''White Papuan. Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay against the background of the era''

It is very logical to start the story about our trip to Papuasia with a story about the Papuans themselves.
If there were no Papuans, half the problems on the trip to the Carstensz Pyramid would not have happened either. But there wouldn't be half the charm and exoticism.

In general, it’s difficult to say whether it would be better or worse... And there’s no reason to. At least for now - for now there is no escape from the Papuans on the expedition to the Carstensz Pyramid.

So, our expedition Carstensz 2015 began, like all similar expeditions: Bali airport - Timika airport.

A bunch of luggage, a sleepless night. Vain attempts to somehow get some sleep on the plane.

Timika is still a civilization, but already Papua. You understand this from the very first steps. Or from the first announcements in the toilet.

But our path lies even further. From Timika we need to fly on a small charter plane to the village of Sugapa. Previously, expeditions started from the village of Ilaga. The path there is easier, a little shorter. But for the last three years, so-called separatists have settled in Ilaga. Therefore, expeditions start from Sugapa.

Roughly speaking, Papua is a region occupied by Indonesia. Papuans do not consider themselves Indonesians. Previously, the government paid them money. Just like that. Because they are Papuans. For the last fifteen years they have stopped paying money. But Papuans are used to having (relatively) white people give them money.
Now this “must give” is displayed mainly on tourists.

Not so cheerful after the night flight, we and all our belongings moved to the house next to the airport - from where small planes take off.

This moment can be considered the starting point of the expedition. All certainties are ending. Nobody ever gives accurate information. Everything can happen in five minutes, or in two hours, or in a day.
And you can’t do anything, nothing depends on you.
Nothing teaches patience and humility like the road to Carstensz.

Three hours of waiting, and we move towards the plane.
And here they are - the first real Papuans, waiting to fly to their villages.

They really don't like being photographed. And in general, the arrival of a crowd of strangers does not evoke any positive emotions in them.
Well, okay, we have no time for them yet. We have more important things to do.
First they weigh our luggage, and then all of us with hand luggage. Yes, yes, this is not a joke. In a small plane, weight comes in kilograms, so the weight of each passenger is carefully recorded.

On the way back, during the weigh-in, the live weight of the event participants decreased significantly. And the weight of the luggage too.

We weighed ourselves and checked in our luggage. And wait again. This time in the best airport hotel - Papua Holiday. At least nowhere does one sleep as sweetly as there.

The command “it’s time to land” pulls us out of our sweet dreams.
Here is our white-winged bird, ready to take it to the magical land of Papuasia.

Half an hour of flight and we find ourselves in another world. Everything here is unusual and somehow extreme.
Starting from a super short runway.

And ending with the suddenly running Papuans.

They were already waiting for us.
A gang of Indonesian motorcyclists. They were supposed to take us to the last village.
And the Papuans. There are a lot of Papuans. Who had to decide whether to let us reach this village at all.
They quickly grabbed our bags, pulled us aside and started debating.

The women sat separately. Closer to us. Laugh, chat. Even flirt a little.

The men in the distance got down to serious business.

Well, I finally got to the morals and customs of the Papuans.

Patriarchy reigns in Papuasia.
Polygamy is accepted here. Almost every man has two or three wives. The wives have five, six, seven children.
Next time I will show a Papuan village, houses and how they all live there in such a big cheerful crowd

So here it is. Let's get back to families.
Men are engaged in hunting, protecting the home and solving important issues.
Women do everything else.

Hunting doesn't happen every day. There is also no one to protect the house from.
Therefore, a man’s typical day goes like this: he wakes up, drinks a cup of tea or coffee or poo and walks around the village to see what’s new. Returns home by lunchtime. Having lunch. He continues his walks around the village, communicating with neighbors. In the evening he has dinner. Then, judging by the number of children in the villages, he deals with demographic problems and goes to bed to continue his hard everyday life in the morning.

A woman wakes up early in the morning. Prepares tea, coffee and other breakfast. And then he takes care of the house, children, garden and other nonsense. The whole day from morning to evening.

The Indonesian guys told me all this in response to my question: why do men carry practically nothing, while women carry heavy bags.
Men are simply not designed for hard daily work. As in the joke: war will come, and I’m tired...

So. Our Papuans began discussing whether to let us through Sugapa or not. If allowed, then under what conditions?
Actually, it's all about the conditions.

Time passed, negotiations dragged on.

