Culture
As with other remote Papuan groups, the central elements of Urapmin life are subsistence agriculture, hunting, and Christianity.
The native language of the Urapmin is invited as the Urapmin or Urap language Urap: urap weng, a constituent of the Mountain Ok subfamily of the Ok languages. Although Urap is linguistically intermediate between its geographic neighbors Telefol and Tifal, it is not a dialect of either. Multilingualism among the Urapmin has led many Telefolmin to believe that the Urapmin speak Telefol among themselves, but this is not the case. Although the Urapmin conception the Tifal language as being closer to Urap than the Telefol language is, and an early account claimed that the Urapmin speak Tifal, more recent research indicates that they should non be considered the same language. Urap maintains in vigorous usage among the Urapmin, and is the leading language that they use.
One unusual feature of the Urapmin language is the use of dyadic kinship terms. These terms translate into English as reciprocal kinship or affinity relations such(a) as "pair of brothers" or "father and child", and may sometimes even refer to a relations between three or more people. These terms can encode relative age, kinship or affinity, number of members, and gender. For example, a pair of siblings is alep plural ningkil, a pair of affines is kasamdim plural amdimal, a couple is agam plural akmal, a woman with a child is awat plural aptil, and a man with a child is alim plural alimal.
The plural forms are not marked for which quality is pluralized; thus alimal may either mean a one man and two children or b one man, one woman, and one child. These terms are used to consultation groups, but not single individuals, so for example a mother of two children would never to listed to or addressed using the term aptil rather, one would use alamon 'mother'. However, a pastor could credit his congregation — a collection of husbands and their wives and children — as sios alimal 'church alimal' or just alimal.
The Tok Pisin language is also widely used by the Urapmin. One of the national languages of Papua New Guinea, Tok Pisin is an important lingua franca in rural areas. The Urapmin learn the language from older children and in school, becoming fluent around the age of twelve. Tok Pisin is regularly used in daily life, and has contributed many loan words to Urap. In particular, Tok Pisin is associated with modernity and Western institutions and is regularly used in contexts such(a) as local governance and Christian services and discussions. Unlike some other peoples in Papua New Guinea, the Urapmin hit not attempted to find native equivalents for Tok Pisin terms related to Christianity. The New Testament edition most used by the Urapmin is in Tok Pisin, the Nupela Testamen Ol Sam published by the Bible Society of Papua New Guinea.
The Urapmin practice slash-and-burn agriculture, and raise small numbers of pigs. The main source of sustenance for the Urapmin is taro Urap: ima and sweet potato Urap: wan, grown in swidden gardens Urap: lang in the bush. In fact the main word for "food" in Urap is formed by compounding these two nouns. These are supplemented by banana, pandanus, sugar cane, and various other cultigens.
The hunting of marsupials, wild pigs, and other game is greatly valued in Urapmin culture, but it does not contribute significantly to sustenance. home pigs are raised in only small numbers and killed on special occasions. Tinned fish, rice, and frozen chicken must be brought in from Telefomin, the District Office, or Tabubil, and are considered by the Urapmin to be luxury goods.
As with many other Papuan groups, the Urapmin consider the owner of an thing or land to be the first adult to do or work it. This is taken to the extent that every thing in a household is considered to have an owner, and some households have even divided up their dual-lane gardens into individually owned plots. According to the traditional beliefs of the Urapmin, this fits into a general worldview where everything had an owner, either human or spirit.
The Urapmin stand out among "remote" hunter-gatherer societies in how strongly they have rejected their traditional beliefs and practices Urap: alowal imi kukup, literally "ways of the ancestors" and embraced those of Protestant Christianity. Unlike in other Papuan cultures, among the Urapmin there is no ongoing clash between Christians Tok Pisin: kristins and "heathens" Tok Pisin: haidens. Some rituals are still subjects of debate among the Urapmin as to if they should still be practiced, in particular pig sacrifice and bridewealth exchange.
According to traditional Urapmin belief, all beings which existed in the world previously the creation of humans were spirits. Humans were created in a multiple birth of the cultural heroine ]. In fact, the taboo on eating dogs is one of the few still widely observed.
Afek was viewed both as the physical mother of all Baktaman, and as the originator of all Min culture and religion.Telefolip a contraction of Telefol abiip 'village of the Telefol'. Afek was believed to have married a serpent who formed the glade that only men could enter toTelefolip upon its death throes. Telefolip was never moved, and the buildings in Telefolip would constantly be rebuilt on the same locations.
