By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-16 12:30:11 | Updated at 2024-11-22 20:03:18
6 days ago
Deep in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea mysterious beliefs in sorcery, spirits and witchcraft continue to exist.
Such areas have remained mostly untouched by modern civilisation, and thus have been sheltered from outside influences.
As a result, their ways and traditions can date back thousands of years with extreme savagery not uncommon in the country's remote expanses.
In one community in the country's Madang region, a group formed to tackle witchdoctors suspected of demanding sex and money from poor villagers in return for their supernatural powers.
But what started out with 'good intentions', quickly deteriorated into something far more sinister.
The 1000-strong cannibal cult are believed to have killed at least seven people and eaten the raw brains of their victims, even making soup from their penises.
And it was all done under the twisted belief that by consuming the body parts they would attain the witchdoctors' supernatural powers and become bulletproof.
The horrors came to light when 29 members of the cult, including a 13-year-old boy and eight women, were arrested in the remote village of Biamb in July 2012.
Deep in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea mysterious beliefs in sorcery, spirits and witchcraft continue to exist (file photo)
A security guard stands by people casting their votes after a series of cannibalistic killings
Voters line up to cast their ballots in Tari in Papua New Guinea's highlands after the vote was delayed due to a series of cannibalistic killings of suspected sorcerers
They were accused of killing seven people, four of them in the past week, but no remains had been found.
'They're probably all eaten up,' Madang Police Commander Anthony Wagambie said at the time.
He said the group all 'admitted openly' what they had done and didn't think they had done anything wrong.
Mr Wagambie said that the killers believed that the victims were practicing sorcerers and that they had been overcharging poor villagers as well as demanding sexual favours in return for their services.
Sorcery and witchcraft is widely believed in the South Pacific nation and many people seek alternative explanations to misfortune, illness, accidents or death.
The country even brought in a Sorcery Act to protect against attacks on those accused of practising black magic.
However, a local political activist told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time that sorcery was 'getting of hand' in the villages.
They said: 'It used to be a good thing, but now it's turned into a kind of cult.
'They killed [the first victim] on the roadside. They cut out his heart, they cut out his brains they drank his blood.'
While murder is punishable by death in Papua New Guinea, there appear to be no records of what happened to the suspected cannibals.
A member of the Asmat tribe is seen in face paint and a headdress, in this 1976 photograph
Asmat people are seen standing on rafts in this photograph taken in 1976
It comes as there are still some tribes living in remote parts of the world that are believed to still be practising cannibalism.
The Asmat tribe are an ethnic group living in New Guinea, occupying 10,000 square miles of jungle swap in Indonesia's province of South Papua.
They were first encountered by Europeans when the Dutch came across them in 1623 - however they remained almost entirely isolated from other ethnic groups until the 1950s, when they came into more regular contact with outsiders.
Until then, it was well known that the tribe - often complete with face paint, headdresses and spears - were feared headhunters and cannibals.
As a result, they were left well enough alone for many years.
While the Asmat tribes were ferocious headhunters, they have also made stunning wooden sculptures (rubbed with the blood of those they killed) as well as hauntingly beautiful decorated skulls.
These they collected from tribal foes, having eaten their brains in a sacred ritual they believed would give them the dead men's power.
Their bloodthirsty way of life revolved around endless revenge attacks against neighbouring villages. Each time a tribe member was killed, he had to be avenged by taking the skull of an enemy - whether man, woman or child.
The skulls of their victims are believed to be used in cooking.
Like the Asmat, the Korowai also hail from Indonesia's Papua - from southeastern Papua in the Indonesian provinces of South Papua and Highland Papua.
Pictured: Members of the Korowai tribe are seen gathering in West Papua, Indonesia. It has long been thought that the tribe are cannibalistic, although this has been questioned
A Korowai tribesman uses a bow with a long arrow in this photo taken in 2006
They number around 4,000 to 4,400 people and - according to the Daily Telegraph - were unaware of the existence of people other than themselves until the late 1970s.
The majority of the Korowai tribe members live in treehouses in their isolated forest territory, but some have moved into villages since the 1980s.
Ever since they were discovered, the tribe have been rumoured to be cannibals who live in treetop houses.
Members of the tribe today still encourage such stories when asked by Western visitors, but while they certainly once lived among the branches, there is limited evidence to support claims they ate human flesh.
Their first documented contact with the outside world was when a group of scientists met with members of one clan in 1974.
An Australian reporter later claimed the tribe practised cannibalism but this has been disputed by some.
And while the Korowai previously lived in communal tree houses high up in the jungle canopy, the clans have increasingly moved into settled villages.
