From polished stone tool to sacred axe: the axes of the Danis of Irian Jaya, Indonesia

Abstract

The groups inhabiting central Irian Jaya are classless societies in which social and economic competition is manifested through leaders whose position is not hereditary. Cultivated land outside the villages is not maintained over long periods. There are open plantations in the forest (with long fallow periods) or closed plantations in the valleys where herbaceous vegetation and planted trees dominate (short fallow periods). In both cases the plots are abandoned anywhere between several months and several years after their initial cultivation. The axe and the adze are associated with the digging stick and land clearance by brush fires, and they are the farmers' basic tools in the battle against wild vegetation in order to alter their environment.

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