AROUND THE GLOBE: Unas, the Sanctity of Stones

Indonesia, Irian Jaya, the western part of New Guinea. Stéphane Peyron discovers the Unas, the last people in the world still living as if in the Stone Age, within a strange landscape shrouded in mist and beaten with driving rains. He accompanies the men of the tribe as they set off to the river, where they will cut stones to provide a marriage dowry for Teklop, due soon to marry a young girl from the neighbouring clan of the Kurellus. Stéphane looks on fascinated as Diman cuts the stone. For him the stone forms part of himself - he speaks to it, looks at it from the inside, and extracts its powers. This little man with the mischievous eyes seems almost like an ancient elf, yet he possesses a secret knowledge now found only among members of this clan. Stéphane shares their daily lives and their expeditions into the jungle to hunt tree kangaroos, constantly marvelling at the extent to which these men have remained untouched by the so-called civilised world.