Video Links

Part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-PgIW2nOCo

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QELV4mgLf8

Marriages

The women would be promised as the future wife of a young cross cousin. They would live with relatives of the husband. Due to the fact that many women die from the Kuru disease, most men don't end up with a happily ever after. Men will decide to remarry but they do spend alot of time unmarried. Most marriages end because of a death, the divorce rate is very low.

http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Fore-Marriage-and-Family.html

Pictures of The Fore People

Understanding Prion Diseases

Prion Diseases such as Kuru are a class of rare neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. They are also known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. They are distinguished by long incubation periods (in the order of years to decades), characteristic spongiform changes associated with neuronal loss, and a failure to induce inflammatory response.

The causative agents of TSEs are believed to be prions. The term "prions" refers to abnormal, pathogenic agents that are transmissible and are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins called prion proteins that are found most abundantly in the brain. The functions of these normal prion proteins are still not completely understood. The abnormal folding of the prion proteins leads to brain damage and the characteristic signs and symptoms of the disease. Prion diseases are usually rapidly progressive and always fatal.

The most commonly known TSE is Mad Cow Disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE).


One of the biggest misconceptions about Mad Cow Disease and Prion Diseases is that cooking makes the beef, or in the case of the fore the human, safe to eat. This is simply not true as the prion protein can survive extremely high temperatures, so cooking will not protect anyone from this abnormal prion protein.


Sources Referenced and Cited
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/prions/
http://www.umm.edu/features/madcow.htm

The Fore Tribe - A Discovery of a Life Time... Just My Luck

     I swear my luck, if it isn't one thing it's another. First I get guilted into joining up for the war, next I get sent over seas, and then my plane crashes in a remote location that at first appears to be vacant. As time would tell it would be easier if that area was vacant. The people that I encountered there were strange and went about life in a different manner. It was obvious right off the bat that they were tribal and were not familiar with modern day technology. They approached the aircraft as if it was some sort of dark magic and to them I suppose it was. Luckily for me, it was obvious that they had encountered other white men in their life times because while they were a little put off by my presence they were not totally afraid or barbaric. Over time they began to incorporate me into their ways of life and I soon began to understand their language and their different practices. It was upon this careful understanding that I started to realize that something was a little bit ... ummm 'OFF' about these people as a whole. One of the biggest rituals of the 'Fore Tribe' (a term given to them in modern society) pertained to the passing of a tribal members. Upon the death of a member, the women would dismember the corpse (remove both arms and legs), strip the limbs of their muscles, remove the brain and cut open the chest in order to remove internal organs. Now you might be thinking, alright an indigenous group has their own way of going about death, the Faros mummified people for Gods sake. And I would agree that this wasn't too strange if the people of the Fore Tribe did not proceed to eat the body parts... That's right eat the body parts. I soon began to understand that the people that I had taken refuge with were cannibals and that if I were to die while in their realm of land I too would be consumed. More over, I began to realize that there was a large possibility that I had consumed human flesh through out some of the meals that I had taken part in during my time there. . .

     It was impossible to write any more about my time there. Once I realized that consuming human flesh was a possibility I just could not accept said notions. I put all my effort into finding a way out of the tribe into civilization. Lucky for me the colonial government began patrolling the territory and I was capable of getting a ride out. When I returned home I spoke about my discovery of the tribe to some historians and was informed of their name for the tribe. Apparently there had been many whispers of a cannibalistic tribe deep with in the forest and my confirmation was one of historical significance. I was then put in a monitoring facility to access my mental stability. Apparently there is a disease known as 'Kuru' that affects the mind and is transmitted through cannibalism. Lets just add it to my luck, mental disease transmitted through human flesh forced upon me with out my knowledge. What could possibly happen next???

* There was no ONE explorer who discovered the Fore Tribe. Throughout the tribes history explorers had crossed the tribes path. There are also documentations of a plane going down during World War II in the tribes lands and that is where I got the inspiration to write this journal entry. There is much truth with in this journal article and in the late 1940's, colonial government patrols frequented Fore territory. They even went as far as to pass on knowledge and the importance of personal hygiene and road construction. In 1951 a police post was set up in the tribe's territory when transportation through out the region became common. *

SOURCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore_people

http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Fore-i-Orientation-i.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2577135/

Kuru Disease (Fore word for "shiver")

Endocannibalistic rituals were a defining characteristic of the Fore culture. The deaths were so frequent that the word spread all the way to America. The women and younger children would choose their entrees and they mostly consumed nervous tissue. Nervous tissue was most strongly infected by Kuru, which is why the women and children were the ones who were mostly affected by the disease. If they were exposed then fell ill and died, they would most likely be consumed by more Fore people which would cause them to continue to spread the disease. It was only a matter of time until the number of them exposed rose. More people would die until there was no one left. Some of the symptoms include muscle tremors, uncontrollable laughter, slurring of speech and an inability to move and swallow.

