HUNSTEIN 95 nities. Bahinemo-speaking settlements are located in the Hunstein Range, on the shores of the lagoons to the north, and on the upper Sitipa and Salumei rivers to the south (fi g. 1). Traditionally, Bahinemo settlements were relatively impermanent and were located on ridges or hills for defensive purposes, but they have been relocated to riverside sites for the convenience of administration by provincial and central government agencies. Subsistence was based on processing starch from the pith of sago palms, gathering of various forest foods by women, and hunting and fi shing by men, all supplemented by produce from some easy-to-care-for gardens.1 This provided a semi-sedentary lifestyle, unlike the large sedentary villages of the mainstream Sepik that were based on the intensive exploitation of aquatic resources and sago obtained by trading fi sh with hinterland peoples. Such a semi-nomadic lifestyle required long periods of absence from established village sites, leaving little opportunity to create an elaborate range of material culture. Although the Bahinemo had slit drums, these were relatively crudely carved compared to those of the Sepik mainstream, and the cult houses in which they were kept were unimpressive structures (fi g. 8).2 The people of the Hunstein Range did produce wellcarved arrows and cassowary bone daggers, as well as fi nely carved and painted shields that afforded protection against both the arrows and spears used in fi ghting over territorial resources, a process that also involved headhunting and possibly cannibalism.3 Bahinemo ritual was primarily for the purpose of male initiation. During the performance of ceremonies, the slit drums and fl utes were sounded. There were two kinds of fl utes, long end-blown fl utes and short transverse fl utes, which were played in pairs. Openwork basketry masks and the garra hook carvings were observed by Douglas Newton beng used in an initiation ceremony at the Bahinemo village of Wagu on the lagoons to the north on 18 July 1967.4 The hook carvings were kept hung up in the cult house but were taken down to be danced by performers. There is no published information on how the similar carvings of the Sanio and Bitara were used, though it would be reasonable to assume a use similar to that of the Bahinemo.
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