Indonesia - life and traditional activities of the Papuans - history, culture, traditions. Material culture of the Papuans and Melanesians About the inhabitants of Somboy
Despite the fact that outside the window is the rapid 21st century, which is called the century information technologies, here in the country of Papua, far from us - New Guinea It seems that time has stopped.
State of Papua New Guinea
The state is located in Oceania, on several islands. Total area about 500 square kilometers. Population 8 million people. The capital is Port Moresby. The head of state is the Queen of Great Britain.
The name "Papua" translates as "curly". This is how the island was named in 1526 by a navigator from Portugal, the governor of one of the Indonesian islands, Jorge de Menezes. 19 years later, the Spaniard, one of the first explorers of the Pacific Islands, Inigo Ortiz de Retes, visited the island and named it “New Guinea”.
Official language of Papua New Guinea
Tok Pisin is recognized as the official language. It is spoken by the majority of the population. And also English, although only one person in a hundred knows it. Basically, these are government officials. Interesting feature: There are more than 800 dialects in the country and therefore Papua New Guinea is recognized as the country with the most big amount languages (10% of all languages in the world). The reason for this phenomenon is the almost complete lack of connections between tribes.
Tribes and families in New Guinea
Papuan families still live in tribal mode. An individual “unit of society” is simply unable to survive without contact with its tribe. This is especially true for life in cities, of which there are quite a few in the country. However, here any city is considered locality, whose population is more than a thousand people.
Papuan families form tribes and live close to other urban people. Children usually do not attend schools located in cities. But even those who go to study very often return home after one or two years of study. It is also worth noting that girls do not study at all. Because the girl helps her mother with housework until she is married off.
The boy returns to his family to become one of the equal members of his tribe - a “crocodile”. That's what men are called. Their skin should be similar to the skin of a crocodile. Young men undergo initialization and only then have the right to communicate on equal terms with the rest of the men of the tribe, they have the right to vote at a meeting or other event taking place in the tribe.
The tribe lives alone big family, supports and helps each other. But he usually does not contact the neighboring tribe or even openly quarrels. Recently, the Papuans have had their territory cut off quite heavily; it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to maintain the old order of life in nature in natural conditions, their thousand-year-old traditions and their unique culture.
Papua New Guinea families have 30-40 people. Women of the tribe run the household, care for livestock, give birth to children, collect bananas and coconuts, and prepare food.
Papuan food
Not only fruits are the main food of the Papuans. Pork is used for cooking. The tribe protects pigs and eats their meat very rarely, only holidays And memorable dates. More often they eat small rodents that live in the jungle and banana leaves. Women can cook all dishes from these ingredients amazingly deliciously.
Marriage and family life of New Guineans
Women have practically no rights, submitting first to their parents and then entirely to their husbands. By law (in the country the majority of residents are Christians), the husband is obliged to treat his wife well. But in reality this is far from the case. Practice persists ritual murders women on whom even the shadow of suspicion of witchcraft falls. According to statistics, more than 60% of women are constantly exposed to domestic violence. International public organizations And Catholic Church are constantly sounding the alarm on this issue.
But, unfortunately, everything remains the same. A girl at 11-12 years old is already married off. At the same time, parents lose “another mouth to feed”, since a younger girl becomes an assistant. And the groom's family gets free labor, so he is looking at all girls six to eight years old. Often the groom can be a man older girls for 20-30 years. But there is no choice. Therefore, each of them meekly accepts their fate as a given.
But a man doesn’t choose for himself future wife, which can only be seen in front of the traditional wedding ceremony. The decision on choosing a bride will be made by the elders of the tribe. Before the wedding, it is customary to send matchmakers to the bride’s family and bring a gift. Only after such a ceremony is the wedding day set. On this day, the ritual of “kidnapping” the bride takes place. A decent ransom must be paid to the bride's house. These can be not only various valuable things, but also, for example, wild boars, banana branches, vegetables and fruits. When the bride is given to another tribe or another house, her property is divided among the members of the community from which the girl comes.
