SISTEM PENGETAHUAN SUKU ASMAT

Pengetahuan Tentang Lingkungan

Lingkungan Alam Sekitar

Suku Asmat mendiami daerah dataran rendah yang berawa-rawa dan berlumpur serta dikelilingi hutan tropis. Daerahnya landai dan dikelilingi ratusan anak sungai. Curah hujan turun sebanyak 200 hari setiap tahun. Suhu minimal 21^◦C dan maksimal 32^◦C. Perbedaan pasang dan surut mencapai 4-5 m. Dengan pengetahuan inilah dimanfaatkan oleh masyarakat suku Asmat untuk berlayar. Dengan demikian, apabila air surut, orang Asmat berperahu ke arah hilir dan kembali ke hulu ketika pasang naik.

Flora dan Fauna

Pemanfaatan flora dan fauna di daerah lingkungan orang Asmat dapat ditemui seperti sagu. Sagu merupakan makanan pokok orang Asmat. Sagu diibaratkan wanita karena kehidupan keluar dari pohon sagu sebagaimana kehidupan yang keluar dari Rahim ibu. Kayu kuning sangat berharga bagi orang Asmat sebagai bahan utama ukiran, pahatan dan kapal. Rotan sebagai bahan utama pembuatan keranjang sedangkan labu yang dikeringkan dimanfaatkan sebagai botol air.

Hasil pangan berupa cocok tanam suku Asmat meliputi wortel, jeruk, jagung, matoa dan peternakan meliputi ayam dan babi. Masyarakat suku Asmat juga mengkonsumsi ulat sagu, tikus hutan, kuskus, iguana, ikan dan kepiting rawa.  Cangkang kerang dan gigi anjing dimanfaatkan sebagai perhiasan.

Zat-zat

Suku Asmat mengenal 3 warna dalam kehidupannya, yaitu merah, putih dan hitam. Warna merah didapatkan dari larutan tanah merah dan air. Warna putih didapatkan dari campuran kerang tumbuk dan air. Warna hitam didapatkan dari campuran arang dan air.

Suku Asmat sangat bergantung pada air hujan untuk minum karena air di sekitar rawa-rawa dan sungai sangat payau. Orang Asmat juga memperoleh air minum ketika air sungai sangat surut sehingga tidak terlalu payau.

Hasil bahan mentah meliputi:

Kayu gaharu, rotan, kemiri, damar, kemenyan, kulit masohi, kulit lawang, cucut, udang, teripang, cumi-cumi, ikan, nipah, kerang, keong laut, kayu kuning, sagu, labu, ilalang, dsb.

Benda lingkungan:

Kapak batu dan ukiran pahatan kayu.

Sifat dan Tingkah Laku

 Bentuk tubuh orang Asmat sangatlah berbeda dengan penduduk lainnya. Kaum laki-laki memiliki tinggi badan antara 1,67 hingga 1,72m. Sedangkan kaum perempuan antara 1,60 hingga 1,65m. Bentuk kepala lonjong (dolichocephalic), bibir tipis, hidung mancung, kulit hitam gelap, kelopak mata bulat dan rambut hitam. Otot-otot tangan dan dada tegap serta kuat karena sering mendayung. Tubuh kaum perempuan biasanya lebih kurus karena proporsional pekerjaan yang lebih banyak.

Suku Asmat memiliki pola perilaku yang turun temurun yaitu kanibalisme. Masyarakat suku Asmat akan membunuh musuhnya dalam peperangan. Mayat musuh akan dibawa pulang ke kampong, diarak-arak sambil menyanyikan lagu kematian dan memenggal kepalanya. Tubuh musuh dipotong-potong dan dibagikan kepada seluruh penduduk untuk dimakan bersama. Otaknya dibungkus sagu, dipanggang dan dimakan.

Masyarakat suku Asmat biasanya memotong satu ruas jari apabila ada salah satu keluarga yang meninggal. Bagi suku Asmat kematian disebabkan oleh roh jahat dan ilmu hitam. Maka dari itu, apabila ada yang meninggal, orang Asmat akan menutup segala lubang dan jalan masuk dengan tujuan menghalangi roh jahat.

Penukaran istri dengan perempuan yang disenangi terjadi dalam upacara khusus. Laki-laki bebas bersitubuh dengan perempuan pilihannya selesai upacara. Kegiatan ini biasa terjadi setelah peperangan. Laki-laki juga boleh menukar istrinya dengan orang lain yang disenangi.

