Death

Life and death are part of a cycle for the Asmat which moves back and forth between the physical world and life in the spirit world. Birth and death are ways of balancing the population between the two worlds, of keeping the cosmos in balance. One is not reborn to advance in the spiritual life or as punishment for the past.

Babies and old people die of natural causes. The death of the aged is a normal passing from life in this world to life in the other. Babies die because they lack sufficient life forces called yuwus and ndamup. The Asmat believe that young children, fifty to sixty percent of whom die before age five, choose to die, to return to the spirit world because they felt neglected or mistreated by their families.

People die of extraneous causes: headhunting, malevolent magic or childbirth. The spirits of those killed in headhunting or by magic roam in a sort of limbo between the physical and spiritual worlds until their deaths are avenged and balanced is restored. It is not clear how the spirits of women who die in childbirth are freed, but they are considered dangerous to the living, especially to males. Few people reach the age of 60 and rarely 70. Malaria, pneumonia, infections and parasites are the major fatal illnesses, and cholera epidemics also occur occasionally.

Burial is customary today. Because of the lack of embalming, the heat and humidity require that burial occurs on the day of death. The high water table makes burials difficult, bodies are tied to sticks placed crossways in the grave to hold the corpse from flowing away. Traditionally, some villages always buried the dead, while others placed the bodies on racks at the end of the village. In southern Asmat, ancestral skulls are used as pillows and hung around one’s neck to keep the memory of the deceased alive and the spirit present as a protection.