The Oneba Tribe
The Oneba tribe is a small indigenouscommunity that inhabits a remote island called Bambam near the equator. It is believed that a powerful being called Unati created this island as a gift for her newborn brother Bambam. She promised three things that the island will always hold, food, shelter, and love. It symbolized their strong familial bond and Unati’s innate motherly feelings towards her brother. This story has greatly influenced the culture and beliefs of the Oneba. They value the importance of familial ties and the need to help each other. In this paper, we will dive into the culture of the Onebas and see how outside influences could potentially affect their culture.
Onebas are foragers. They are very knowledgeable about their environment and are able to sustain subsistence through hunting and gathering. Their staple foods include berries, mangoes, papayas, fish, wild boars, birds, and insects. To the Onebas insects symbolize health and longevity of the family. They have created tools that allow them to hunt and gather more efficiently. For example, the Onebas have created a device called a lumi, which retrieves mangoes from tall trees. Lumi’s are large woven mats made out of strong leaves four long strings attached to each corner, which will be tied around surrounding trees and which will therefore catch ripened mangoes. In addition, they have developed a method of hunting for wild boars, in which they dig large holes in the ground and cover them with large sticks. Fruits are typically used as bait.
Onebas are very good at gathering fruits that there is usually a surplus, because of this,Onebas like to trade with tribes that live closer to the ocean. They barter their fruits in order to receive fish, which they do not produce. Fish and fruits are considered of equal value, which plays into the aspect of balanced reciprocity that they uphold as a culture. Onebas believe in the exchange of goods and services of equal value. Trading with other tribes that live in different areas of the island establishes relationships between Onebas and other tribes. The tribes that they choose to trade with for goods usually remain the same. Also known as trading tribes, these relationships form alliances between tribes and help create order and peace. An Oneba member named Pata stated, “Trading between tribes is good. If we ever have problems with another tribe, they can help us. And we will do the same for them.” In this way, they are practicing helping others in need. In addition, men, women, or both are allowed to partake in trading.
The foraging lifestyle of the Onebas allows them to cut down the amount of energy required to acquire basic needs for survival. In this way, the have a low energy budget, which allot for more leisurely time. Free time is usually spent bonding with family. Activities would include young women and their mothers braiding each other’s hair and fathers teaching their kids about the environment and survival skills. Family is life and will come first before ones self. Onebas do everything in their power to care for their family and to keep them safe. Members of the family who are ill or unhealthy will be fed first before any other to allow them to recover. They believe that this act will summon the family god Palu, which will care and watch after those who are ill.
The Onebas are considered to partake in exogamy, in which marriage occurs with another tribe outside of the community. Since the Onebas feel strongly about familial ties they believe in lifetime monogamy in order to keep ties in one location. This means they are not able to marry after their spouse has passed. In result, Onebas date many men prior to their marriage. It is known as the experimental stage and allows a person to become more knowledgeable about the type of person they want to marry. Due to this, marriage often occurs at when both parties are in their late 20s.Sex is highly restricted at this time to prevent unwanted children. Children out of wedlock are believed to cause bad luck on the couple and their families and is viewed as disrespectful. When a future partner has been chosen through first come first serve basis both parties must ask the future spouses parents for approval. The exchanges of gifts between families usually help aid in the decision. Gifts usually consist of bounties of food and tools between families. Once married, the new couple is able to create their own household independent from their families. In this way,Onebas practice a neolocal way of living.
An Oneba Tribe consists of blood relatives and in-laws commonly referred to as consanguineal and affinal kin. Also known as family tribes, the Onebas have clear roles for each member of the family. The older members of the tribe are the people that younger members seek information from. Other than providing knowledge and stories to the people, the older members stay within the camp and look after the kids, while the parents gather and hunt for food. In this way, they are economic production generalists. They contain the knowledge and skill set to supply themselves. At the young age of 4, parents start to teach their children how to hunt and gather. Children have the opportunity to stay at camp with the elders, or join the parents in foraging.
There are many aspects of Oneba life. Parents hold many skill sets, but choose to follow one skill set to pursue. A person can be good at weaving mats and baskets, gathering fruits, and caring for children. This person may be more interested in gathering fruits and will then join a group of people that gather fruits on a daily basis. In result, Oneba tribes contain segregated groups of skills. It makes people feel important because they know that are helping their community the best they can. It also makes doing tasks and chores more efficient. This allows them to obtain achieved status within the community. It creates a status for oneself and the family. Oneba’s work to better their skill set overtime and the better you are at a skill, the higher your status becomes. Other Oneba tribes will learn about your family’s status through word. In addition, Onebas are very productive and always work. If you are lazy and do not help the community you will be looked down upon. Other members of the community will gossip and talk about our actions. This will make an Oneba feel isolated and guilty. In result, informal control drives behavior within the tribe.
