Culture of Papua New Guinea

Located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean on the eastern half of the island New Guinea, Papua New Guinea is a beautiful country. Mostly mountainous, Papua New Guinea has a diverse geography with an expansive tropical rainforest, wetlands, and beaches with crystal clear water.

The country's motto is unity in diversity, having united over 1000 traditionally indigenous societies. Having become a mass melting pot of cultures and ancient rituals, since the first people settled the island about fifty thousand years ago, Papua New Guinea is a place rich with culture and heritage.

97% of the land in the country is held by indigenous groups. Though modernization has widely impacted life in Papua New Guinea, most people, according to Travel Document Systems, still live in small villages, relying on self-subsistent farming. People of the Highlands and Coastal regions depend on the harvesting of wild plants like sweet potatoes, yam roots, and taro, but also hunt for wild hogs and fish. The rainforest ecosystem is important, providing up to 30% of a tribes food supply as well as the raw materials needed for clothing, tools, and medicinal products.

Rainforest Information Centre reports that 87% of the four million people of the country live in rural areas and the population density is extremely low with about 8 persons per square kilometer. Papua New Guinean government and business push to improve basic infrastructure and develop rural areas much like the development in Australia and New Zealand. However indigenous farming methods have not changed throughout the centuries. In fact, most social and familial structure is inherited tradition, having maintained distinct tribal communities. Social units consists of families, small clans, and tribes. Members of the tribe, according to Rainforest Information Centre, are obligated to support fellow members. Men hunt and fish. The women are responsible for gardening and child bearing. The elderly are held in high regard.

Elaborate ceremonies were ancient rituals are performed are very common. Warriors and other men with status decorate themselves in bright colored body paint, feathers, and shells. Music plays a huge role in traditional celebrations, especially sing-sings, where different tribes and villages come together to feast, sing, dance, give gifts, and peacefully share customs and traditions. Papuan folk music has a diverse background, with traditional songs in each of the 850 languages spoken on the island. However, the emergence of missionaries in the 19^th century brought widespread conformation to Christianity and introduced islanders to Christian hymns and Gregorian chanting.

About 88% of the population practice some form or denomination of Christianity, the largest group being Roman Catholics. Mostly people of Papua New Guinea incorporate ancestral traditions, beliefs, and practices, with Christian faith. Traditional religions, included animism and ancestor worship.

Papua New Guinea a small country in the Oceania region of the world is probably one of the most diverse countries in the planet, with 1000 different cultural groups, 850 languages, and untouched and natural rainforests and wetlands.