Life in marriage cannot be called easy. According to ancient traditions, a woman lives separately from a man. In the tribe there are so-called women's and men's houses. Adultery, on either side, can be punished very harshly. There are also special huts where husband and wife can periodically retire. They can also retire in the forest. Girls are raised by their mothers, and boys from the age of seven are raised by the men of the tribe. Children in the tribe are considered common, and they are not treated on ceremony. Among the Papuans you will not find such a disease as overprotection.
This is how difficult it is family life among the Papuans.
Witchcraft law
In 1971, the country passed the Witchcraft Law. It says that a person who considers himself “bewitched” is not responsible for his actions. The murder of a sorcerer is a mitigating circumstance in trial. Very often, women from another tribe become victims of accusations. Four years ago, a gang of cannibals who called themselves witch hunters killed men and women and then ate them. The government is trying to fight this terrible phenomenon. Perhaps the witchcraft law will finally be repealed.
New Guinea attracts attention research groups the unusualness of their way of life. In addition, the morals and customs of modern tribes have a long history - this is how their ancestors lived, and this is what is interesting for ethnographic expeditions.
Peculiarities of life of the people of New Guinea
The number of people living in one family yard reaches 40 people. Their home is a house made of grass and bamboo on stilts - this is how the Papua tribe saves itself from possible flooding. Men make fire using their usual method - friction. The people of Papua rarely eat meat - the pig is considered a domestic animal and is protected, but sometimes gets caught in the fire. Snakes and cuscus rodents are also caught. Cultivating a vegetable garden is also not alien to the Papuans; the main tool of labor is a digging stick. They grow sweet potatoes and yams. Papuans eat two meals a day. Chewing a mixture of betel leaves is a common activity for Papuans - it intoxicates and calms.
Family customs
The tribe is led by elders who enjoy authority, and their decision is considered the last. If he dies, his body is smeared with the drug and wrapped in leaves - this is how he is prepared for smoking. The body is smoked for several months - a mummy is obtained. This was the custom among the ancestors of modern Papuans. It meant the elder's life after. On holidays, a sitting mummy was present at the celebration. Now such a mummy is considered a relic, because modern peoples they don’t know the secret of its creation.
The female age for marriage is from 11 to 14 years. The decision on marriage is made by the elder. On the eve of the wedding, the bride's parents receive matchmakers who give them betel. Relatives of both parties must agree on the price of the bride. On the appointed wedding day, the groom and his tribe go to the bride. The custom of ransoming the bride is also present in this culture. Sometimes bride kidnapping occurs. The Papuans consider and to be wedding flowers; it is in the outfit of these colors that the bride is dressed. In addition, they hang money on her, which amounts to the ransom amount. Next comes the wedding feast.
It is interesting that the bride who leaves her tribe does not take her things - they are divided among members of the community. Men live separately from women and children. Polygamy is also possible. Women are not allowed to approach some places at all. Women are assigned regular role- housekeeping, their responsibility is also considered to be the collection of coconuts and bananas. After one relative, one phalanx of a woman's finger is cut off. Relatives are also associated with wearing beads weighing 20 kg, which a woman wears for 2 years.
Husband and wife retire to separate huts. Intimate relationships are free, adultery is allowed.
Girls live next to their mothers, and boys, upon reaching the age of seven, move to men. A boy is raised to be a warrior - piercing his nose with a sharp stick is considered initiation.
Papuans believe in nature. Far from civilization, they adopt the experience of their ancestors and pass it on from generation to generation.
Every nation has its own cultural characteristics, historically established customs and national traditions, some or even many of which cannot be understood by representatives of other nations.
We present to your attention shocking facts about the customs and traditions of the Papuans, which, to put it mildly, not everyone will understand.
Papuans mummify their leaders
Papuans show respect for deceased leaders in their own way. They do not bury them, but store them in huts. Some of the creepy, distorted mummies are up to 200-300 years old.
Some Papuan tribes have preserved the custom of dismembering the human body.
The largest Papuan tribe in eastern New Guinea, the Huli, has acquired a bad reputation. In the past they were known as headhunters and eaters of human flesh. Now it is believed that nothing like this is happening anymore. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that human dismemberment occurs from time to time during magical rituals.
