The notion of collective dignity among Hubula in Palim Valley, Papua

The central focus of this dissertation is the conceptual construction and valorization of the collective social identity of the Hubula, the indigenous people living in the Palim valley of Papua (also known as the Dani). It explores how this identity is expressed in ritual actions, and in the production and exchange of cultural artifacts, and looks at the way in which the Indonesian State and the Roman Catholic Church have impacted upon and transformed it. The ethnographic data presented documents the resilience of the Hubula in their encounter with modern institutions, including the impact of an encroaching market economy on the local forms of livelihood and resources, and pressure to more fully integrate into the Indonesian state which involves the subordination of the Hubula’s own forms authority and leadership to the political institutions of the Indonesian State. The dissertation points out the importance of including the ontological basis of Hubula social structure in the cultures of intervention and cultural policies in order to come to a dignified social change.