Read complete books and articles on: Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea - păpˈooə, –yooə, gĭnˈē, officially Independent State of Papua New Guinea, independent Commonwealth nation (1995 est. pop. 4,295,000), 183,540 sq mi (475,369 sq km), SW Pacific. It encompasses the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, as well as the Bismarck Archipelago, the Trobriand Islands, Samarai Island, Woodlark Island, D'Entrecasteaux Islands, the Louisiade Archipelago, and the northernmost Solomon Islands of Buka and Bougainville. The capital is Port Moresby; other important cities include Rabaul, Lae, Madang, Mt. Hagen, and Goroka.

Land, People, Economy, and Government

Papua New Guinea is a wild, rugged region, with limited communications; the climate is tropical. The country is divided into 20 provinces. The native population is Melanesian. Although some 700 different languages are spoken in the region, pidgin has become the lingua franca. The Univ. of Papua New Guinea opened in 1966. Subsistence agriculture supports most of the population; sweet potatoes constitute the main food crop. Agricultural exports (notably coconut products, rubber, coffee, cocoa, tea, and refined palm oil products) are increasing, but mineral deposits account for over two thirds of export earnings; silver, copper, and gold are mined. Oil production began in 1992, and there are undeveloped natural gas reserves. Timber is another import source of revenue; the rain forests of Papua New Guinea are filled with tropical timber. By the early 1990s, logging by foreign companies was threatening the environment. Pearl-shell and tortoise fisheries dot the coast. The nation has a parliamentary government with a governor-general, representing the British crown; a prime minister and cabinet; and a popularly elected unicameral parliament consisting of 109 members.

History

Papua, the southern section of the country, was annexed by Queensland in 1883 and the following year became a British protectorate called British New Guinea. It passed to Australia in 1905 as the Territory of Papua. The northern section of the country formed part of German New Guinea from 1884 to 1914 and was called Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. Occupied by Australian forces during World War I, it was mandated to Australia by the League of Nations in 1920 and became known as the Territory of New Guinea. Australian rule was reconfirmed by the United Nations in 1947.

In 1949 the territories of Papua and New Guinea were merged administratively, but they remained constitutionally distinct. They were combined in 1973 as the self-governing country of Papua New Guinea. Full independence was gained in 1975. In the late 1980s a violent secessionist movement broke out on Bougainville. A cease-fire, monitored by Australian troops, went into effect in Apr., 1998, and a peace accord that granted the island broad autonomy was signed three years later. Proposed cuts in defense forces as result of economic reforms demanded by Australia and international organizations sparked a weeklong mutiny in 2001; the government rescinded the cuts and promised to review the mutineers' concerns over foreign economic influences. Sir Michael Somare, of the National Alliance party, has been prime minister since Aug., 2002.

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13 of the Best Books and Articles on: Papua New Guinea

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Modern Papua New Guinea » Read Now
by Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi. 424 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
2.

Papua New Guinea: The Struggle for Development » Read Now
by John Connell. 354 pgs.

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Before independence Papua New Guinea's economy was largely based on agriculture, since 1975 it has focused on coal production. This is the first book to deal with these changes from an economic perspective.
3.

Party Politics in Papua New Guinea: A Deviant Case?, in Pacific Affairs » Read Now
by Ben Reilly. 21 pgs.

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4.

Emerging Class in Papua New Guinea: The Telling of Difference » Read Now
by Frederick K. Errington, Deborah B. Gewertz. 179 pgs.

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Class has become a feature of life in Papua New Guinea, evident in both "traditional" and "modern" settings. This book examines the emergence of class differences and its social and cultural ramifications in Wewak, capital of the East Sepik Province. It movingly conveys the injuries of class...
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Class has become a feature of life in Papua New Guinea, evident in both "traditional" and "modern" settings. This book examines the emergence of class differences and its social and cultural ramifications in Wewak, capital of the East Sepik Province. It movingly conveys the injuries of class inequalities, and reveals how class has worked in similar and different ways, and how it has become possible and plausible for relatively affluent "nationals," even those living in modest urban centers, to present themselves as fundamentally superior to other Papua New Guineans.
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5.

Times Enmeshed: Gender, Space, and History among the Duna of Papua New Guinea » Read Now
by Gabriele Sturzenhofecker. 248 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, History, Entire Library

The Duna of Papua New Guinea, a people whose unstructured social environments promote changing power relationships and allow for co-operation between the sexes, is the subject of this study.
6.

