Contemporary Traditional Asmat Culture 

Who are the Asmat?Pedro Rodriguez  1/30.12

Period 1 Culture and Geography

The Asmat are an indigenous hunter gather culture in West Papua, Indonesia.

West Papua is about 1/2 of a very large island just north of Australia in the South-Pacific Ocean.

The traditional Asmat are on of the last hunter gatherer cultures in the world.

One tradition of the Asmat is the piercing of the septum of the nose.

Another tradition of the Asmat is painting the faces and body for both ceremony and war.

Traditional Asmat culture is truly strange but exciting,in its own way. 

Sadly though, deforestation, colonization, and assimilation deeply affecting the Asmat.

Irreversibly, this is the ending of one of earth"s last traditional hunter gather cultures. The modern

world is taking over the Asmat.