Biblical Allusions in Papuan Mythical Folktales and Their Effects on Material Culture Development for the Papuans

Abstract


 
 
 Powerful texts may have great impacts on the many people who read them. This article examined the biblical allusions found in two Papuan myths and discussed their impacts as seen in the material culture. The books in the Bible that the myths allude to are the Old Testament: Isaiah, Exodus, Genesis, and Deuteronomy and the New Testaments: Luke, John, Mark, and Revelations. The sources suggested that the biblical information might have been heard sporadically by the Sawi/Auyu and the Tabi from earlier Europeans. The formal contacts which brought the Bible, though, came in the 1800s. This means that the impacts of the great biblical stories had not been there long enough to internalize in the people’s lives so as to trigger significant material culture - let alone the highest linguistic diversity. Furthermore, the geographical challenges made it even worse for the people to have to endure the hardship, and made it difficult to obtain healthy, nutritional, and sufficient food sources for the improvement of human resources which would have been necessary for creating significant material culture.
 
 
 
 Keywords: biblical allusion, Papuan mythology, material culture, Kwembo, Ataphapkon