Masyarakat suku Asmat cenderung saling mengatasi kesulitan kehidupan bersama. Suku Asmat biasanya saling barter untuk mendapatkan barang-barang kebutuhan. Tidak hanya itu, mereka juga biasanya melakukan barter dengan masyarakat daratan tinggi untuk mendapatkan alat-alat seperti kapak dan batu.

Suku Asmat cenderung tertutup terhadap dunia luar terutama kaum perempuan. Walaupun kaum laki-laki sering berkelana, suku ini cukup menjaga kemurnian suku.

Ruang dan Waktu

Untuk memperoleh makanan di hutan, orang Asmat biasanya berangkat pada hari Senin dan kembali ke kampung pada hari Sabtu. Selama di hutan, mereka tinggal di rumah sementara yang bernama bivak.

Masyarakat Asmat mengenal simbol-simbol ukiran yang menggambarkan perasaan sedih, bahagia dan perasaan lainnya. Ukiran juga menyimbolkan komunikasi dengan arwah leluhur.

Sumber:

• Boelars, Jan. Dahulu, Sekarang, Masa Depan. Jakarta: Gramedia, 1986.
• Ensiklopedi Nasional Indonesia. Jakarta: PT Delta Pamungkas, 1997.
• Keontjaraningrat,dkk. Masyarakat Terasing di Indonesia, Jakarta: Departemen Sosial Dewan Nasional Indonesia, PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 1993.
• Koentjaraningrat. Pengantar Ilmu Antropologi. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta, 1990.
• Smidth, Dirk. Asmat Art: Woodcarving of Southwest New Guinea. New York: George Braziller, 1993.
• Sudarman, Dea. Asmat: Menyingkap Budaya Suku Pedalaman Irian Jaya. Jakarta: Sinar Harapan, 1984.
• http://bumikupijak.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=I&id=84
• http://www.annehira.com/suku-asmat-di-Indonesia
• http://tindonesia.com/kolom/wforum.cgi?no=3673&reno=3670&oya=3670&mode=msgview&age=o
• http://www.lestariweb.com/Indonesia/Papua_People_Asmat.htm

 Catatan:

Ini merupakan ringkasan berdasarkan hasil analisa dan beberapa sumber dari buku dan situs internet. Penulis tidak bertanggungjwab atas isi dalam post ini. Apabila terdapat kontradiksi terhadap isi dan pernyataan yang tidak sesuai, silahkan dikonfirmasi pada bagian komentar, serta kritik dan masukkan yang konstruktif. Terimakasih. 

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Luck and Helmet

Today, my lesson ended up at 1 pm. My friend, Ciput and I went to school to have our meeting (What kind of meeting? It is a secret!). We went upstairs and we could not find anybody. We went straightly to the office and found our coach. 

Actually we were waiting for two boys, they had a match today, but they could not make it so that we decided to have our lunch together. Well, the problem is, I did not bring my helmet. You know~ police is everywhere, every time. "It's OK, we go to nearest place", said my coach.

I thought that it's fine, as long as we did not go to somewhere so far away, police would not notice it. So we went to Gerry's house and picked him up. Gerry also did not have another helmet, and I guessed it's OK man. 

But when Ciput and I started to go, Gerry gave me his helmet (He becomes a gentleman for a day) lols~

On the street, our coach decided to go to a chicken rice restaurant which is located quite far away. It was so crowded and only 1 thing I worry about. Gerry's hair. He has just washed his hair, and it would be dusty, dirty again without helmet. Aisssshh.. But again, there would be one more thing I worried the most. POLICE.

When we went back, exactly, we met one policeman in the street, we hided beside a car and rushed straightly. One more thing, we met another police. Our destiny is that we went straight, but we turned left forcibly to another street, frankly speaking an unknown street. It is not familiar for me and as well as Ciput. 

 

We turned right and followed our coach's direction. Good that we passed small street and managed to go back to right path. There would be 4 more spots where there would be police post there. 1st is near the university, 2nd in our way back, 3rd exactly near the traffic lamp, and one more near to my house. 

 

I really worried of everything, I even calculated which path we should go and which one we may not passed. 1st post, there was no police as well as 2nd and 3rd. But, the one near my house is a quite routine one. We spent almost 40 minutes for the trip and the last post was quite frightening. 