Many men in New Guinea tribes wear kotekas
Papuans living in the highlands of New Guinea wear kotekas, sheaths worn over their male parts. Kotek is made from local varieties of calabash gourd. They replace panties for Papuans.
When women lost relatives, they cut off their fingers
The female part of the Papuan Dani tribe often walked without phalanges of fingers. They cut them off for themselves when they lost close relatives. Today you can still see fingerless old women in villages.
Papuans breastfeed not only children, but also animal cubs
The obligatory bride price is measured in pigs. At the same time, the bride's family is obliged to take care of these animals. Women even feed piglets with their breasts. However, their breast milk other animals also eat.
Almost all the hard work in the tribe is done by women
In Papuan tribes, women do all the main work. Very often you can see a picture where Papuans, being in the last months of pregnancy, chop firewood, and their husbands rest in huts.
Some Papuans live in tree houses
Another Papuan tribe, the Korowai, surprises with their place of residence. They build their houses right on the trees. Sometimes, to get to such a dwelling, you need to climb to a height of 15 to 50 meters. The Korowai's favorite delicacy is insect larvae.
Evil, wild and eating their own kind - these are, perhaps, the main characteristics that are usually used to describe tribal residents Papua New Guinea. However, in reality, everything is somewhat different - rumors about cruelty and cannibalism flourishing on these islands are clearly greatly exaggerated. By at least, tourists who have dared to get acquainted with the Papuan culture personally claim that the local aborigines are quite friendly, although at first they seem very stern and gloomy. By the way, Miklouho-Maclay, a Russian ethnographer-traveler who lived with wild tribes for many years, wrote about this in his diary. The scientist almost immediately revealed the innocence of these people, describing his first appearance on the island as follows: “With the exception of two or three scratches, no one dared to inflict a serious wound on me.” It must be said that since then (and this was in 1870), the Papuans have not lost their kindness and are still ready to talk peacefully, unless you encroach on their lands, women and... pigs.
Stone XXI century
Over the past centuries, little has changed not only psychological picture savages, but also the whole structure of their existence. Ethnographers who carefully studied the Papuan world agreed that many tribes still retained their Everyday life signs of a Stone Age structure. Most Papuans, being far from progress and Big world, live exactly the same way as their ancestors lived. Yes, of course, some signs modern world they still penetrated the islands (instead of feathers and palm leaves, the aborigines now wear fabrics), but in general the way of life remains the same as many centuries ago.
However, it would be an absolute lie to say that with the advent of white people on these lands, the life of the Papuans did not change in any way. Since the creation of the mining industry by Europeans and the development of tourism in the country, some of the indigenous people have left their tribal communities and is engaged in transporting guests, mining, servicing stores, and so on. Today we can already say that a layer of entrepreneurs and farmers is being formed in Guinea. And many traditions and rituals either disappeared without a trace or turned into tourist attractions.
The tribe's plans are coming to life!
As many years ago, the bulk of the Papuan population lives in a communal-tribal system. Within a single tribe, as in the Stone Age, there is no place for private property, monogamous relationships, class gradation and state laws. All major work, be it harvesting or war with a neighboring tribe, is done by the community together. All disputes are resolved together, holidays are celebrated, magical rituals. Even seemingly purely personal issues such as choosing a bride or the timing of marriage are also decided jointly.
Papuans live mainly by hand farming, gathering, and much less often by hunting. With the advent of Europeans, pig farming began to play an important role in the functioning of the tribe, although meat is eaten very rarely here, for reasons of economy, replacing it with sweet potato, coconut and bananas.
The tribe itself is an association of large families, and the understanding of a “large family” here is very different from the European one and sometimes numbers about 30-40 people. What is noteworthy is that the basis of the cell of a wild society is women, the numerous wives of one man, the head of the family.
Who is the head in this house?
Well, what is a tribe without a leader! It is very easy to recognize him: his concentrated face, brutal appearance, piercing gaze. His opinion is authoritative and rarely subject to appeal. Moreover, even when the leader dies, his body wrapped in palm leaves is still for a long time fellow tribesmen come, eager to receive a piece of wisdom from the leader who has left the world.
