Tatali and Kamani are the northernmost of the Atone groups on the eastern side of the Kandep swamps. Like Lyumbi and Alitipa history, Tatali and Kamani history is sparse. Tatali begins with a brown pig (mena tambuaka) being born from grasses and giving birth to Tatali near Potokali. Some attach a similar myth to Tatali origins as that given for Lyumbi, and others just say that Tatali was born from a brown pig. Tatali gave birth to four sons and one daughter named Pipino. Pipino married a man from the Timitopa tribe near Titipa. Either Tatali’s brother or Tatali’s son named Kule Yalupu is said to have either taken the brown pig or followed it into the Tari area where his descendants are settled today.
Despite interviewing as many men from Tatali as possible, we could not get much further information on Tatali history. Presumably like Lyumbi and Alitipa, Tatali clans lived around the edge of the swamps, planting taro gardens, hunting and gathering and raising pigs, as their origin from a pig suggests.
Despite the very limited historical traditions passed down in the Tatali tribe, there is one legend from the Yango clan of Tatali which has to do with events surrounding the marriage of Kuniapa, Tatali’s great grandson, to two women, one from the Wake side of Kandepe and another from the Ambumu valley. The legend is of interest because Kuniapa’s first marriage brought with it the adoption of a ritual from the Wake side to Kandepe and the second contrasts the living conditions in the Ambumu valley with the harsher conditions at Kandepe:
A long time ago a man named Kuniapa married a woman who lived in the Wage side of Kandepe. She was a Kyoo or cannibal woman from another language group, perhaps a Dugube woman from near Mt. Bosavi who are believed to be cannibals. She had two sons whom she took back to the Kyoo area for a visit. The mother and sons arrived unexpectedly at her brother’s house. When her brother saw her coming with her two sons he said,
“You were very unwise to come here with your two sons, for this is a dangerous place.” Then he warned his sister and two nephews to only stay in the women’s house and to not let the boys enter the men’s house. After warning them of these things, he left.
Some days later, the children went out looking for grasshoppers to eat. When they came to the men’s house, there were many spider webs along the walls, so they went along, pulling them down until they came to the door. They opened the door and went in. Inside they happened to touch a shelf made of pandanus wood on which there was some roasted human flesh, pork and cassowary meat. The boys ate their fill and remained in the house.
After a while the boys’ uncle arrived at the men’s house and found that they had gone in despite his warning. However, since he felt that it was his sister’s fault and not theirs, he did not get angry at them but took them back to the women’s house and gave each one a pig, two containers of native mambo oil and two kina shells. After giving them these things, he advised them not to quarrel over gardens, to share their garden food equally, and to share their pandanus. Then he took them and their mother back to Potokale.
Because they had gone to the men’s house and eaten the forbidden meat including human flesh, the Kaima, a cannibal spirit, followed them to Potokale. When they realized this, they started to hold a ceremony for the Kaima spirit to offer him food.
Later Kuniapa married a second wife named Bitima from the Sakalini tribe in the Ambumu valley. One day when they were living at Potokale, they had a quarrel and her husband said to her,
“You Mai woman (woman from the Wabag area), you are taking all of our best land for your gardens.”
“When I was a baby,” she replied, “I was not carried in a kupi mandi (a roughly woven work net bag made in the Kandepe area), but in a mandi maimai (a finely woven and decorated wedding net bag from central Enga). I was born out of a tribe of people who grow the best taro (maa kapiyoto) and sugarcane.” With these words which implied that she was from too good a background to remain in the Kandepe area, she took her son Watepa and went to Anditale in the Ambumu. The Kaima spirit followed her, and it is for this reason that they also hold the Kaima ceremony at Anditale. Bitima’ss descendants are settled in the Ambumu valley but also keep gardens in Kandepe and regularly visit their relatives there.
(Joseph Waelipi, Sakalini Kalepoe clan, Anditale)
Tatali, like other Kandepe groups, held the large Kepele or Aiamane rituals for the ancestors to promote fertility. The Kepele is said to have spread from the Bipi tribe to Tatali when the mythical Bipi python was wounded and made his way home winding through the Kandepe area. Kepele sites were established at his resting places. Tatali also adopted the Sangai male bachelors’ cults which are said to have spread to Tatali from groups in the Laiagama area.
Kamani
Of all the tribes we interviewed in Enga, Kamani had one of the most inconsistent and difficult histories. While many Engan tribes were localized at the onset of their historical traditions and could easily fit an origin and myth to their social order, groups calling themselves Kamani appear to have been dispersed and loosely structured from very early on. As a result, there are four different groups of Kamani, none of which can specify exactly how they are related to the other, nor is their legend a telling of their dispersal. These include the Lakisa Kamani near Mutipi, the Dilya Kamani near Yapuma, and the Andilya Kamani near Biaka and the Andape Kamani near Longape. In the event of severe frost, Kamani groups claim to have survived on wild foods in the Kandepe area and not depended as heavily on migration to lower altitude areas as did such groups as Tatali, Lyumbi, Ima and Alitipa.
