Wooi
Wooi are organized in patrilinear exogamous clans (marga), who descend either from Yapen the Bird’s head or the neighboring Biak island. Most Wooi are protestant; however non-Christian beliefs and magic occur. Contact to neighboring groups (Ansus, Pom, Marau) is frequent; Wooi are traditionally fishermen diversifying their subsistence economy also by horticulture and trading sago in the wider island’s maritime transport networks.
The political power in the central settlements is shared by two elected village heads (kepala desa) from the influential clan of the Werimon and Wihyawari. Interethnic warfare was common in colonial times and traditional Wooi songs (koya) are still orally transmitted today to remember them; of particular ethnological interest is a specific peace-building ritual, hesokuru, practiced by Wooi to overcome interpersonal disharmony.
The political power in the central settlements is shared by two elected village heads (kepala desa) from the influential clan of the Werimon and Wihyawari. Interethnic warfare was common in colonial times and traditional Wooi songs (koya) are still orally transmitted today to remember them; of particular ethnological interest is a specific peace-building ritual, hesokuru, practiced by Wooi to overcome interpersonal disharmony.