It was important to us to film the reactions of people totally innocent of mirrors, cameras, recorders, etc. Such people exist in New Guinea, though they number only a handful & are disappearing like the morning mist. But, unless it's the interior of Borneo, I know of no other place in the world where such groups exist & even now, within this past year, change may have penetrated everywhere.

To this end, we went among the Biami, an isolated group in the Papuan Plateau. The following excerpts are from government patrol reports:

B. McBride, ADC, Patrol Report, January 19, 1960

On entering BIAMI territory the people proved to be very wary and occasionally openly hostile towards us. These people consistently tried to prevent us proceeding farther east by insisting that neither tracks nor population lay in that direction; these people obviously wanted the patrol out of their territory. On two occasions the patrol was confronted with a considerable body of armed strength. Only six women were seen amongst the BIAMI and these were accidently met in gardens.

Finally at SODUBI, near the GEWA river, the patrol was openly attacked when we tried to continue east to link up with the area reached by Mr. BUTLER in his patrol from LAKE KUTUBU. An air drop was called for as food supplies were in short supply and we wished to remain in the area. I did not wish to have to resort to taking food from gardens as this would undoubtedly have aggravated the situation.

Patrol Report, Nomad Base-Camp, May 23, 1962

The native situation would leave little to be desired then, if it were not for the continued aloofness of the BIAMI group which from all accounts is the most populous group of the people which we will have to deal with in the future. The Camp was visited by a small party of about a dozen BIAMIs, all warrior types, on the 17th of January, but this has been our only contact with them. We were unable to communicate with them, having no interpreter, but they made no obvious attempt to be friendly; on the contrary, they seemed surly and suspicious. They explored the Camp thoroughly and as I had a considerable distrust of their motives, decided upon a firearms demonstration. They observed it with reasonable indifference and as soon as it became dark, disappeared into the bush. Four days later some GEBUSI men came into the camp at eight o'clock at night and told us in some agitation that the BIAMIs were coming down to attack us. However, though we kept a careful watch for a week, nothing happened. We have heard from local sources that the whole time Mr. McBRIDE was patrolling in the BIAMI, the young men wanted to attack the patrol to gain possession of the axes and knives, but that the older men urged caution against the rifles. This balance of forces resulted in only a sporadic attack on the patrol. I had hoped that this BIAMI business would have resolved itself, that friendly contacts would have been made from the camp here, but in five months there has been only this one brief, unsatisfactory contact with them.

Patrol Report, Nomad, March 1969

Arrest those ADUMARIs involved in attacks on JOHNSON's 1968 patrol; arrest those SABASIGIs involved in killing and cannibal eating of a SOIA village male in early January 1969.

Patrol Report, R. I. Barclay, Nomad, March 20, 1969

Summarized outstanding investigations in the BIAMI:

1/ Murder and cannibalism of the man DINOU of DIBALIBA village. SAI' A and OULI, the two actual murders, are still at large, hiding with the remainder of the group. Mr. DARAS- WELLS was thus unsuccessful in their apprehension.
2/ The two murderers captured for the killing of the men at BABAGULIBI have since escaped from the lock up at NOMAD, and are believed to be at large in the TIGASUBI area. Their apprehension will be attempted on my forthcoming patrol to the ADUMARI commencing the 24th March.
3/ Murder and presumed cannibalism of SAMADORO men in December by the KABASI group.
4/ Murder and presumed cannibalism in November of man from KUNOU area by KABASIs. Mr. YOUNG has investigated 3 and 4 with no results (P/R No.13, 68/69). I will attempt a further investigation when I patrol the TOMU in about three months.
5/ Arrow wounding at WALIBI, IGIMI of KABLIFI victim. GOGUBAIDON of YASOLU (SAWAEBIA) still at large (see Diary).
6/ The aggressive and threatening attitude of the intractable and truculent ADUMARI towards previous patrols through their area. The forthcoming patrol is designed to deal with this.

Patrol Report, Nomad, March 24, 1969

Two women accused of sorcery were forcibly taken into the bush, bound to trees, and systematically beaten. They were left overnight, the plan being to return to them in the morning, beat them again, execute them with arrows, apportion their bodies and eat them - this being the traditional treatment of sorcerers. However, in the morning the women were released: three of the four men on their own admission said that they would have liked to have killed the women but that they already held a "Government BOOK" in the village and were frightened of what the government might do to them if they did kill the women. Having slept on it, they decided to let them go. ...On this occasion, government influence through the image of the "Book" no doubt saved the lives of the two women even when the Provisional Village Constable was no longer mindful of his position and obligations.

Patrol Report, Nomad, September 1969

On Monday 2lst September, two UNAWOE males came in to report the killing and cannibalism of one of their women by the DUDUGAMOBIs on approximately 17th September. At this time most of the UNAWONI males were absent working on the NOMAD/OBEIMI road.

Briefly, one of the DUDUGAMOBI men, NAUWABO, was taken sick and was near death on the night of Tuesday 16th. The remainder of the DUDUGAMOBI males held a singsing, and one SESEBALI in a trance discovered the name of the sorcerer who had made NAUWABO sick - it was NOLOME. Early in the morning NAUWABO died; the cause of his death cannot be ascertained. Five males WAGINA, BEBEMO, SAUWEA, ALIBO and WOBAU collected their weapons and went into the sago area. The men surrounded the women and moved in on NOLOME. The other women dashed off into the bush screaming. NOLOME screamed and tried to evade her pursuers but she was unsuccessful. BEBEMO held the struggling woman while SAUWEA smashed into her skull with an axe from behind. The five returned to the village and reported the deed. Two men GOGOSIMA and EMA returned to the sago area to carry the body back to the village. En route they cut out the woman's intestines and threw them into the bush. The body was secreted near the village as the village constable SIAGI was known to be against killings. An unknown number of males and females carried the body off into the bush where it was eaten. The remains were then buried on the UNAWOBI track. It would seem that the idea was that the government could inspect the corpse and see that they had not eaten it. We cannot reconcile this type of thinking as yet.

The VC attempted to report the murder but lost heart and returned to the village. GOGOSIMA, in an attempt to avert the impending visit of the government, made sorcery against the government. This consisted in carrying a small stone in a bilum under his left armpit. He took the pebble out in front of the others and gazed at it, saying that the government would not be able to visit the village as the stone would make them forget about the DUDUGAMOBI raid and send them to other villages instead.

One of the murderers had been to DARU. Incident occurred within 3 hrs. walk of NOMAD, in village that had had more contact than any except WALIBI.

In spite of these conflicts, we found Biami company a constant delight, full of love of children, humor, thrust of life. The immediate cause of cannibalism, or at least its rationale, is sorcery, a belief that the victims had harmed others by psychic means. Government policy is to lean steadily on killers, not cruelly, but not letting up until killings stop. Patrols raid villages at dawn, bash heads & take murderers off to prison for six months.

But this persuasion has largely failed & there is always the danger that the bashed might some day think of bashing as a solution to their own problems.

Instead of asking why men killed, I asked why some refrained. I always received the same answer: fear because their names were entered in "The Book" (Census). I recommended that patrol officers make a great ritual of entering a man's name in "The Book," and attach to each name a Polaroid shot of the man, which he would be shown annually, but not allowed to keep.

This worked in medieval England: the Domesday Book was so called, not because it was for taxation, but because it recorded names. When a cop takes down your name, he takes you over.