PAPUA NEW

GUINEA
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Presentation Schedule

 Quick Facts
 Climate of Papua New Guinea
 People
 History of Papua New Guinea
 Cultural life
 Daily life and social customs
Quick Facts

Papua New Guinea, island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It

encompasses the eastern half of New Guinea, the world’s second largest island.
The islands that constitute Papua New Guinea were settled over a period of
40,000 years by the mixture of peoples who are generally referred to as
Melanesians. Since the country achieved independence in 1975, one of its
principal challenges has been the difficulty of governing many hundreds of
diverse, once-isolated local societies as a viable single nation.
Climate of Papua New Guinea

 Although all the climatic regions of Papua New Guinea are basically tropical, they are
nevertheless varied. In the lowlands, mean annual maximum temperatures range from about 30
to 32 °C, and the minimums are between 23 and 24 °C. Seasonal variation in temperature is
slight, and the daily variation approximates the annual variation. Cooler conditions prevail in
the Highlands, where night frosts are common above 7,000 feet (2,100 metres); daytime
temperatures there generally exceed 22 °C independently of season. Each variation in elevation
creates new ecological zones for plant and animal life.
People

 At independence in 1975 the expatriate community of about 50,000 was predominantly Australian, with
perhaps 10,000 people of Chinese origin whose ancestors had arrived before World War I. By the early 21st
century most of those people had moved to Australia. The foreign-born community had not expanded but had
become more mixed, with only some 7,000 Australians.
 The official languages of the country all reflect its colonial history. English is the main language of
government and commerce. In most everyday contexts the most widely spoken language is Tok Pisin , a creole
combining grammatical elements of indigenous languages, some German, and, increasingly, English. Hiri
Motu is a simplified trading language originally used by the people who lived around what is now Port
Moresby when it came under that name in 1884.
 In addition to the official languages, there are more than 800 distinct indigenous languages belonging to two
radically different language groups—Austronesian, to which the local languages classified as Melanesian
belong, and non-Austronesian, or Papuan. There are some 200 related Austronesian languages. Austronesian
speakers generally inhabit the coastal regions and offshore islands, including the Trobriands and Buka. Papuan
speakers, who constitute the great majority of the population, live mainly in the interior. The approximately
550 non-Austronesian languages have small speech communities, the largest being the Engan, Melpa, and
Kuman speakers in the Highlands, each with more than 100,000 speakers. Amid such a multiplicity of tongues,
Tok Pisin serves as an effective lingua franca.
People

 The majority of Papua New Guinea’s people

are at least nominally Christian. More than
two-fifths of the population is Protestant;
Lutherans make up the largest portion of
those, and there are some Anglicans and a
growing number of Pentecostals.
Approximately another one-fifth are Roman
Catholics. Seventh-day Adventism is
increasing in popularity, and there are also
small numbers of Bahāʾīs and Muslims.
Despite the apparent inroads made by
introduced religions, much of the population
also maintains traditional religious beliefs,
and rituals of magic, spells, and sorcery are
still widely practiced.
History of Papua New Guinea

 Settlement of New Guinea

 Relatively little archaeological work has been done on the island of New Guinea. Based on the
available data, it has been assumed that parts of New Guinea were already inhabited 50,000
years ago. Nearby Mount Hagen, indicates the existence of intensive agricultural activity on
the island for 7,000 years. The intensity and duration of human settlement of the Highlands is
evidenced by the extent of man-made landscapes in the region. These discoveries are made all
the more interesting by the fact that sweet potatoes, the modern staple crop of the region,
apparently did not appear here until 300 or 400 years ago from the Americas.
Cultural life

 Despite the penetration of the modern

economy and the media and their influence on
traditional cultural life, Papua New Guinea
retains a rich diversity of village cultures.
These are expressed in the way the country's
landscapes have been shaped over generations,
as well as in wood carvings, stories, songs,
dances, and body decorations.Carvings from
the Sepik, Bay, Massim, and Huon Peninsula
regions are known throughout the world. The
most famous wood carvings come from the
Sepik region, particularly masks and crocodile
figures that have religious meaning. In most
areas, only the older generation is skilled in
making traditional clay cooking pots, which
are being replaced by metal pots and pans.
Daily life and social customs

The daily life of the people in Papua New

Guinea is very diverse, with the vast majority of
the population living in villages or farmsteads in
a diverse rural landscape. Daily life is usually
centered in the extended family, whose primary
responsibilities are producing food for
subsistence and raising children. Most people
have rights to use plots of land to grow food
and some cash crops, as well as rights to fish,
hunt, and harvest timber from local forests.
Many of these activities are accompanied by
rituals designed to ensure success and
prosperity. Other basic rituals, such as
menarche ceremonies for girls and initiations
for boys, are in decline. The social system of
the highlanders previously implied a strict
separation of men and women, with men
sleeping in men's houses, somewhat
reminiscent of military barracks, and women in
separate garden houses with small children.