Clan Tokens

Protected not only by the spirit of the sea, which keeps sea-faring Papuans out of harms way (according to the Raja Ampat Creation myth), but also their clan token, the people of Raja Ampat should feel very safe.


The token animal belief system in Raja Ampat is very interesting.  Though different to that of North America with which I am familiar, where each individual has a token animal protector, in Raja Ampat, the protection is awarded by an entire species on an entire clan (marga).  And the people believe that it is not just their protector, but their relative.


This belief is not necessarily prevalent throughout the archipelago, but I can't necessarily narrow it down to a particular tribe, although certainly many Biak subscribe.


Basically the token animal takes care of the people of the clan, and the clan in turn cares for the token animal... they are forbidden to consume their token animal, and often the clan will lobby for the protection of the species and their habitat.  The clans are extremely respectful of their token and look to it for signs of community and clan well-being... if anything unusual happens regarding it, they believe it is as a result of some action, offense or wrong-doing on their part.


Certain family clans are connected directly to certain species… For example, the story from Yenbuba village on Mansuar Island:  The clan Sawing comprises the entire village except two families.  This clan is related directly to the oceans' whales, and they won't eat or harm any marine mammals.  In the 1990’s there was a whale that they believe was pricked by a mantis shrimp, so that it died and was beached on the beach facing the village…  the kids from the community played on the carcass, climbing up and down when it was fresh.  Several weeks later once it started to rot and reek, almost all the kids in the entire village became deathly ill.  All of the kids from the Sawing clan, that it... not the other four kids in the village.  The village elders gathered the community and they performed a traditional ceremony asking for forgiveness from the whale's spirit and nature if they had wronged it, and the children were cured.

Whether coincidence or not, or the family actually has, for instance, a shared allergy that might explain the strange story, I don't know, but stories like this bolster their beliefs and make them stronger.  I wonder if in some way this is another ancient form of resource management /species conservation???