 

It was 4pm and it is the right time for the 4th post to finish their duty, it happened several times already while I passed they worked, penalized those who doesn't provide the attributes for their bikes and cars and for those who doesn't wear helmet and have license. 

 

When we were near to that post, glad to see that the post does not operate today. Oh my! It is a luck for us.

Apparently, we went home safe and sound~ HOOORRAAY~

 

Thanks God, thanks Ciput and not to mentioned thanks POLICE :D 

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WHAAAAT A NIGHTMAREE??!!!!

I have just realized something..
This month I really got a stressful day
It was a busy time nowadays even I don't have my leisure time


But.........................
Today is a real nightmare. 
I just went back to kitchen, the place where I used to spend my leisure time.
I like cooking, experimenting on fantastic food and dishes, especially dessert.
This day, I took a can of nuts, hoping to mix it with some caramel so that it doesn't taste plain

I took a frying pan and wooden spatula.
I pour 3 tsp of sugar in the frying pan and waited until it heated and melted.
I knew there should be something I forgot about but I could not recall it.
The sugar melted and turned to black powder, it was so quick and unpredictable!
 You can guess what happen, but there is more tragedy after this.

Looking at the frying pan I took my nuts and open d jar.
I poured my nuts around two times in reflex.
As the result I was in panic looking at the grilled nuts.
Damn! I have just realized one stupid thing...

There was a glass of water beside the stove.
Why should I sacrifice my beloved nuts while I have water?
Why didn't I pour it when the sugar melt?
Stupid me.. One principle of caramel is that pour a bit water on melted sugar
So that it won't be over-heated..........

I learn something.........
When I learn something, I lost something
I learn a lot things in school and I leave my cooking habit
Now, the child's play turns to intermediate 
OMG.......



HAVE A NICE DAY 

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SSIDC 2012 (Let Me Recall This)

4 days of torturing, 24 hours no tightly sleeping, 1o hours losing appetite, 10080 seconds of critical heart beating. Wew, what to say??  SSIDC (Sarawak Swimburne Interschool Debate Competition), this was my debut, having a competition outside of Indonesia, far from my hometown, and hanging out with my coach, friends and my lovely juniors.
Considering about this competition, I was really hopeless, the first thing came up in my mind was we lost in the first game. I was so nervous, every second my fingers turned into ice, I forced my appetite to eat my breakfast, but I could not manage it. I could not sleep, I read books every night but nothing got into my mind.


In the first day, my alarm did not ring in the morning, everybody was asleep. Our coach thought all girls had prepared, good that he aware that we locked the door, meaning we had not woken up! And unfortunately we woke up at 6.05 am. We ate fast food and hurried to SWINBURNE, ouww my, it was a bad sign even since beginning. I am not a pesimistic type girl, but for this time, I was panic.
When the committee called for a debate simulation, the first person who attracted my fears was Abel Law, a Batu Lintang student. He speaks well, nice critical and confidence. Wew~ I dropped my confidence, became pesimistic level 1.
We passed round zero, if I am not mistaken, we faced Sibu school, they are pretty good. Well, it was a warming time only, we could not be proud of that. Then we climbed up to the round 1, hello? I even forgot who was our opponent, ouw my~ My bad habit comes, losing memory syndrome. wqwqwq~ But the it was consisted of all girls. They are fluent, well-prepared and friendly. Gratefully we won.
The funniest game was vs Batu Lintang School, I thought they are attack machine with serious face, elegant style, British accent style and calm. But......... THEY ARE CRAZY!!! It was just like playing Phoenix Wright!!! It was so comfy, relax and exciting. They were not so serious, true that we attacked each other but we made it into fun. Not to mentioned, Abel and Gerry even mocked each other by wrapping pieces of paper and threw it to opponents side. I saw the adjudicator with his curious face, seems like he was wondering what was written inside. Lols~ I was not nervous, and that was the first time my friend said I was smiling in the game. WOAAGHHH!!!??!!!!

They are really good, understandable, humorous and the motion flew to the right way. The result, we won. I felt a bit sorry to them, I thought that we lost from the frist hand. Lols~ It was their first lost, and gratefully we had not losing point. Then we supported each other to meet in final or at least in top 20.
Second best moment was facing national lodge E, our topic was about controversial books. I loved that debate because I was over confident. When I was confident, I could do well. I tried to boost up my effort, so that I could perform well. Our opponent is nice, especially the left side boy with glasses, I like his glasses color,it's polar white! My favorite color C: Lols~ And in the middle, a boy with spiky hair, if I am not mistaken the color was a bit reddish, it is so unique so that I stared at his hair over the debate. I even almost forgot to write my rebuttals. OMG!

