Mythologies of the Angu (Kukukuku) Tribe

The Angu or Änga people, also called Kukukuku (pronounced "cookah-cookah"), are a small group speaking a number of related languages and living mainly in the high, mountainous region of south-western Morobe, a province of Papua New Guinea. Even though they are a short people, often less than five feet tall, they were feared for their violent raids on more peaceful villages living in lower valleys. An account of some of the first contact between the Angu and westerners is described vividly by J. K. McCarthy in his 1963 book Patrol into Yesterday: My New Guinea Years. At the time, despite the high altitude and cold climate of their homeland, the Änga wore limited clothing, including grass skirts, with a piece similar to a sporran, and cloaks made from beaten bark, called mals. Today, four of the Änga languages are almost extinct, but the largest tribe, the Hamtai, are thriving, with a population of 45,000. Some Aseki district tribes have become a tourist attraction due to their smoked mummies. There are three famous mummy sites around Aseki in the Hamtai territory. The Hamtai people now have a small income from charging scientists, tourists and photographers a fee before entrance to the mummy sites. Although it is unclear when their practice of mummification began, it ended in 1949 with the arrival of missionaries.

The Angu people live in Papua New Guinea's Aseki District, a fringe highland region so detached from the modern world that even the regular passing of mist is considered an omen from the spirits. They’re also heirs to one of most bizarre rituals of the ancient world: the smoking of their ancestors’ corpses. An extraordinary – and from an outsider's point-of-view, grotesque – form of enshrinement, the smoked corpses of Aseki have captured the imagination of anthropologists, writers and filmmakers for more than 100 years. But few have been able to tell fact from fiction. To find out when the practice began – and why the Anga began mummifying their dead in a land where cannibalism used to be the norm – I travelled to Lae, the second largest city in Papua New Guinea. There I met up with Malcolm Gauthier, a guide with off-road motorbike company Niugini Dirt. Our journey took two days, with an overnight stopover at the former 1930s gold rush town of Bulolo. The further inland we rode, the worse the road got: a bone-jarring juxtaposition of washouts, muddy ruts and river crossings, some of which required dugout canoes to navigate. When we reached Angapenga, a large village some 250km southwest of Lae, a group of children directed us to a strip of grass overlooking a saw-toothed valley. It's one of dozens of sites in the Aseki District where smoked corpses can be found, though the exact location of most have been forgotten over time. The mummies of Angapenga are also the most accessible, located a short hike from the road.

The Angu or Änga people, also called Kukukuku (pronounced "cookah-cookah") or Toulambi by neighbouring tribes, are a small and previously violent group speaking a number of related languages and living mainly in the high, mountainous region of south-western Morobe, a province of Papua New Guinea. Even though they are a short people, often less than 5 foot, they were once feared for their violent raids on more peaceful villages living in lower valleys.Despite the high altitude and cold climate of their homeland, the Änga only wore limited clothing, including grass skirts, with a piece similar to a sporran, and cloaks made from beaten bark, called mals.They are also known to Westerners for practicing a sexual ritual involving pre-adolescent boys acting as courtesans for male tribal elders. Men practice homosexuality until marriage (Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman). Pederasty is only customary among the northern tribes and is absent among the Ankave and some southern groups. The northern groups are also typically more patriarchal in character, while the southern groups emphasize complementarity between the sexes.An account of some of the first contact between the Angu and westerners is described vividly by J. K. McCarthy in his book Patrol into Yesterday: My New Guinea Years. Four of the Änga languages are almost extinct, but the largest tribe, the Hamtai, are thriving, with a population of 45,000. The Hamtai tribe has become a tourist attraction for their mummies. There are three famous mummy sites around Aseki in the Hamtai territory. The Hamtai people now have a small income from charging scientists, tourists and photographers a fee before entrance to the mummy sites. There are two legends as to how the Änga received the name "Kukukuku." One is that when an Australian government patrol officer described hearing them speaking their language, he made up the word kukukuku, because he said their speech sounded as though someone were pouring out a Coca-Cola bottle onto the ground. (The language has a lot of uvular consonants, "back k's"). But some of the people themselves used to say that when they met the first patrol officer, he asked who they were. A man answered, "He's my son." The speaker used the word "kouka" which means man or boy.

The Angu or Änga people, also called Kukukuku (pronounced "cookah-cookah") or Toulambi by neighbouring tribes, are a small and previously violent group speaking a number of related languages and living mainly in the high, mountainous region of south-western Morobe, a province of Papua New Guinea. Even though they are a short people, often less than 5 foot, they were once feared for their violent raids on more peaceful villages living in lower valleys. Despite the high altitude and cold climate of their homeland, the Änga only wore limited clothing, including grass skirts, with a piece similar to a sporran, and cloaks made from beaten bark, called mals. They are also known to Westerners for practicing a sexual ritual involving pre-adolescent boys acting as courtesans for male tribal elders. Men practice homosexuality until marriage (Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman). Pederasty is only customary among the northern tribes and is absent among the Ankave and some southern groups. The northern groups are also typically more patriarchal in character, while the southern groups emphasize complementarity between the sexes. An account of some of the first contact between the Angu and westerners is described vividly by J. K. McCarthy in his book Patrol into Yesterday: My New Guinea Years. Four of the Änga languages are almost extinct, but the largest tribe, the Hamtai, are thriving, with a population of 45,000. The Hamtai tribe has become a tourist attraction for their mummies. There are three famous mummy sites around Aseki in the Hamtai territory. The Hamtai people now have a small income from charging scientists, tourists and photographers a fee before entrance to the mummy sites. There are two legends as to how the Änga received the name "Kukukuku." One is that when an Australian government patrol officer described hearing them speaking their language, he made up the word kukukuku, because he said their speech sounded as though someone were pouring out a Coca-Cola bottle onto the ground. (The language has a lot of uvular consonants, "back k's"). But some of the people themselves used to say that when they met the first patrol officer, he asked who they were. A man answered, "He's my son." The speaker used the word "kouka" which means man or boy.