Everything was ready to go on the expedition. Boots, umbrellas, weapons and other necessities.

A couple of hours passed in conversation.
And suddenly a new team: motorcycles! Hurray, the first stage is completed!

Do you think that's all? No. This is just the beginning.
The village elders, two military men, two policemen, and sympathizing Papuans set off with us.

Why so much?
To resolve emerging issues.
Questions arose literally immediately.

As I already wrote, since the seventies, the Indonesian government has been paying money to the Papuans. Just like that. All you had to do was go to the bank once a month, stand in line and get a bunch of money.
Then they stopped giving money. But the feeling that the money should be there just like that remains.

A way to get money was found quickly enough. Literally with the arrival of the first tourists.
This is how the favorite entertainment of the Papuans appeared - rod blocks.

A stick is placed in the middle of the road. And you can’t step over it.

What happens if you cross the line?
According to the Indonesian guys, they might throw stones, they might throw something else, in general, please don’t.
This is puzzling. Well, they won't kill you...
Why not?
Human life is worthless here. Formally, Indonesian laws apply in Papua. In reality, local laws take precedence.
According to them, if you killed a person, it is enough, in agreement with the relatives of the murdered person, to pay a small fine.
There is a suspicion that for the murder of a white stranger, not only will they not be fined, but they will also receive gratitude.

The Papuans themselves are hot-tempered. They quickly move away, but at the first moment they don’t have much control over themselves in anger.
We saw how they chased their wives with machetes.
Assault is the order of the day for them. At the end of the trip, the wives who set off with their husbands walked around covered in bruises.

So, they will throw stones or shoot you in the back with a bow - no one wanted to experiment.
Therefore, negotiations began at each stick placed on the ground.

At first it looks like a theatrical performance.
Ridiculously dressed people in shorts and T-shirts, decorated with colored plastic beads and feathers, stand in the middle of the road and begin to make a fiery speech.

Speeches are given exclusively by men.
They perform one at a time. They speak passionately and loudly. In the most dramatic moments, throwing their hats on the ground.
Women sometimes get into arguments. But somehow they always come together, creating an unimaginable hubbub.

The discussion flares up and then dies down.
The negotiators stop speaking and go in different directions to sit and think.

If we translated the dialogue into Russian, it would look something like this:
- We won't let these white people pass through our village.
- You should let these nice people through - these are already paid elders of other tribes.
- Okay, but let them pay us and take our women as porters
- Of course they will pay you. And we’ll decide about the porters tomorrow.
- Agreed. Give us five million
- Yes, you went nuts

And then the bargaining begins... And again the hats fly to the ground and the women cry.

The guys seeing this all for the first time are quietly freaking out. And they say quite sincerely: “Are you sure you didn’t pay them for this performance?”
It all looks too unreal.

And the main thing is that local residents, especially children, perceive it all as a theatrical show.
They sit and stare.

Half an hour passes, an hour, in the most severe cases - two hours. Negotiators reach the generally accepted sum of a million Indonesian tugriks. The stick moves away and our cavalcade rushes on.

The first time it's even funny. The second one is still interesting.
The third, the fourth - and now it’s all starting to get a little annoying.

From Sugapa to Suangama - the final destination of our trip - 20 kilometers. It took us more than seven hours to overcome them.
There were six road blocks in total.

It was getting dark. Everyone was already wet from the rain. It was starting to get dark and it was getting downright cold.
And here, from my valiant team, I began to receive more and more persistent proposals to switch to commodity-money relations and pay the Papuans as much money as they wanted so that they would let us through quickly.

And I tried to explain that that’s all. These same commodity-money relations do not work.
All laws ended somewhere in the Timika area.
You can pay once. But next time (and we have to come back) they will ask us to pay much more. And there will no longer be six but sixteen blocks.
This is the logic of the Papuans.

Somewhere at the beginning of the trip, I was asked in bewilderment: “Well, they hired us to work, they must fulfill their obligations.” And these words made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

The Papuans have no concept of "obligation". Today one mood, tomorrow another... And in general, the Papuans are somehow tense with the concept of morality. That is, it is completely absent.

We overcame the last block in the dark.
The protracted negotiations were beginning to strain not only us. Motorcyclists actively began to hint that they needed to return to Sugapa. With or without us.

As a result, in the dark, along a mountain road in the rain, on motorcycles without headlights, we reached the last village before the jungle - Suangami.
The next day there was another show called “porters are hired for an expedition.” And how this happens, why it cannot be avoided and how it all ends, I will tell you next time.