Inside the Cult: Religious Innovation and Transmission in Papua New Guinea » Read Now
by Harvey Whitehouse. 240 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

For the past thirty years, adherents of a millenarian cult in Papua New Guinea, known as the Pomio Kivung, have been awaiting the establishment of a period of supernatural bliss, heralded by the return of their ancestors bearing `cargo'. The author, Harvey Whitehouse, was taken for a reincarnated...
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For the past thirty years, adherents of a millenarian cult in Papua New Guinea, known as the Pomio Kivung, have been awaiting the establishment of a period of supernatural bliss, heralded by the return of their ancestors bearing `cargo'. The author, Harvey Whitehouse, was taken for a reincarnated ancestor, and was thus able to observe the dynamics of the cult from within. From the stable mainstream of the cult, localized splinter groups periodically emerge, hoping to expedite the millennium; the core of this volume concerns the close study of one such group in two Baining villages. The two aspects of the cult studied here - on the one hand a large, uniform, and stable mainstream organization with a well-defined hierarchy demanding orthodoxy of views, and on the other hand a small-scale and temporary movement, emotional and innovative in its views - stand in sharp contrast one to the other, but are here seen as divergent manifestations of the same religious ideology, implemented in differing ways. This original theory of `modes of religiosity' which Whitehouse here develops draws on recent findings in cognitive psychology to link styles of codification and cultural transmission to the political scale, structure, and ethos of religious communities.
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7.

Landmarks: Reflections on Anthropology » Read Now
by Andrew Strathern. 194 pgs.

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8.

Articulating Change in the "Last Unknown" » Read Now
by Frederick K. Errington, Deborah B. Gewertz. 196 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library
9.

The Art of Kula » Read Now
by Shirley F. Campbell. 241 pgs.

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Nearly a century ago, it was predicted that Kula, the exchange of shell valuables in the Massim region of Papua New Guinea, would disappear. Not only has this prophecy failed to come true, but today Kula is expanding beyond these island communities to the mainland and Australia.This book unveils the...
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Nearly a century ago, it was predicted that Kula, the exchange of shell valuables in the Massim region of Papua New Guinea, would disappear. Not only has this prophecy failed to come true, but today Kula is expanding beyond these island communities to the mainland and Australia.This book unveils the many deep motivations and meanings that lie behind the pursuit of Kula. Focusing upon the visually stimulating carved and painted prow boards that decorate canoes used by the Kula voyagers, Campbell argues that these designs comprise layers of encoded meaning. The unique colour associations and other formal elements speak to Vakutans about key emotional issues within their everyday and spiritual lives. How is mens participation in the Kula linked to their desire to achieve immortality? How do the messages conveyed by the canoe boards converge with those presented in Kula myths and rituals? In what ways do these systems of meaning reveal a male ideology that competes with the prevailing female ideology? Providing an alternative way of understanding the significance of Kula in the Trobriand Islands, The Art of Kula makes an influential new contribution to the ethnography of Papua New Guinea.
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10.

Mortuary Feasting on New Ireland: The Activation of Matriliny among the Sursurunga » Read Now
by Alexander H. Bolyanatz. 182 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

Discusses an infrequently encountered principle of social organization, matrilineal descent, as practiced by the Sursurunga of Papua New Guinea. Consistent with recent processual analyses of Melanesian social orders, Bolyanatz writes that members of Sursurunga matrilineal descent groups do not always behave as members of such groups.
11.

The Future Prospects for Entrepreneursbip in Papua New Guinea, in Journal of Small Business Management » Read Now
by Michael Schaper. 6 pgs.

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12.

Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society » Read Now
by Joel Robbins. 383 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

"A major contribution to the understanding of cultural change by means of a remarkable ethnographic study of a Melanesian Christianity. Robbins is very unusual among his generation in being able to walk the walk of the most trendy Deep Thinkers without having to talk their talk."--Marshall Sahlins...
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"A major contribution to the understanding of cultural change by means of a remarkable ethnographic study of a Melanesian Christianity. Robbins is very unusual among his generation in being able to walk the walk of the most trendy Deep Thinkers without having to talk their talk."--Marshall Sahlins, Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Social Sciences, The University of Chicago
"Robbins's excellence as an ethnographer and theoretician is beautifully demonstrated in his book, Becoming Sinners, a ground-breaking ethnography of the interrelations between competing moral discourses in a context of rapid cultural change. One of the most significant contributions of this manuscript is that Robbins has combined a strong humanities orientation in a work on religion and morality with powerful social science methodology. This book will be a major milestone."--Bambi Schieffelin, author of "The Give and Take of Everyday Life: Language Socialization of Kaluli Children
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13.

Papua and New Guinea, A Contemporary Survey (1961) » Read Now
by Brian Essai. 258 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library