Papua New Guinea - An Introduction

PAPUA NEW GUINEA - AN INTRODUCTION


History:
Papua is probably derived from the Malay word “papuwah” (“fuzzy hair”). In 1545, a Spanish explorer called the island Nueva Guinea. In 1884, the western half of New Guinea was officially recognized as Dutch New Guinea, the northeastern section become German New Guinea, and the southeastern quarter became British New Guinea. In 1905, Australia took over the territory, renaming it the Territory of Papua. After World War II, The British and German territories were combined and jointly administered by Australia as the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. In 1975, the country became Papua New Guinea or, officially, the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.

Location and Geography:
Papua New Guinea (PNG) consists of Eastern New Guinea with New Britain, New Ireland, Bougainville, and six hundred small islands and archipelagoes. The land area is over 178,000 square miles (462,000 square kilometers), with the mainland accounting for 80 percent. The western half of the island is the Indonesian province of Iran Jaya. To the south is Australia, and to the east and southeast are the Solomon Islands and other Melanesian countries.
The central mountain chain extends the length of the island and is covered in tropical rain forest. Upland valleys and the headwaters of fast-flowing rivers descend to the coast through some of the world’s largest swamps. Around Port Moresby and in drier areas to the west are grassy plains and savannah woodlands.
The climate of PNG is generally hot and humid, although it varies from one area to another.

Demography:
The 1990 census showed a population of 3,761,954. Over half the population was under age 20.The population topped four millions in 1992 and it is estimated to be at present
5,700,000. Around 85 percent of the population lives in small villages and rural outpost: the other 15 percent is concentrated in ten major urban areas where most of non-Melanesian population of about 30,000 resides. The largest cities are Port Moresby, Lae,
Madang, Mt.Hagen, Wewak, and Goroka.

Colonization and Urbanism:
Before European settlement, there were no towns in PNG. Thousand of villages and hamlets were connected by narrow paths, customs, and network of marriage and trade partners. Men spent their nights with other men and boys in elaborate men’s bush material houses, while their wives and female relatives slept and ate in smaller women’s houses. With colonization, dispensed settlements were combined into larger villages for easier administration. At that time, people started re-grouping and living as families under the same roof. Colonization and change were uneven, with island and costal areas colonized before the interior and some groups resisting change for decades. Outsiders did not visit the highlands until the 1930s, and some areas were first contacted as late as the 1970s. The first towns grew up around mission and administrative centers, near airstrips, or on hillsides overlooking good harbors. After World War II, there was an expansion of economic opportunities for both colonizers and local people, resulting in a rapid growth of towns and an increase of urban migration.

Linguistic Affiliation:
Well over one thousand languages are spoken through PNG. On German (and later Australian areas and whenever individuals speaking different languages met, a pidgin language referred to as Neo-Melanesian or Melanesian Pidgin developed. Now known as “Tok Pisin” (“talk pidgin”), Melanesian Pidgin is spoken throughout PNG. While Englih is taught in schools and is the official language of business and government, Tok Pisin is a symbol of national identity and a preferred means of communication. Hiri Motu, a trade language that originated on the south coast in Papua , is spoken only in that area.

Religion Beliefs:
The first mission established in eastern New Guinea was that of London Missionary Society in 1871.Some New Guineans resisted the changes that missionaries represented, while others accepted them for an opportunity of new form of wealth and power. More often New Guinean blended old and new religion. A typical example is the Cargo Cult, aimed at acquiring wealth and power of the outsiders. (Information on Cargo Cult can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
A common belief among the locals is that the physical and nonphysical world are interwined and that the well-being of living humans is directly related to the maintenance of proper social ties, adherence to taboos, and propitiation of spirits.

Gender Roles and Etiquette:
Village subsistence center on horticulture, with men clearing forests and bush so that their wives can plant gardens and tender pigs. Some crops, such as bananas, sugarcane, and cash crops ( such as coffee , cocoa and vanilla) are planted and tended by men. Men build houses and fences, while women make grass skirts and net bags (bilums).
Women do daily cooking. Both men and women look after small children, with the father tending his infants while the mother weeds her garden. Men who do women’s work are stigmatized as “rubbish men”.
In village society, etiquette centers on reciprocity and being hospitable to guests and relaxed. On meetings, men and women of different ages claps hands or claps one another around the waist. Couples do not openly express affection in public, but friends of the same sex may hold hands while walking. It is not rude to stare or for persons to crowd one another at counters or stand very close.

Food in Daily Life:
Staples includes starchy vegetables (wild sago, breadfruit, yams, taro, sweet potatoes, and rice) complemented by wild green. Several varieties of bananas, and coconuts, mango and other fruits. Domestication of animals and hunting provide fowl. Pork, and meat from birds, marsupials ,turtles, and cassowaries. In riverine and coastal areas, fish and shellfish may form a significant part of diet. Villagers cook two meals a day, boiling or roasting the food. Earth ovens are dug on ceremonials grounds for special occasions. Leftover, Sugar cane, and coconut milk are consumed while people work in their gardens. Tea is drunk at all times. Food taboos vary and are often temporary, as with restrictions on pregnant women and initiates. Other are totemic, involving plants or animals that are symbolic of kin group. Still other are relational; for example, a son-in-law may not consume food in the presence of his mother-in-low.

The Economy:
Basic Economy: villagers produce most of their own food, and many town people plant gardens and rely on open-air markets for fruit and vegetables sold by village women. Urban supermarkets import an array of expensive foods and other items. Most residents rely on small trade stores for their necessities.
Land tenure and property: Most land is vested in kin groups (tribes) and allocated according to the need of each family. Individuals may own a grove of banana trees but not the land they grow on. New families can obtain from the tribe the right to grow crops on a section of the communal land. Established families can obtain an extension of the land where they grow their vegetables. Individual land ownership is not common. Industries and trade: The major industries are extractive. In addition to gold mining and oil drilling, major industries include coffee, copra, cocoa, cattle, oil palm, timber. These products represent the most important export items. Imports include machinery and transport equipment, food and live animals, manufactured goods and pharmaceuticals.

Political life:
PNG is an independent Commonwealth nation that achieved independence on September 16, 1975 from the Australian-administered United Nations trusteeship. It is a parliamentary democracy with a governor general representing the British Crown, a prime minister and a cabinet, and a 109-member unicameral, popularly elected parliament. There are many political parties, and the prime minister must forge coalitions.
Parties are unstable and hard to distinguish on the basis of substantive issues. Prime ministers rarely stay in full five years, and parliament members switch parties frequently. There are nineteen provinces (former colonial districts) and a National Capital District. Each province has local government structure headed by a governor.
At village level, there are not “chiefs”, rather traditional leaders who are called “big men”. The typical “big man” is hardworking, skilled in oratory, personable, and intelligent person. His influence is restricted to the area controlled by the tribe.