The Notion of Collective Dignity among Hubula in Palim Valley, Papua

The central focus of this dissertation is the conceptual construction

and valorization of the collective social identity of the Hubula, the indigenous

people living in the Palim valley of Papua (also known as the

Dani). It explores how this identity is expressed in ritual actions, and

in the production and exchange of cultural artifacts, and looks at the

way in which the Indonesian State and the Roman Catholic Church

have impacted upon and transformed it. The ethnographic data presented

documents the resilience of the Hubula in their encounter with

modern institutions, including the impact of an encroaching market

economy on the local forms of livelihood and resources, and pressure

to more fully integrate into the Indonesian state which involves

the subordination of the Hubula's own forms authority and leadership

to the political institutions of the Indonesian State. The dissertation

points out the importance of including the ontological basis of Hubula

social structure in the cultures of intervention and cultural policies in

order to come to a dignified social change.