Paper short abstract:

This paper advocates the use of an evidence-based ethnography of indigenous perceptions, to investigate multidisciplinary scientific investigation in biomedical research. This approach is supported with data about the traditional mortuary rites of the South Fore, collected during investigations into the disease kuru.

Paper long abstract:

During traditional mortuary rites in the South Fore linguistic group the bodies of loved ones were normally disposed of by transumption, defined as:

"….the mortuary practice of consumption of the dead and the incorporation of the body of the dead person into the bodies of living relatives, thus helping to free the spirit of the dead..." (Alpers, M. P. (2007) A history of kuru. PNG Med J, 50, 10-19.)

As part of our investigations into the disease kuru, which was transmitted during traditional mortuary feasts, we have documented the Fore religion and the deep significance of transumption, as mortuary rite and one of several means of disposing the dead. This practice had deep significance for the Fore people and their neighbours.

We describe the interactions between the land, which is the creator, the founding clan ancestors, the guardian spirits, the immediate ancestors and 5 souls of the deceased, and the bereaved relatives during the practice of transumption. Our findings challenge western perspectives of cannibalism and the theoretical interpretations that anthropologists make, and document an elaborate relationship between the Fore people, their natural environment, their cosmology and their religion. We also show that these findings are common to other linguistic groups in the eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Finally, we advocate, using the practice of transumption as an example, the use of evidence-based ethnography of indigenous perceptions and beliefs to invigorate multidisciplinary approaches to biomedical research.