One of the most memorable books from school was “The Clay Papuan.”
The book is the same age as me, 1966. It is a collection of stories in hardcover and with memorable b/w illustrations. That year, a book from the school library of the small seaside port city of Nakhodka ended up in my hands; it was already quite shabby, carrying a trace of a certain mystery and a feeling of uncertain influence on the fate of its reader in the future.

The writer was born in 1907 in the city of Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude), spent the first year of his life in prison, where his parents were imprisoned for revolutionary activities. In 1923 he moved to Petrograd, where he entered the literary department of the Faculty of Language and Material Culture of Leningrad State University. He was expelled from the university for the novel “Cow” he wrote (published in 2000 in the magazine “Zvezda” No. 10), after which he devoted himself entirely to literary activity. He spent the 1930s in the Far North. In 1933, the first book of his stories, “Painting,” was published in Leningrad. In 1934, Gore was admitted to the Union of Soviet Writers.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he joined the people's militia.

In the 60s he headed the Central Literary Association of Leningrad.
Since the 1960s, he has gained fame as an author of fantasy works.

“This amazing story began with the fact that a clay Papuan in the museum accidentally broke his finger, with which he was pulling the bowstring, and an arrow hit Vitka Korovin in the chest. A rare occurrence, but in the hospital he met a boy named Gromov, whose father made a serious discovery that aliens visited our Earth in the Cretaceous period and left a message for us."

About the book:
Looking ahead, I will say that many of the stories described take place in the city on the Neva.
"I was riding on a tram with my mother. We were going to Chernaya Rechka to visit friends to congratulate them on their housewarming. And on my mother’s lap in a white case lay a huge cake, bought at the Sever confectionery. Everything was as usual on the tram. Some people were standing The others were sitting holding their belts. And one of them was reading the newspaper. I looked over his shoulder and looked at the third page, and the letters began to jump, as if I was looking at them through my father’s glasses. But I managed to read:
“The information copies of the aliens who visited Earth during the Jurassic period, found by Professor Gromov, are being studied...”

“Everything that is next to him on the Petrograd Side or on Vasilyevsky Island, but he did not appreciate what is far away, in the past or future.”

The book also mentions the House of Books on Nevsky and even the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynecology on Vasilyevsky Island!
It will be interesting for everyone, both adults and children.))

“Aristotle drowned while swimming in the Gulf of Finland the year he was finishing his dissertation on the paradox of time. The world lost at that hour not only a new Leonardo, but perhaps a new Einstein.”

- In the story “The Annoying Interlocutor,” excerpts from the diary of a space alien stuck on prehistoric Earth allow the author to confront representatives of different historical eras.
- earthly life, seen through the eyes of an alien child living on Earth, is used in the story “Boy” (1965) (continued - the story “Clay Papuan” (1966)
- In the story “Olga Nsu” (1965) The problems of immortality and prolongation of human memory are discussed.
- Hero of the story “The Great Actor Jones” (1966) , “reincarnated” as Edgar Poe, visits St. Petersburg in the 19th century.

The works of Gennady Gora have been translated into English, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Georgian, Chinese, Korean, Mongolian, German, Polish, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, French, Czech, Japanese.

Marina Timasheva: Continuing the theme of anthropology started in the last program - real anthropology, as my interlocutor would clarify - we present a book about a man who became the founder and personification of this science in Russia. The Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology and the Eastern Literature publishing house published Daniil Tumarkin’s book “White Papuan. Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay against the background of the era "". So, before us is a fundamental - 600 pages - biography of a scientist and traveler, who, however, has not been deprived of attention before. A specialized institute was named after him, his birthday became a professional holiday, and not only his colleagues - the children knew who he was. In the preface of today’s book, I read that his image “is shrouded in legends... The literature about him is characterized by his idealization and mythologization” (3) - and I would like to clarify with our reviewer Ilya Smirnov: that the new research has somehow significantly changed the idea about Miklouho-Maclay, shaped by the black-and-white screen and children's books?

