Some peculiar Papuan customs
This short note by Miss L. S. Gibbs documents three ethnographic observations made during phytogeographical fieldwork in the Arfak Mountains of Dutch New Guinea in 1913, supplemented by two appendices offering cross-cultural parallels.
Summary
Gibbs records three practices observed among her Wariap and Stari carriers on the south-west coast of Geelvink Bay: the habitual rubbing of Laportea or Fleurya leaves on forearms and legs during mountain climbs; the ritual spiral-slicing of a young man’s calves by a Timorese sergeant; and the application of faeces to the limbs of a woman treated with Glauber’s Salts, apparently as a post-recovery rite (p. 15). She invites readers to supply parallels from other primitive peoples.
Appendix I, by W. R. Humphreys, draws a parallel from the Arawaks and Macusi of British Guiana, who rubbed themselves with a nettle (Kamari?) to stimulate circulation during long journeys and to relieve back-ache (p. 15–16). Appendix II, by H. N. Ridley, cites Giraldus Cambrensis on the Roman practice of using Urtica pilulifera to relieve cold-induced stiffness in Britain, suggesting a common functional logic of urtication across cultures (p. 16).