchid, the smallest parrot, the largest pigeon, and the longest Lizard reside in these forests.
Additionally, the forest is also used as the home of Maisin people. The forests provide
everything to the people from medicinal plants and food, to tools and canoes, materials for
houses. Under the constitution, the legal owners of the forest are the Maisin. But these forests, as
well as forest peoples, experienced a challenge of large scale oil plantations and logging
activities (Barker & Hermkens, 2016). Oil palm plantation does not produce edible oil for the
local people, and the entire production is being exported to foreign countries. The forests are
quite essential to both the Maisin as well as their neighbors, and this made them to fought off
logging as well as the organizations trying to access to the rainforest (Barker, 2012). Also, the
people of Maisin also encounter increasing flooding that affects the general population. All these

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benefits that the rainforest offer to the people stimulated the communities and other prominent
leaders to look for ways of protecting the rainforest. This will help them solve the problem of
flooding that affects most of the population.
In the year 1980, the Maisin communities decided to do away with internal differences
and unite to protect the rainforest. The quixotic campaign of the Maisin communities against a
critical international organization caught the attention and support of many international
environmental activists, museum, artists, as well as media who for a short time raised the issues
of the Maisin to the global platform. Among other developments, many people from Maisin
toured different parts of the world promoting the value of their Tapa as the best alternative of the
sustainable to the logging of rainforests as well as replacement with infinite commercial
plantations.
Making a living
Tapa cloth is a significant item for exchanges especially during the time of life transition
ceremonies like death and marriage. The people of Maisin have a strong culture of producing
tapa, and it has become a significant source of income for most of the communities. Most of the
organizations have started the marketing and production of the tapa cloths. The profit earned
from the sale of Tapa help in the provision of the other basic needs such as food.
Tapa is a vital source of income for individuals whose villages are extremely isolated
from transport systems as well as who depend on traditional subsistence for survival. Tapa cloth
has increased massive popularity and has become one of the main items of commercial value
because of the increasing demand from the local communities and visitors. Because of the high
need of the Tapa cloth, most of the people now use it as a commodity of the trade from where
they exchange it with other goods and services (Hermkens, 2017). Therefore, selling of tapa both

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in the communities and foreign markets makes most of the people to live a good life. It enables
most of the people to satisfy their basic needs. Another source of income generation for the
people of Maisin is a forest. Timber harvesting help in the making of tapa cloths.
Conclusion
This paper described the traditional culture of the Maisin. Studying the literature of other
people is essential because it enables us to understand individuals around us. Our past’s cultural
attitudes and perspectives will allow us to know how the ideas and beliefs of today were formed
as well as how they changed over time. Studying of the past events also enable as to understand
the changes that have been taking place in society. From the paper, it is true that tapa cloths are
the primary source of income for most of the population that is living in Maisin. Another source
of revenue includes forests from where they harvest timber for the manufacturing of tapa cloths.

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