The traditional law of the Urapmin was characterized by many rules approximately religious behavior and an elaborate taboo system, focused particularly on eating and land use, as alive as regulating what could be touched and who could know what information. According to Urapmin tradition, Afek introduced ownership of the wild sep to the motobil set spirits, who themselves offered ownership of the villages abiip to humans. Natural resources, including streams, large trees, hunting ground, and game were believed to be owned by the motobil, and humans could only use what they were precondition permission to respectfully.
Violation of these rules was thought to cause illness. This system of taboos, required as awem in the Urapmin language, was well-developed and shaped everyday life. Those who became ill due to disrespecting the land or animals of the motobil would pray for the spirits to "unhand" them, or whether this did not work they would sacrifice pigs in an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. to appease the spirits. Recently, the Urapmin required gold prospectors to sacrifice to these spirits previously digging on their land, although this pre-emptive use of sacrifice is new to the Urapmin.
Awem was abandoned in the late 1970s once the community had transitioned to Christianity, which was understood to be opposed to the practice of taboo. The Urapmin refer to the current period as "free time" Tok Pisin: fri taim, a liberating era where food and ground are freely available. However, while the Urapmin now believe that God rather than Afek created everything, they still believe in the existence of motobil, albeit as "bad spirits" Urap: sinik mafak.
They now believe that Afek and the other mythical Urapmin characters arose after the generations of "Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and Abraham" and lied, claiming falsely that they had created everything and that breaking their taboos would induce illness. Since the Urapmin now believe that God gave introducing to humans to use, they see taking the motobils' property to be a moral imperative. However, the Urapmin still believe in motobil-induced illness, and therefore they do occasionally sacrifice to the motobil, despite this being against Christian teachings.
The Urapmin still abide by a traditional ethical program which requires mutual support Urapmin: dangdagalin and forbidden social actions Urapmin: awem, but distinct from the other form of awem, including adultery, anger, fighting, and theft. As in many other Melanesian societies, one who eats alone Urapmin: feg inin is condemned, for a adult should share his food with others Urapmin: sigil. Ethical breaches could be constant by rituals such as "buying the anger" Urapmin: aget atul sanin, "buying the shame" fitom sanin, and these are still practiced today. The Urapmin also used to ritually remove anger from the body in configuration to prevent disease, but this has now been replaced by prayer for God to remove one's anger.
The Urapmin used to practice a type of male initiation known in Urap as ban. These elaborate rituals, for which the Min peoples are famous, were a central factor of Urapmin social life. The ban was a multistage process which involved beatings and manipulation of various objects. At used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters stage, the initiate was offered revelations of secret cognition Urap: weng awem, but at the next stage these would be shown to be false Urap: famoul. These initiations have been abandoned with the adoption of Christianity, and the Urap have expressed relief at no longer having to provide the beatings which were involved.
Due to the rise of Charismatic Christianity among the Urapmin, by the early 1990s, Urapmin Christianity was characterized by "healing, possession, constant prayer, confession, and frequent, lengthy church services." As elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, the form of Christianity among the Urapmin focuses especially on "millennial themes"—the return of Jesus and impending judgement. In particular, the central themes of Urapmin Christianity are the last days Tok Pisin: las de, meaning the imminent return of Jesus to take his followers to heaven, and the need to cost an ethical Christian life Tok Pisin: Kristin laip in order to be one of those taken in the last days.
Religious discourse often focuses on the need to predominance desires and obey the law of the Bible and the government in order to live a good Christian life. These themes were traditionally important to the Urapmin even before the advent of Christianity. Urapmin society recognizes an opposition between the character traits of willfulness Urapmin: futabemin and obeying the law Urapmin: awem or the demands of others Urapmin weng sankamin, lit. "to hear speech". Willfulness is defined as when one's will or desire Urapmin: san, Tok Pisin: laik causes one tothe demands of the law or other people.
Both traits are considered important; for example, a woman is expected toher husband by exercising her own will, rather than caving to the pressure of her family or her suitors.
Many Melanesian societies recognize such an opposition; however, while in other societies balance between willfulness and respecting others' needs is achieved by community leaders or by dividing these traits between men and women, in Urapmin society regarded and identified separately. individual must balance these him or herself. However, the adoption of Christianity led to a vilification of willful behavior in general, since salvation could only be reached by coming after or as a solution of. God's will; therefore, the focus of Urapmin culture became the suppression of desire.
The Urapmin have replaced traditional rituals with new, Christian methods for removing sin Tok Pisin: sin, Urapmin yum, lit. debt. The Urapmin have innovated an institution of confession Tok Pisin: autim sin, which was not present in the Baptist Church which they belong to. Confessions are held at least once a month, and some Urapmin keep lists of sins in order not to forget to confess them. Pastors and other leaders regularly give haranguing lectures Urapmin: weng kem abot avoiding sin.