The first three claim a common ancestor in Kamani and share a common origin myth, although they cannot specify exactly how they are related, nor do they have any legends concerning their split:
Kamani was born at Kondaki in the northern part of the Kandepe swamps near a tree (others say that he crawled out of a hole in the ground). His mother brought him to a warm and sunny place at Lopotemanda and lay him in the sun. The baby Kamani had no anus at all and could only eat and then spit up the waste like an eagle does.
The child grew up at Lopotemanda not far from where Lyumbi lived. One day Lyumbi returned from the forest carrying some freshly killed possums and some roasted ones. He was holding a walking stick made of kamakama wood which he had neatly peeled. He used the stick to knock the dew off the grass as he came down the path. He met the young man who was named Taoalupi at the time and looked him over carefully. He asked him if he had an anus to which the boy replied,
“No, when I eat, I just throw up my waste from my mouth.”
“Bend over and let me see your bottom,” Lyumbi said. When Taoalupi did this, Lyumbi saw that a boil was beginning to form where his anus should have been. He suddenly thrust with the sharp pointed end of the stick, into the place where the anus should have been to make an opening.
With time, the wound healed and became a normal anus. Taoalupi was renamed Kamani because the operation had been done with a kamakama stick. Later he married and led a normal life.
(Isaka Wanalu, Kamani tribe, Lakisa)
The general theme of opening a person’s anus or vagina with a sharp stick is often used in highland myths to indicate a person becoming truly human. For instance, the origin legend for the Yala tribe of the Kewa in S.H.P. is very similar to that for Kamani (Josephides 1984). In the valley north of Mendi (Mawe 19), the opening of women’s vaginas is used in the general origin story for modern people as well as for the Pima ritual. In some versions of the myth for the origin of Enga, Huli, Obena, and Dugube people, the same theme is used, the opening of a woman’s vagina.
The Andape Kamani branch of the tribe has its own origin myth, one which also serves as the origin myth for its Kepele ritual. It is a myth that involves the theme rarely found in groups to the east of the Lai River, but more common in the Wage area:
Once there lived a man named Andapo Tumala. He lived on possum meat and human flesh. One day he went out hunting, but did not kill anything, so he came home very hungry. When he came into the house, he looked over to the women’s side of the house and saw his baby lying there alone fast asleep. He looked around to see where his wife was and noticed that she was in the pig stalls feeding the pigs.
He sat there hungrily and then went over to where his child was sleeping. With his sharp fingernails, he quickly ripped through the skin and bones of the baby and took out the heart. Then he put the heart into the fire and cooked it.
His wife smelled the meat cooking and thought that he had come home and was roasting meat as he often did. She finished feeding the pigs and came out to see what was cooking. She checked the baby and was horrified to see blood all over the place where it had been sleeping. She guessed what had happened and looked for a stick or stone with which to hit her husband, but it was too late. The man had already disappeared with the body of the dead baby.
While escaping from his wife, Andapo Tumala threw the baby’s head on a certain spot where the Totoname ritual was later held. He threw the rest of the body on the spot where the Kepele ritual was held. This place is called Kepe and is on Andapo Tumala’s land. Andapo Tumala gave birth to Lakailya and Kimala, and the descendants of these along with other Kamani tribesmen take part in the Kepele ceremony.
(Aniki Wee, Kamani Kepe clan, Yapuma)
We were not able to find out anything at all about the meaning of this myth except that the theme of cannibalism is not typical of Atone tribes but of Katinja tribes further to the west. It might suggest that Andapo Kamani may have had western origins or associations.
CLANS AND LOCATIONS
Tatali clans and locations
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Saia | Mutipi | Mutipi |
| Mandi | Takenama | Mutipi |
| Pete | Matala | Mutipi |
| Yango | Potokale | Potokale |
Kamani
Note: This list is put together from information obtained in many different interviews as it was not possible to get Kamani elders to reach any consensus concerning their genealogy.
Lakisa Kamani
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Ambo | Wambokone | Mutipi |
| Taoanda | Lyakisa and Pokatisa | Mutipi and Kandepe |
| Pepena | Lyalisa | Mutipi |
| Sapu | Yapute | Mutipi |
| Pambo | Lopote | Mutipi |
Dilya or Yapuma Kamani
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Ulya | Yapumi | Yapumi |
| Leme | Kusi and | Yapumi |
| (Leme Pulya) | Kambia | Kambia |
Andilya or Biaka Kamani
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Mangao | Biaka | Yapumi / Longape |
Andape Kamani
| Clan | Location | Nearest school/aidpost |
|---|---|---|
| Latalya | Taitangesa | Longape |
| Kimala | Aini | Longape |
| Kupai | Longape | Longape |
This Aipala, Kupai and Pyoto clans were founded by Andapo Tumala’s daughters who married men from other tribes and later returned to their father’s land. Kupai was formed by Andapo’s daughter, Lyalame, who married a Lote man. Pyote and Aipala married the same Wailini man and returned home with their sons who founded the Walini clan near Kandepe. Andapo’s fourth daughter, Lyau, married a Bipi man and remained at her husband’s place.