The name dema comes from the Marind-anim

Marind-anim

Marind-anim are a people living in South New Guinea, south of the lower parts of river Digul, east of Yos Sudarso Island, mainly west of Maro River . Today the area inhabited by Marind-anim is contained by Papua province of Indonesia.In the past, they were famed because of headhunting...

 peoples of south-west Papua and has been used to refer to similar concepts in Melanesian Religion

Melanesian mythology

Melanesian mythology is a European way of referring to the custom stories of the world area known since the 19th century as "Melanesia", an umbrella term used for the archipelagos of New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands, the Admiralty Islands, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Vanuatu...

 and elsewhere. Dema Deities are mythological figures (human

Human

Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...

, animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

, or super-human) who have given to certain peoples their land, food-crops, totem

Totem

A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...

s, and knowledge

Knowledge

Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

 (how to cultivate crops, raise poultry, make boats, perform dances, perform sacred rituals, etc.)
In some cases, it is claimed that from their dismembered bodies, blood, e.t.c., came the different communities

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

 or tribe

Tribe

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...

s that are now in existence, together with their territory. Both local culture and natural environment remain permeated

Permeation

Permeation, in physics and engineering, is the penetration of a permeate through a solid, and is related to a material's intrinsic permeability...

 with the super natural

Supernatural

The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

 power of these creative deities.

Further Reading

• FORTUNE, R. F., Sorcerers of Dobu: The social anthropology of the Dobu Islanders of the Western Pacific, London, G. Routledge, 1932; rev. edn, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963; 1932 edn repr. Darby, Pa, Arden, 1979.
• WILLIAMS, F. E., Drama of Orokolo: The Social and Ceremonial Life of the Elema, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1940.
• STREHLOW, T. G. H.
  Ted Strehlow
  Theodor George Henry Strehlow was an anthropologist who studied the Arrernte Australian Aborigines in Central Australia. He was considered a member of the Arrernte people, by dint of his ritual adoption by the tribe...
  
  , "Australia", in: C. J. Bleeker and G. Widengren (eds), Historia Religionum: Handbook for the History of Religions, Leiden, Brill, vol. 2, 1971, pp. 609 – 28.
• SELIGMANN, C. G.
  Charles Gabriel Seligman
  Charles Gabriel Seligman FRS was a British ethnologist. Born in London, Seligman studied medicine at St. Thomas' Hospital....
  
  , The Melanesians of British New Guinea, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1910; repr. New York, AMS, 1976: ISBN 0-404-14174-9
• BEST, E.
  Elsdon Best
  Elsdon Best was an ethnographer who made important contributions to the study of the Māori of New Zealand.-Early life and career:...
  
  , Maori Religion and Mythology, Wellington, 1924, repr. by Government Printer, Wellington, 1976 (Dominion Museum Bulletin, no. 10); New York, AMS, 1976: ISBN 0-404-14412-8
• BURRIDGE, K., Tangu Traditions: A Study of the Way of Life, Mythology , and Developing Experience of a New Guinea People, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969: ISBN 0-19-823136-9
• ELIADE, M.
  Mircea Eliade
  Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...
  
  , Australian Religions: An Introduction, Ithaca, N.Y., London, Cornell University Press, 1973: ISBN 0-8014-0729-X
• ELKIN, A. P.
  A. P. Elkin
  Adolphus Peter "A. P." Elkin CMG was an Anglican clergyman, an influential Australian anthropologist during the mid twentieth century and a proponent of the assimilation of Indigenous Australians.-Early life:...
  
  , Aboriginal Men of High Degree, 2nd edn, St Lucia, University of Queensland Press, 1977; New York, St Martin's, 1978: ISBN 0-7022-1017-X
• GEERTZ, C.
  Clifford Geertz
  Clifford James Geertz was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology, and who was considered "for three decades...the single most influential cultural anthropologist in the United States." He served until...
  
  , The Religion of Java, Glencoe, Ill, Free Press, 1960; Chicago, Ill, University of Chicago Press, 1976: ISBN 0-226-28510-3
• JENSEN, E.
  Eric Jensen
  Eric Jensen is a Canadian former professional race car driver from Toronto who competed in the Champ Car Atlantic Series series and Indy Lights series from 1997 to 2005. During that time he made 40 Atlantics starts, usually on a part-time basis, making his most season starts in 2003 and finishing...
  
  , The Iban and Their Religion, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1974, 1975: ISBN 0-19-823179-2
• POGNANT, R., Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, London, Hamlyn, 1967: ISBN 0-600-02372-9

External links

• Sorcerers of Dobu: The social anthropology of the Dobu Islanders of the Western Pacific Waveland Press (August 1989): ISBN 0-88133-452-9
• Williams, Francis. Edgar.
• Drama of Orokolo: The social and ceremonial life of the Elema
• A review of - Drama of Okokolo: The Social and Ceremonial Life of the Elema by B B; F E Williams: ISSN 0016-7398
• Orokolo
• Orokolo - Bibliography
• Historia Religionum: Handbook for the History of Religions by C.J. Bleeker, G. Widengren: ISBN 90-04-08928-4
• The Melanesians of British New Guinea
• Elsdon Best: Maori Religion and Mythology Part 1
• Bibliography - Burridge Kenelm
• Locating the Divine in Melanasia: An Appreciation of the work of Kennelm Burridge
• Tangu Traditions: A Study of the Way of Life, Mythology , and Developing Experience of a New Guinea People
• Australian Religions: An Introduction
• The Iban and Their Religion
• Oceanic Mythology: The Myths of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia
• Bibliography - Roslyn Poignant