Onebas are Animistic. Everything on the island has a life force. The land that they live on and the trees that they gather from should be taken care of with great respect. Onebas do not take more than they need. If they do, the land god Malu will halt the growth and production of food. In addition to being Animistic, they are also Polytheistic, in which they believe in more than one powerful being. To appease the powerful beings for being kind, Onebas partake in an annual ritual where they dance, sing, story tell, and eat. The ritual begins with the scarification of a meerkat. Meerkats are highly valued in Oneba culture because they symbolize familial connections. It is thought that meerkats were put on their island by the family god Palu. Palu used meerkats to show how families should interact and care for each other. This sacrifice thanks the gods for keeping their families safe and healthy.
The Onebas are an indigenous tribe that has not been influenced from outsiders. Their beliefs and thoughts have molded the life and culture that they live in today. Recently, anthropologists have studied this tribe and reported their findings in American Anthropologist, where many view it. A group of industrialized agriculturalists noticed that Bambam held a potential value for growing mangoes and papayas. With everything taking into account, they have decided to pursue this endeavor.
A few years after the emergence of agriculture in Bambam, anthropologists return to the remote island to study the after effects of industrialized agriculture within the Oneba tribe. From their report, as predicted, many aspects of the Oneba tribe have been greatly affected. As stated prior, mangoes are a staple food for the Onebas. Land where mangoes flourished has now been taken over by industrialists. It has decreased the making of lumi. Now that there aren’t as many mango trees to gather from, there is no need for the Oneba to make lumis. In result, future generations will not know how to make lumi, and Onebas would need to find other fruits to eat or eat more of other foods. In addition, there would be less fruit meaning trade between other tribes would decrease. Onebas would no longer eat fish as much as they use too. Once again, this will decrease their various food intakes and forcing them to find other means of acquiring food, directly increasing energy budgets.
In addition, with decreased trading the Obenas are not able to uphold their previous relations with their trading tribes. In the future, if the Obenas have conflicts with other tribes they wouldn’t have their trading tribes to back them up, in hopes of potentially mending the situation. Trading tribes talk to the opposing tribes to let those tribes know that the Onebas are kind and nonviolent people. The number of people usually intimidates the opposing tribe, which will, in result, cause them to take back their allegations, etc. Without them, violence may occur and Onebas can risk the chance of losing a family member through.
With the increasing energy budgets, Onebas have less free time to bond with the family. Anthropologists noted that this has greatly affected family life within the Onebas. Bonding with the family is crucial for Onebas to form relationships between every family member. Without this time, tension between family members have grown apart and felt unhappy. On the other hand, agriculture has created new opportunities for work. Onebas have refused this opportunity because the family god Palu will become angry if they do so. Work would separate the family and cause bad luck for further generations. In result, people have immigrated to the island for work and are slowly being incorporated into island life. How these immigrants will affect the Oneba tribe is unknown at this time.
As agriculture is slowly increasing on Bambam, the populations of Meerkats are decreasing. It has become harder to find meerkats for their yearly rituals. In result, Obenas have decided to domesticate meerkats. It is seen that they hold the meerkats in weaved baskets when moving to different locations and form their communities around the meerkat family. There are people that care and watch the meerkats. This new change has created new skilled groups those family members can join and has changed the overall shape of the community. Prior to meerkat care, Obena tribes were staggered in shape. Now it’s has a more overall circular shape.
From what we’ve seen, the emergence of agriculture in Bambam has caused major changes in Obena lifestyle. Outside influences will inevitably cause some sort of consequence, whether it’d be good or bad. It has only been a few years and yet it seems that changes have occurred rapidly. It has changed aspects of trading, family structure, lifestyle, and traditional rituals. Obenas are family oriented people so they were able to keep some aspects of life that same. Outsides forces were not able to influence Obenas to work. Without participating in work, Obenas are able to stay within the tribe, keeping familial ties in tact.
As agriculture becomes more evident there will come a time where the Obenas may have to choose to risk their culture and adopt a new way of life. It is up to the Obenas, whether they want to counteract this change to maintain their way of life or become assimilated. One thing is for sure; family will always be an important aspect of Obena life that they will maintain no matter the circumstances.
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