ABSTRACT
The Ok Tedi River, the major western tributary of the Fly River drainage system, rises at 2900 m in the Star Mountains in the center of the island of New Guinea, flows through the rugged homeland of the Wopkaimin and ultimately meets the Fly River at 70 m at the d'Albertis Junction. The Wopkaimin tripartite mental map is culturally imposed on the landscape. Trophy arrays incorporate knowledge of the complex inter-relationships between place and time. Wopkaimin kinship relations of production are based on living with and appropriating the living resources of their 1000 km2 of ancestral rain forests. Foothill Rain Forest is the most ecologically complex environmental zone within the Wopkaimin homeland. Gardens (yon) are the most anthropogenically induced biotope in the Kam Basin. The Wopkaimin have taro (yaman, Colocasia esculenta), as their staple crop and it plays a very important role in the ritual life of all Mountain Ok peoples.