Ilya Smirnov: If you mean the story "The Man from the Moon", I will answer honestly: it has not fundamentally changed. Enriched with additional information, clarified details, corrected some errors in the questionnaire. For example. The Scottish ancestor Maclay, who allegedly was captured by the Cossacks in the 17th century and gave the Miklukhs the second half of their surname, has no reliable confirmation (79). However, there are quite a few such genealogical fantasies about a “noble husband” from somewhere abroad in the genealogies of more eminent persons, even the most august
The hero of the book was the son of a railway engineer, he never acquired wealth and power (like his father), but created fame for himself. His life was short (1846 - 1888) and amazing.
As a rule, scientists study myths, but do not become their heroes. And in New Guinea there are legends about a white-skinned alien - the color of the moon - who taught people to use iron tools (instead of stone) and many other useful things

Ilya Smirnov: Yes, like Prometheus. But in his homeland he became a kind of cultural hero. Several generations were brought up by his example - “to make life from someone.” Remember, Vysotsky is about children's books. May God grant that the next generation read the right books about real people in childhood. Miklouho-Maclay is one of the last well-known naturalists of a wide profile in the history of world science, who placed man and the manifestations of his culture within the geographical environment at the center of his research, but also actively worked in branches of natural science not directly related to this issue (oceanography , geology, etc.)"" (563). For example, we owe him the acquaintance with a wonderful creature called couscous. "" June 13. The small couscous I purchased a few weeks ago is thriving and growing for me. Eats everything: rice, ayan, bau, coconuts, sweet potatoes and loves bananas. During the day he usually sleeps curled up, but still eats if given to him; at night he mercilessly gnaws the wood of the box where I plant him."
But it is impossible to correctly understand the “white Papuan” without taking into account the fact that in his own formulation it sounds like this: “The only goal of my life is the benefit and success of science for the benefit of humanity” (49). These components – scientific and moral – are inseparable. As the French professor Gabriel Monod wrote about him, “he serves science as others serve religion... The most sincere and consistent idealist I have ever met” (435).

Marina Timasheva: It turns out that modern anthropologists have someone to follow as an example.

Ilya Smirnov: Undoubtedly. And Daniil Davydovich Tumarkin, also a colleague of Miklukh-Maclay, conducted ethnographic research (212) in the same areas - and in the book he continues the tradition that comes to us from the Russian democratic intelligentsia of the 19th century through the entire 20th century. The biography is indeed very detailed. All controversial issues, the nuances of the hero’s relationships with colleagues and relatives, with superiors of various ranks, on whom the financing of the expeditions depended, were sorted out. Miklouho-Maclay’s own words: “It’s stupid to depend on such rubbish as money!” (129). And then I would highlight several storylines. Firstly, the social views of the future scientist - and after all, he was still a high school student behind bars in the Peter and Paul Fortress as a participant in a demonstration (29) - this factor was not accidental and extraneous to his main specialty. In general, progress and reaction are clearly separated in the book (109, 422, 442, etc.)

Marina Timasheva: It seems that now these words - “progress”, “reaction” - are not at all fashionable. Even in scholarly works they are sometimes put in quotation marks. The so-called progress.

Ilya Smirnov: But the author of the book is not afraid to pronounce them. And how could it be otherwise? After all, the views of the book’s hero were based on “the conviction in the equal ability of all peoples ... to move along the path of progress” (422). Both components are important in this formula. “He tried to supplement the scientific criticism of racism with practical actions for the benefit of oppressed peoples” (287). A fragment of the manuscript has been preserved: the young Miklouho-Maclay was translating “The Natural History of Peacemaking” by his teacher, the great biologist Ernst Haeckel. ""True knowledge of the most general laws of nature, the highest triumph of the human mind should not remain the private property of a privileged learned caste, but become the common property of all mankind"" (83). The publication of this work was banned in Russia for “shaking the foundations of religion.” And Miklouho-Maclay, already when he himself became famous, was targeted by the “chauvinist newspaper “Novoye Vremya” (496).
However, the reaction is not only medieval, monarchical and in the East. The Russian scientist’s worldview is formed in polemics with eminent Western colleagues, including his teacher. Haeckel considered “the Papuans the ‘missing link’ between man and their animal ancestors... Nikolai Nikolaevich could not agree with this formulation of the question” (125). It is perfectly shown that even advanced science, if it is independent of morality, can become a justification for degradation. In this case, it is mass murder and the slave trade.

Marina Timasheva: Wait. It seems that by that time slavery had already been prohibited in all the major world powers.

