Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I explore the value of time and nostalgia in an Asmat community. More specifically, I focus on their perceptions of pasts that are becoming increasingly distanced (the "Goliath" Age) and the ways Asmat attempt to reconnect to them by means of religious rituals and artistic practices.

Paper long abstract:

Recent socio-cultural changes of Asmat society (Papua, Indonesia) have provoked a widespread sense of nostalgia for distanced pasts. Asmat people say that in the olden days they were stronger, bigger, healthier and braver, a kind of "Goliaths" (Wosten). In the 1950s, the arrival of the first Dutch missionaries and government officials are seen to have accelerated time and to have ignited polusi (Ind. 'pollution'). This term does not merely identify the process of physical and environmental contamination. Rather, it signals the increasing detachment of Asmat from their mytho-historical pasts that, in turn, is considered as the main cause for Asmat current sense of dependency and frailty. Prompted by a public screening of Asmat historical footages in the brand-new Jakarta-sponsored village of Amanamkai, I explore the related perceptions of time with reference to people's current desires for historical knowledge and reappropriation, and the new meanings that are given to history. In particular, I focus on the tension between pasts that are becoming more and more remote and pasts that people long for, as it emerges from local religious and artistic practices. This exploration helps us to cast light on the impermanence of history in Asmat and develop, outside temporal linearity, a seemingly foretold - but ever-changing - destiny.