The tribal ruler of Papua not only commands the community, but also heals it, for he is also a shaman and healer. Only the leader knows what disease and how to treat it, and how to properly circumcise boys - a mandatory procedure for initiating young men into men. In addition, the leader sterilizes the women of the tribe if she has given birth to two or more children. Alas, the tribe’s habitat is very limited; the community has no right to move from its home, so the birth rate in families is strictly controlled.
Men rule the world
Some will say that today in Papua women’s rights are not taken into account at all, but history shows that before the situation looked much less disingenuous. Not so long ago, in all Papuan tribes (and in some still) there were so-called Men's Houses. Only adult representatives of the stronger sex (those who are polygamists!) were allowed to enter it, and women were strictly prohibited from entering. And, truly, it is inappropriate for a woman to distract men from important thoughts and conversations. And important things were really discussed in the Men's House. The council decided what price should be offered for the bride, which of the tribe's families needed more living space, how to divide the harvest, and which warrior was worthy of going hunting.
Which of the young women of the tribe and, more importantly, who needed to marry, was also decided by the Men's House. In this case, the feelings of the unfortunate woman, of course, were not taken into account. And since it was impossible to marry young people from the same tribe (this was equated to incest), a very unenviable fate awaited the young lady. However, the position of a young woman in the tribe always had a temporary status. They lived in their community only until marriage, after which they moved to their husband’s tribe. Despite joint activities, barrier between married couple persists throughout life: he lives in the Men's House, she in the Women's Hut, he owns his property, she owns hers. So the spiritual unity of a couple in love in Papua New Guinea does not even smell!
Wall to wall
The customs and traditions of the Papuan tribes are very different, and therefore each other’s rituals are completely incomprehensible to them. It’s no joke: there are about 700 languages on these islands alone. So things are not going well with mutual understanding here, and when it comes to resolving mutual issues regarding the ownership of land, women and pigs, the Papuans take up the hatchet. Fighting here is not only a way to settle a dispute, but also a matter of honor for every man.
Several such inter-tribal armed clashes occur every year. The basis for declaring a serious war is theft or murder. As tradition dictates, the entire tribe stands up for the injured Papuan, but the community of the villain also does not remain in debt. Traditional weapons are most often used: bows, arrows, axes and spears, but in Lately The Papuans began to resort to firearms. If the leaders of the warring tribes cannot come to an agreement peacefully, hostilities could continue for months, or even years.
Dance War
And yet, Papuans do not always howl with knives! In August, fights of a completely different nature take place on the islands - dance fights. At this time, at the foot of one of the most high mountains- Mount William - about a hundred tribes from all over Papua New Guinea gather to compete in dance skills at the traditional Sing Sing festival, dedicated to the Day independence of the country.
Some may think that this festival of drums, costumes, songs and dances is nothing more than a tourist gimmick, but the roots of this event go back as far as stone Age. The distant ancestors of the Papuans performed something similar in honor of a victory over a neighboring community or in honor of a truce (all with the same neighboring tribe). In the 50s of the twentieth century, the festival received the status of an official holiday and was held to bring warring communities together. While ordinary members of the tribe danced and collectively ate watermelons, the leaders reached important agreements. The material benefits from the festival, when tourists began to come to the dance match, became just an additional bonus.
Papuans begin preparing for the event from the very early morning. There is a lot of work to be done: everyone needs to be painted in “branded” colors, dressed up in palm leaves, bird feathers, beads made from fangs and dog bones, and distributed dance parts. All efforts are thrown into telling the audience as clearly as possible, through crazy dances and chants, about the traditions, rituals and structure of their tribe. Look at this colorful show tourists come from all over the world. And there is a reason for this: this holiday is considered the largest gathering of native tribes in the world.
Living my first introductory days in Bevani, and seeing the interest that these people showed in my person, I decided not to go back to Lido, but to continue living here. I didn’t know how long it would take, but I didn’t want to leave. Their care for me, care, approach and all these smiles formed in me a lasting sympathy for them and a feeling of home comfort. We became attached to each other and felt sincere, selfless feelings. Simply put, Somboy became my new home and these people became my new family.
