Tree House People of New Guinea

Tree House People of New Guinea

Here is a site about another bamboo tree house styled in the tropics. Its in Indonsia where there are purportedly primitive cannibalistic tribes who live in treehouses.

This photo is the work of the Korowai people who are living a stone age existence. It is amazing to me that they can build such structures with nothing from the modern world: They only use stone and bone tools, and everything is made of plants, vines and tree bark.

The additional danger involved in lashing a home like this together at such heights makes these building feats all the more extraordinary. I find myself wondering if there is a connection between the presence of cannibalism, even among themselves, and the desire to build homes at such heights. Could treehouses, even dangerously high ones, provide a survival benefit?

I can't help but reflect on the modern skyscrapers in the city where I live and how they imply an elevated defensive posture. They are largely removed from interaction with the public street level, enabling the residents more security through controlled access, and a sense of safety and superiority from a lofty perch. And there is a cultural parallel in that a form of market/financial cannibalism exists in the modern business world much like that of the primitive biological kind attributed to the Korowai.

Or, perhaps there is another motivation. Mabey the design is more like a watch tower, enabling the Korowai a broad view of the terrain, and perhaps a direct line of sight for communication with other homes over long distances. I'm thinking of parallels to the crenulated stone towers on castles from the medieval history. A castle typically controlled the amount of land it could survey from its towers. And, the high walls offered inaccessibility to keep invaders out and offered defenders an elevated advantage in fighting them off. For people of a lesser technological capacity, a tree house could provide all these advantages, too.

When there exists a threat of predators, particularily clever human ones, I see a pattern of positioning one's self high out of reach as a desirable defensive strategy (with other benefits like a good view).