Go back to our climbing, the scariest team we faced was International Lodge, damn,,, my hands were shaking when I delivered my speech. It was a CLOOSE debate. They are winners for 4 years in a row. I thought our fate stopped just until there. Gratefully, again and again, God really loves us. We won and meaning we went to final.
In the final, I was very confident, I did not know why, but I just felt that there were a lot of support from many people for us. Everybody is our friends so I did not become panic or nervous. It was a close debate, SMK Kuching High got 5 votes from adjudicators and ours was 6 votes.
HuiMei is great as 3rd speaker from the opponent, and so did the 2nd speaker. It was a nice debate, I loved it so much. The last motion was about Syria and  intervention something. It really was damn difficult.

Let me emphasized this!!!

REALLY REALLY CLOSE debate!!!!
"I did not care with the result, what I did was doing for the best in the final. 1st is a gift, 2nd is a payment. Smaller number means gifted form God, it means we have done the best, while second means our payment for every effort we put."

Thankfully, we got the first rank. This is a gift from God, and we will never be like this without other people supports, my greatest coach ever, our new friends in Kuching (special thanks to SMK Vocational Kuching and Batu Lintang school), professional SWINBURNE committee and adjudicators, my beloved parents,  and many more. 

Thanks a lot everybody, I won't forget this. Hopefully we can come back. U know la~ We will have a national exam in the same time, but again, whenever we can, we will come to join.
  
P.s

Well, SSIDC was not that torturing, I was joking >_<)

Don't take it too serious~

Lols~

HAVE A NICE DAY

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7th Swinburne Sarawak Inter-School Debating Championship 2012

 Posted on April 4, 2012, Wednesday

WE DID IT!: (From left) Gerry, Cindy and Winny of SMA Katholik Santu Petrus posing with their trophies together with runners-up Ho Jaan Ee, Wong Hui Mei and Tsai Ching Ing of SMK Green Road.

KUCHING: SMA Katholik Santu Petrus was crowned the winner of the 7th Swinburne Sarawak Inter-School Debating Championship 2012 (Senior Category) in a thrilling finale held at Swinburne Sarawak here yesterday.

The victorious school from Pontianak, Indonesia, participating for the first time in this annual championship, was represented by Gerry Wino, Winny Sanjaya and Cindy Putri who proved their point that ‘Syria’s internal strife is its own business’ defeating Wong Hui Mei, Tsai Ching Ing and Ho Jaan Ee of SMK Green Road.

To top it up Gerry was named the ‘Best Debater in the Finals’ for the senior category.

The 17-year-old told The Borneo Post that he was elated over the school’s triumph and felt very excited to have also won in the ‘Best Debater’ category.

“Nevertheless, I believe that we could not have achieve this without constructive criticism and feedback from the educators, teachers and fellow debaters,” said Gerry, who started participating in debates a year ago.

Asked how his team prepared for the championship, he revealed that they put in a week of preparation and constantly kept abreast of current issues occurring around the world.

SMA KATHOLIK SANTU PETRUS WINNERS

Meanwhile, Jerry Tan Hai Kok, Ling Xue Jing and Ng Tze Yuan of SM Lodge emerged winners in the junior category beating SM Kuching High which was represented by Chelsea Tiong Ying Lin, Zoe Sim Ci En and Yap Ke Li.

Tan also won the ‘Best Debater in the Finals’ after delivering his powerful and persuasive points to argue that ‘the concept of bangsa Malaysia is a myth’.

The three-day event saw a total of 25 secondary schools from Kuching, Miri, Sibu and Pontianak represented by 86 teams taking part in the championship in hopes of clinching the Junior and Senior champion titles.

Trophies were also given to ‘Best Debater in the Finals’, ‘Best Overall Debaters’ (five in each category), ‘Best Speaker of English’ and ‘Most Promising Team’ which went to St Joseph’s Private School.

On hand to present the trophies to the winners were Sarawak Education Department academic management sector head Bedui Une and Swinburne Sarawak acting pro vice-chancellor Professor Ken Heskin.

Source: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/04/04/pontianak-students-are-winners-in-7th-swinburne-sarawak-debating-championship/

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