Gebusi People of Western Province, Papua New Guinea
The Gebusi people of Papua New Guinea have been the focus of Dr. Knauft’s most focused and comprehensive ethnographic research, beginning in 1980.
The various pages of this website include a photo essay concerning the Gebusi in 2008, photos and associated sound clips of Gebusi music from 2008, 1998, and 1981, selected “before and after” photographs, and files that provide the full Notes and References to The Gebusi, 2nd edition.
By summer 2009, a narrated photo and PowerPoint show by Dr. Knauft will be available on this website that presents changes in Gebusi society in relation to the remarkable decline of severe Gebusi violence during the last several decades.
Beyond this website, click on “The Gebusi Information Center” to access approximately 350 color photos of the Gebusi, organized by the chapters of The Gebusi, 2nd edition. (Click on “student edition” and then “choose one” of the book’s chapters to see its associated photographs.)
The few photos below provide a very brief entreé to the Gebusi as they were in 1980.
Photo Credits: Eileen Knauft Cantrell
1. Map of New Guinea (Map of New Guinea, just north of Australia. Note: Gebusi location is shown in red)
2. Gebusi settlement clearing in the rainforest
3. Gebusi man, Uwok, smoking
from a bamboo tobacco pipe
4. Gebusi initiate, Yuway, in his red bird-of-paradise costume
5. Hosts and visitors snap fingers at a funeral feast, 1981
6. Gebusi women, Magi and Mus, in modern costume at a village feast, 1998