Ilya Smirnov: On paper this is exactly the case, but in fact in the region where Maclay worked, it flourished, covered by the fig leaf of “contracts”, when a person was given something incomprehensible to sign in an unknown language, after which his land and children were taken away, and he himself was driven into camp barracks (415, 389). ""Mr. Maclay, having visited one of these schooners (slave traders - I.S.) in the roadstead of Noumea, saw a group of black children aged from 10 to 15 years. He asked the captain, and then the state commissioner, how it happened that boys too young to work usefully were recruited. Both answered: “You see, there is no arguing about tastes” (389). There was, to quote W. Gladstone, “a trade in people, incorrectly called a trade in free labor” (467). That is, in the 19th century, the English prime minister understood, and in the 21st we have to listen to rantings about the fact that if residents of devastated countries, who literally have nothing to eat, sell themselves for pennies in the service of “commercial and entertainment biomass”, then this is being done allegedly “ "freely" and "voluntarily", and modern slaves should still be grateful for the fact that they are "fed". And here is one of the paradoxes of real history. The allies of the unbelieving naturalist Maclay, who spoke very skeptically about the missionaries (423), could have been not his scientific colleagues, but, for example, James Chalmers, “come from a poor family (the son of a mason)”, who defended the natives from slave traders and land speculators , guided by “church dogmas about the creation of all human races by the heavenly Creator” (395).

Marina Timasheva: I will interrupt you to clarify: did these learned colleagues not understand at all what Miklouho-Maclay understood?

Ilya Smirnov: The fashion was on the so-called. ""scientific racism"". It is now fashionable to explain behavior by “genes.” And most importantly... I’d better answer you in the words of the hero of the book himself, who in democratic Queensland very accurately formulated the connection between opinion and interest. ""...Very few want to see the real state of affairs, which is beneficial for themselves or their friends... The majority do not want to know the truth, which will not hurt, however, this majority, when it is too late, pretending to assure that they never suspected... and was indignant against the trade in human flesh and barbaric violence"" (415).
For example, the aforementioned Gladstone dissociated himself from some of the colonial adventures begun by Disraeli. But his cabinet also pursued policies in the interests of the English bourgeoisie, and the latter demanded new seizures. Gladstone's peace-loving election promises were discarded already in 1882, when, under pressure from British financial circles, he agreed to occupy Egypt"" (424)
At the same time, Miklouho-Maclay himself was not at all a politically correct amoeba. Yes, he entered into an agreement with the captain, which prohibited, in the event of his death, reprisals against the natives under the pretext of “punishment” (373). But, when necessary, he could take up arms himself (278) and, judging by the episodes cited in the book, he did not at all believe that representatives of oppressed peoples were allowed everything. Equal rights mean equal responsibilities, right? But it is specific criminals who must answer, not entire tribes (419). In France, they didn’t burn down an entire village because its resident robbed or even killed someone.
Maclay appears, on the one hand, of course, as Don Quixote (564) and a utopian. Well, the Papuan tribes of that time, even under his leadership, could not create an independent state. On the other hand, in order to delay their colonial enslavement as far as possible and minimize the destructive consequences - for the sake of this historical delay, he rather deftly maneuvered between the rulers of the great powers (501), used all his popularity, signed letters (454) that could be delivered to blame if you don’t know that you didn’t ask for yourself. For the people who trusted him, and he truly became one of them.
Another storyline that runs throughout the book is incredible willpower. After all, the traveler was a seriously ill person. How did he manage to get into Heidelberg University after being expelled from St. Petersburg? It turns out that after an examination by “a commission of 9 doctors at the police department” (39), he was given a foreign passport specifically for treatment. All his life he was tormented by malaria (211). "He was a hero who overcomes himself" (188). And at the same time... well, not to use the harsh word “womanizer”, he was a great success among the fair sex, be it scantily clad aborigines or European aristocrats.
But as for the research methodology: since the islanders ““answered questions about their customs for the most part only out of politeness,” Miklouho-Maclay ““almost did not resort to questioning, ... preferred to see everything with his own eyes”” (223). A lesson for modern sociologists who do exactly the opposite.
In general, I cannot retell the 600-page work. I would also like to thank the author for making the story of the glorious traveler in his version more voluminous and more picturesque. For example, I personally was interested to know that Alexander the Third, to whom the attitude in serious historical literature, frankly speaking, is not the best, had at least one advantage: he sympathized with Miklouho-Maclay, defended him from attacks and, apparently, sincerely wanted to support his New Guinea utopian projects (454). But, as they say, even kings can’t do everything.