Evolution via Cannibalism: The Case of Kuru. http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/2009/11/19/evolution-via-cannibalism-the-case-of-kuru/ accessed November 20, 2012

Gardening

The Fore people build their gardens in cleared forest areas. They fence the garden in and start planting. Sweet potato is their most important crop not only for the people, but also for the pigs. The pigs are a major form of wealth within the Fore group and they are treated like pets. They are fed the garden foods and live very close to their owners. Their gardens also contain small amounts of winged beans, maize, sugarcane, bananas, and many leafy vegetables and herbs. Recently, they started growing peanuts, lima beans, pumpkins, papayas, onions, and cabbages. The major commercial venture in the Fore group is coffee.

Boyd, David. "Fore." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 19 Nov. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Division of Labor

When it comes to work, women have many different tasks. Women do most of the soil preparation, the cultivation, pig tending, harvesting, and transporting of most of the crops. Women have to do most of the childcare even though the older siblings will sometimes be there to help out. Women prepare the food and then also do the cooking. They are also responsible for making all the clothing and net bags. Men are responsible for knocking down trees, obtaining firewood, and preparing the oven fires. Men also make different types of weapons and stone axes.

Boyd, David. "Fore." Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 19 Nov. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Religion of The Fore:

     The Fore people believe heavily in spirits and ghosts both either from the past or spiritual realm. It all derived from a spirited couple who came from the swamp and who was creator of everything. They traveled the land leaving people and animals behind. The spiritual creator left behind beliefs through rituals the Fore partake in their daily lives. People can become sick or be caused misfortune if they disrespect the spirits or ghosts. The spirits can also help them by enriching their gardens and materials needed to survive.

       The Fore group have certain men and women who have special connection with spirits and can gain access with them. There are also curers who control powers from the spirits and use that to their advantage to help people of the Fore group. When people in the Fore tribe become sick men curers called "bark-men" or women curers called "bark-women" can heal them. When it is known that a spirit caused sickness to someone, "dream men" can only cure them through dream states and smoking heavily.

     There are certain ceremonies that young boys and girls go through into manhood or womanhood. Young boys are forced to go live with a group of men for years and take part in things like vomiting, nose bleeding,  and swallowing cane that are suppose to benefit their lives as men. While living with all men they learn the duties as Fore men. Young girls are taken once they start puberty to live with all women and undergo the same rituals but for a Fore woman.

2007 World Culture Encyclopedia, 

http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Fore-i-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture-i.html, accessed November 14, 2012

Topography of Okapa District

Climate of the Fore

The Fore People live in the Eastern Highland portion of Papua New Guinea. The province lies at an altitude of roughly 3000 meters above sea level or 1.86 miles (Akogere, 2005). At these altitudes, the Waneviniti Mountains separate the Fore into the North and South Fore. These mountainous grasslands and jungles yield weak soils, which force the Fore into being slash and burn farmers. The Fore, who probably started off as subsistent farmers, now mostly grow coffee as a form of cash crop. The Fore, as well as the majority of tribes on Papua New Guinea, grow coffee and sell their harvest to coffee manufacturers. The area experiences an average of 4.7 inches of rain (NSOPNG, 2003). The Fore’s slice of Papua New Guinea averages from a low of 59.54˚F and a high of 80.24˚F. The Okapa District lies just 6˚ South of the equator. The district faces varying mean humidity, from 87% to 57% at different times of the day (Akogere, 2005). These conditions lead to comfortable conditions for the Fore peoples.

Source:

National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea

2003. Weather Station Monthly. Electronic Document, http://www.spc.int/PRISM/country/pg/Stats/Environment/enviro.htm, accessed November 14, 2012.

Akogere Estates LTD

2005. Facts – Eastern Highlands. Electronic Documents, http://www.easternhighlands.com.pg/facts.htm, accessed November 14, 2012.

Food:

     The Fore are known as a horticultural group, one's that take part in agriculture and gardening. It was acceptable to cook and eat human flesh of a dead person. When resources became scarce because of increase in population and cultivation and rid of forest that decreased the number of animals in the area, women turned to eating human flesh. Among the Fore, there were gender differences in food consumption. While the women ate human flesh to live (but was not preferred), men were able to eat the preferred needed protein that was available. That is why the disease Kuru, caused from eating human flesh (brains), showed mostly in women.

Mudrake

2009 Gene change in cannibals reveals evolution in action. Word Press, November 19: 1

2006 Anthropology. Economic Systems. Barbara D. Miller, with Bernard Wood, Andrew 

Ballansky, Julio Mercader, and Melissa Panger, eds. Pp 337-338. Boston, MA.