Fayu people

{{Short description|Former Hunterer-Gatherers people of New Guinea}}

{{Infobox ethnic group

|group = Fayu people

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|population = 1,470

|popplace = {{flag|Indonesia}} (Papua (province))

|langs = Fayu language, Indonesian language

|rels = Christianity (65%), other ethnic religion (35%){{Cite web|url=http://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/11193/ID|title = Fayu in Indonesia}}

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The Fayu people are an ethnic group who live in an area of swampland in Waropen Regency, Province of Papua, Indonesia. They can be found in Kampung Otodemo, Inggerus District, but also in Kampung Dirou, Kampung Kawari, Kampung Dairi and Kampung Subohiri and in Kirihi District (south of Otodemo).{{cite web|url= https://dapobas.kemdikbud.go.id/home?show=isidata&id=493 |title= Fayu |publisher= Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa |access-date= 22 January 2023}} When first contacted by westerners they numbered about 400, a number reduced from about 2000 due to violence within the group. The Fayu generally live in single family groups with gatherings of several such groups once or twice a year to exchange brides. Two books have been written about living among them. The first is by Sabine Kuegler, who spent most of her childhood growing up with them.{{cite book|author=Sabine Kuegler|title=Child Of The Jungle: The True Story Of A Girl Caught Between Two Worlds|url=https://archive.org/details/childofjungletru00kueg|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Grand Central Publishing|isbn=978-0-7595-7272-0}} The second is Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, where the group is used as an example of a band type society.{{cite book|author=Jared Diamond|title=Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies|url=https://archive.org/details/gunsgermssteelfa00diam|url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=0-3930-6922-2}} The Fayu are often described in books written about them as Stone Age people, cannibalistic, brutal fighters, backward, and as a people who can only count up to three.{{cite journal|author=Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kulturmorphologie & Universität Frankfurt am Main. Frobenius-Institut|title=Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, Volumes 13-15|journal=Paideuma Zeitschrift für Kulturanthropologische Forschung|year=1967|publisher=Kohlhammer Verlag|issn=0078-7809}} Today,{{when|date=July 2020}} the Fayu people number up to 1,470; the majority of them are Christians.