Marina Timasheva: Well, it turns out that from a practical point of view, the hero of the book is a loser?

Ilya Smirnov: How to judge this? On what page should you close your history textbook and sum it up? Is Alexander the Great lucky if the empire collapsed immediately after his death? Is Lenin a lucky man? Looks like he built it. But not quite what I wanted. Fate saved Miklouho-Maclay from disappointment of the second kind: dreams that came true. But now we can appreciate the fact that the inhabitants of New Guinea did not share the fate of the Australian Aborigines or Tasmanians.
In conclusion, I will allow myself to disagree with the author of the book “White Papuan” as far as modern readers are concerned. In my opinion, he underestimates them somewhat. In any case, the part that reads thick books about scientists. “Readers are probably looking forward to the story about the development of Miklouho-Maclay’s relationship with the ladies from the Loudon family...” (290) Focusing on this hypothetical request, the author “revives” the already adventurous biography with piquant details, like photographs.” "Naked girlfriend of Nikolai Miklukha. Jena "" (63) and scraps of notes in which the traveler, indeed, allowed himself to comment with natural scientific directness on subjects that were completely taboo for the Victorian society of that time. Our society, thank God, is not Victorian, we have the right to discuss any topics, but since we still cannot reliably reconstruct the hero’s personal life, his relationships with women, then perhaps there is no point in giving rise to ambiguous interpretations (for example, 399 ). In my opinion, it would be better to tell in more detail about the origin of those peoples that Miklouho-Maclay encountered in his expeditions. Maybe include a special reference chart with the book. Moreover, it is in this area that many important discoveries have been made.

Marina Timasheva: Ilya Smirnov introduced us to a new fundamental biography of Miklouho-Maclay, a man who became a hero of myths in New Guinea, and in world science one of the creators of the doctrine of the unity of mankind and the equality of all races and peoples.

In November 1961, Michael Clark Rockefeller, the son of an American billionaire, disappeared in Asmat, one of the remote regions of New Guinea. This message caused a sensation precisely because one of the Rockefellers disappeared: after all, on Earth, unfortunately, every year, without causing much noise, a considerable number of researchers die and go missing. Especially in places like Asmat, a giant jungle-covered swamp.

Asmat is famous for its wood carvers, the Wou-Ipiua as they are called there, and Michael was collecting a collection of Asmat art.

A lot of people were raised to search for the missing person. Michael's father, New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller, flew in from New York, and with him were thirty, two American correspondents, and the same number from other countries. About two hundred Asmats voluntarily and on their own initiative searched the coast.

A week later, the search was stopped without finding any traces of the missing man.

It was assumed, based on the available facts, that Michael had drowned.

Some people, however, doubted: had he become a victim of bounty hunters? But the leaders of the Asmatian villages rejected this idea with indignation: after all, Michael was an honorary member of the tribe.

With the passage of time, the name of the deceased ethnographer disappeared from the pages of newspapers and magazines. His diaries formed the basis of the book, and the collections he collected adorned the New York Museum of Prehistoric Art. These things were of purely scientific interest, and the general public began to forget the mysterious story that happened in the swampy land of the Asmats.

But in a world where a sensation, no matter how ridiculous, means a sure opportunity to make big money, the story of the billionaire's son was not destined to end there...

At the end of 1969, an article by a certain Garth Alexander appeared in the Australian newspaper Reveille with a categorical and intriguing headline: “I tracked down the cannibals who killed Rockefeller.”

“...It is widely believed that Michael Rockefeller drowned or was killed by a crocodile off the southern coast of New Guinea while trying to swim to shore.

However, in March of this year, a Protestant missionary informed me that the Papuans living near his mission killed and ate a white man seven years ago. They still have his glasses and watch. Their village is called Oschanep.

Without much thought, I went to the indicated place to find out the circumstances there. I managed to find a guide, a Papuan named Gabriel, and up the river flowing through the swamps, we sailed for three days before reaching the village. Two hundred painted warriors met us in Oschanepa. The drums thundered all night. In the morning, Gabriel told me that he could bring a man who, for a couple of packs of tobacco, was ready to tell me how it all happened.

The story turned out to be extremely primitive and, I would even say, ordinary.

— A white man, naked and alone, staggered out of the sea. He was probably sick, because he lay down on the shore and still couldn’t get up. People from Oschanep saw him. There were three of them, and they thought it was a sea monster. And they killed him.

