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