The Abelam are a people who live in the East Sepik

East Sepik

East Sepik is a province in Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Wewak. East Sepik has an estimated population of 343,180 people and is roughly 42,800 km square in size.-History:...

 province of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

. They are a farming society in which giant yams form a significant role. They live in the Prince Alexander mountains near the north coast of the island. Their language

Abelam language

Abelam is the most populous of the Ndu languages of Sepik River region of northern Papua New Guinea....

 belongs to the Sepik family.

Farming and hunting

The Abelam live in the tropical rain forest and clear ground by burning. Their main food crops are yams

Yam (vegetable)

Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea . These are perennial herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania...

, taro

Taro

Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...

, bananas, and sweet potatoes. They supplement this with food gathered from the rain forest as well as pigs and chickens raised domestically. They also hunt small marsupials and cassowaries.

Yams

Yam growing forms a large part of Abelam society. The growing of large yams (they can be as large as 80-90 inches (2,286 mm) long) determines the status of individuals as well as the whole village. At yam festivals an individual would give his largest yam to his worst enemy who would then be obligated to grow an even larger yam or have his status fall each year in which he was unable to do so. Separate villages would gather at yam festivals where the hosting villages status would be determined by the size of their yams as well as their ability to provide more food than could be eaten and carried away by the rival village.

During the yam growing season strong emotions were kept to a minimum as they were thought to impede the growth of the yams. Fighting was taboo as was sexual activity. It was thought that the yams had a spirit and could sense any of these strong emotions.

(Source - Abalam: Giant Yams and Cycles of Sex, Warfare and Ritual - Richard Scaglion)