I asked about the names of the killers. The Papuan remained silent. I insisted. Then he reluctantly muttered:

“One of the people was Chief Ove.”

-Where is he now?

- And others?

But the Papuan remained stubbornly silent.

— Did the dead man have mugs in front of his eyes? - I meant glasses.

The Papuan nodded.

- Is there a watch on your hand?

- Yes. He was young and slender. He had fiery hair.

So, eight years later, I managed to find the man who saw (and perhaps killed) Michael Rockefeller. Without allowing the Papuan to come to his senses, I quickly asked:

- So who were those two people?

A noise was heard from behind. Silent painted people crowded behind me. Many clutched spears in their hands. They listened carefully to our conversation. They may not have understood everything, but the name Rockefeller was certainly familiar to them. It was useless to inquire further - my interlocutor looked frightened.

I'm sure he was telling the truth.

Why did they kill Rockefeller? They probably mistook him for a sea spirit. After all, Papuans are sure that evil spirits have white skin. Or it is possible that a lonely and weak person seemed like a tasty prey to them.

In any case, it is clear that two of the killers are still alive; That’s why my informant got scared. He had already told me too much and was now ready to confirm only what I already knew - the people from Oschanep killed Rockefeller when they saw him crawling out of the sea.

When, exhausted, he lay down on the sand, three men, led by Ove, raised spears that ended the life of Michael Rockefeller...”

Garth Alexander's story might seem true if...

If almost simultaneously with the Reveille newspaper, a similar story had not been published by the Oceania magazine, also published in Australia. Only this time, Michael Rockefeller's glasses were "discovered" in the village of Atch, twenty-five miles from Oschanep.

In addition, both stories contained picturesque details that made experts on the life and customs of New Guinea wary.

First of all, the explanation of the motives for the murder did not seem very convincing. If people from Oschanep (according to another version - from Atcha) had really mistook the ethnographer crawling out of the sea for an evil spirit, then they would not have raised their hand against him. Most likely, they would simply run away, because among the countless ways to fight evil spirits, there is no face-to-face battle with them.

The “spirit” version most likely disappeared. Moreover, people from the Asmatian villages knew Rockefeller well enough to mistake him for someone else. And since they knew him, they would hardly have attacked him. Papuans, according to people who know them well, are unusually loyal in friendship.

When, after some time, traces of the missing ethnographer began to be “found” in almost all coastal villages, it became clear that this was a matter of pure fiction. Indeed, the audit showed that in two cases the story of Rockefeller’s disappearance was told to the Papuans by missionaries, and in the rest, the Asmatians, gifted with a couple of packs of tobacco, as a return courtesy, told the correspondents what they wanted to hear.

No real traces of Rockefeller could be found this time either, and the mystery of his disappearance remained the same mystery.

Perhaps it would not be worth remembering more about this story, if not for one circumstance - the glory of cannibals, which, thanks to the light hand of gullible (and sometimes unscrupulous) travelers, was firmly entrenched in the Papuans. It was she who ultimately made any guesses and assumptions plausible.

Among the geographical records of deep antiquity, man-eaters - anthropophagi - occupied a strong place next to people with dog heads, one-eyed Cyclops and dwarfs living underground. It should be recognized that, unlike the dog heads and cyclops, cannibals actually existed. Moreover, during her time, cannibalism was found everywhere on Earth, not excluding Europe. (By the way, how else than a relic of deep antiquity can one explain communion in the Christian church, when believers “eat the body of Christ”?) But even in those times it was an exceptional phenomenon rather than an everyday occurrence. It is human nature to distinguish himself and others like him from the rest of nature.

In Melanesia - and New Guinea is part of it (albeit very different from the rest of Melanesia) - cannibalism was associated with inter-tribal hostility and frequent wars. Moreover, it must be said that it assumed wide dimensions only in the 19th century, not without the influence of Europeans and the firearms they imported. This sounds paradoxical. Were it not the European missionaries who worked to wean the “savage” and “ignorant” natives from their bad habits, sparing both their own efforts and the natives? Didn’t every colonial power swear (and still swear to this day) that all its activities were aimed only at bringing the light of civilization to godforsaken places?

But in reality, it was the Europeans who began to supply the leaders of the Melanesian tribes with guns and incite their internecine wars. But it was New Guinea that did not know such wars, just as it did not know hereditary leaders who were identified as a special caste (and on many islands cannibalism was the exclusive privilege of the leaders). Of course, the Papuan tribes were at enmity (and are still at enmity in many areas of the island) among themselves, but war between tribes occurs no more than once a year and lasts until one warrior is killed. (If the Papuans were civilized people, would they be satisfied with one warrior? Isn’t this convincing proof of their savagery?!)

