Stirling New Guinea expedition
odd: label: Local Number
content: HSFA 1987.4.1
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Stirling, Matthew Williams, 1896-1975
label: Collection Creator
content: Stewart, Richard H. (Richard Hewett), 1901-2004
setName: label: See more items in
content: Matthew Stirling collection
physdesc: label: Extent
content: Film reels (4 hours 13 minutes, black-and-white silent; 8502 feet, 16mm)
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Film reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Footage shot during an expedition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and the Dutch Committee for Scientific Research. Purpose of the expedition was to conduct ethnological investigations among the remote peoples of central Dutch New Guinea (Irian Jaya). Expedition traveled from Surabaja (east Java) up the Mamberamo River to its confluence with the Rouffaer (Tarika) River where exploration on foot and by airplane continued. Peoples encountered include Takutamesa Papuans along the Mamberamo River and Van Rees Mountains; Sebiri Papuans at expedition camp; Karikai Papuans along the Brown River south of the Van Rees Range, and Dem (Nogullo) Pygmies in the Nassau (Sudirman) Range. Documentation includes: stagings for the expedition in Surabaja; various expedition camps and work done by Dyak laborers and Malaysian convicts pressed into service for the expedition; trading with local people; Papuan material culture, dress, and foodways; Dyaks constructing camps, navigating rivers in dugouts, and dancing for recreation; villages along rivers; expedition fording and crossing rivers; first contact and trading with the Dem at Tombé Village; taking craniometic measurements; villages of Tombé and Damuneru; mock battle and demonstrating method of amputating fingers; house interior; preparations for a Dem feast which includes dancing, killing pigs, and heating rocks; the expedition plane, the Ern, and taking off and landing; and aerial shots over the Nassau and Van Rees Mountains.  Cameraman: Richard Peck.