But among the negative qualities that the Papuans attribute to their enemies, cannibalism always comes first. It turns out that they, the enemy neighbors, are dirty, wild, ignorant, deceitful, treacherous and cannibals. This is the most serious charge. There is no doubt that the neighbors, in turn, are no less generous with unflattering epithets. And of course, they confirm, our enemies are undoubted cannibals. In general, for most tribes, cannibalism is no less disgusting than for you and me. (True, ethnographers know of some mountain tribes in the interior of the island who do not share this aversion. But - and all trustworthy researchers agree on this - they never hunt people.) Since much information about unexplored areas was obtained precisely through questioning local population, then “tribes of white-skinned Papuans”, “New Guinea Amazons” and numerous notes appeared on the maps: “the area is inhabited by cannibals”.

In 1945, many soldiers of the defeated Japanese army in New Guinea fled to the mountains. For a long time no one remembered them - there was no time for that, sometimes expeditions that got into the interior of the island came across these Japanese. If it was possible to convince them that the war was over and they had nothing to fear, they returned home, where their stories ended up in newspapers. In 1960, a special expedition to New Guinea set off from Tokyo. We managed to find about thirty former soldiers. They all lived among the Papuans, many were even married, and the corporal of the medical service, Kenzo Nobusuke, even held the post of shaman of the Kuku-Kuku tribe. According to the unanimous opinion of these people, who have gone through “fire, water and copper pipes”, the traveler in New Guinea (provided that he does not attack first) does not face any danger from the Papuans. (The value of the Japanese’s testimony also lies in the fact that they visited various parts of the giant island, including Asmat.)

In 1968, the boat of an Australian geological expedition capsized on the Sepik River. Only Collector Kilpatrick, a young guy who first came to New Guinea, managed to escape. After two days of wandering through the jungle, Kilpatrick came to the village of the Tangawata tribe, who were recorded by experts who had never been in those places as the most desperate cannibals. Fortunately, the collector did not know this, because, in his words, “had I known this, I would have died of fear when they put me in a net attached to two poles and carried me to the village.” The Papuans decided to carry him because they saw that he could barely move from fatigue. Only three months later did Kilpatrick manage to reach the Seventh-day Adventist mission. And all this time he was led, literally passed from hand to hand, by people of different tribes, about whom the only thing known was that they were cannibals!

“These people know nothing about Australia or its government,” Kilpatrick writes. - But do we know more about them? They are considered savages and cannibals, and yet I have not seen the slightest suspicion or hostility on their part. I have never seen them beat children. They are incapable of stealing. Sometimes it seemed to me that these people were much better than us.”

In general, the majority of benevolent and honest researchers and travelers who made their way through coastal swamps and inaccessible mountains, visited the deep valleys of the Ranger Range, and saw a variety of tribes, come to the conclusion that the Papuans are extremely friendly and smart people.

“Once,” writes the English ethnographer Clifton, “at a club in Port Moresby we started talking about the fate of Michael Rockefeller. My interlocutor snorted:

- Why bother? They devoured it, they didn't have it for long.

We argued for a long time, I could not convince him, and he could not convince me. And even if we had been arguing for even a year, I would have remained confident that the Papuans - and I got to know them well - are incapable of causing harm to a person who came to them with a kind heart.

More and more I am surprised by the deep contempt that Australian administration officials have for these people. Even to the most educated patrol officer, the locals are "rock monkeys." The word used to call Papuans here is “dli”. (This word is untranslatable, but means an extreme degree of contempt for the person it denotes.) For the Europeans here, “oli” is something that, unfortunately, exists. No one teaches their languages, no one really tells you about their customs and habits. Savages, cannibals, monkeys - that’s all...”

Any expedition erases a “white spot” from the map, and often in places marked by the brown color of the mountains, the greenery of the lowlands appears, and the bloodthirsty savages, who immediately devour any stranger, do not turn out to be such upon closer examination. The purpose of any search is to destroy ignorance, including that ignorance that makes people savages.

But, in addition to ignorance, there is also a reluctance to know the truth, a reluctance to see changes, and this reluctance gives rise to and tries to preserve the wildest, most cannibalistic ideas...