Perhaps many of you don’t understand what it’s like to come to an unfamiliar place, to the End of the World, to hell in the middle of nowhere, to enter a new society and become one of your own there. But these are the effects of travel, and the more distant lands you come from, the more welcome you are to the locals. And in Papua New Guinea, travelers are a rarity, especially in such unpopular places as Bewani. And the more you are unlike them, the stronger the attachment and interest in your person will be.
Let's go wash ourselves in the stream
About the residents of Somboy
Perhaps I'll introduce you to them. The head of the village is the consul Tom Sepi, you already know him, but unfortunately I don’t have his photo. Tom has 4 sons: Simon (28), Sapel (24), George (20), Robert (16) and 2 daughters, one of whom is Kelis (19), I forgot the second. The three eldest sons are employed as drivers by a Malaysian company, and the youngest is studying in Port Moresby. The older brothers are married and have children, Kelis is not yet married.
My most best friend, became the partner and main guide in the world of the Papuans Jimmy Iva. I spent most of my time with him. Jimmy is about 55 years old, he has a wife and 6 children: eldest son Gregory (20), eldest daughter Queen (19), middle daughter Staleen (16-18), Saron (14) and most younger son Willow (6), name youngest daughter I didn't even know. Jimmy named his daughter Quinn in honor of the British Queen, and his son Yves, the same as his last name, i.e. Iva's last name is Iva. Jimmy is such a funny guy!
Willow and big banana
Eating pandan
Papuans
There is no point in listing everyone I remember, but I will note that this is all one family, and, one way or another, they are all relatives of each other, albeit with different surnames. They cannot marry someone from this family, so they choose brides and grooms from other villages for marriage. The family is very big! Every time I saw a new person, most often he turned out to be some kind of relative of someone who was next to me at that moment.
It is interesting that they have a norm of calling their uncles and aunts dads and moms. Those. you have a father, he has 4 brothers - that’s what the Papuan will also call all of them Daddy, i.e. dad. It's the same with mothers. In such conditions, it is simply impossible to understand who is whose father and who is whose mother. I remember I was even indignant, saying that there cannot be two dads or two moms, they laughed at me so much, seeing the confusion in my head. Then I asked again who was whose biological parents, and in the end I made a kind of tree of their relationship in my head, the branches of which turned out to be so branchy and tangled, but over time the confusion passed, and I began to understand who is who’s relative.
About time
And many Papuans do not know how old they are or their date of birth. This information does not play a special role for them; they do not celebrate birthdays. When you live in a village without electricity, when every day is the same, and sunrise and sunset occur at the same time, the sense of time somehow becomes dull. There is simply no need to even know what time it is. If the sun is just rising, it’s time to go to work; if it’s setting, it’s time to cook dinner; the roosters will wake you up in the morning. There are no schedules or modes. When a Papuan woman gives birth to a child, it often happens that no one knows today's date. Therefore, many Papuans, when I asked their age, could not answer me anything, especially girls. At first I thought that they were embarrassed to say, but then I realized that they simply did not know their age.
Typical day
About education
The school in Papua New Guinea has 12 classes. 3 types of schools Elementary, Primary, High school. Those. Primary, secondary and graduate School. Not all children finish 12th grade, most of- 8. Many limit themselves to only 5-6. All educational materials- strictly in English. Not because they cannot be published in the local language, but because they are published in Australia, and Australians believe that Papuans are obliged to know English, since PNG is their former colony and is still a colony of Great Britain. By the way, many young people do not know how to speak English, which means that they did not go to school at all. Many children go to first grade at the age of 10, and even later. The same Kelis (she is 19) knows only a couple of words in English, i.e. We couldn’t talk to her at all, and if we explained something to each other, we showed it with our fingers, in sign language.
School
Students
Also in Papua New Guinea there is higher education. IN major cities, such as Port Moresby, Lay, Madang, Goroka, Mount Hagen there are universities. Education is expensive, and few can afford it. For example, Tom has only one son, Robert, who went to study at a university in the capital; the rest of the children only graduated from school, and even then not all grades.
About the language
There are about 800 national languages in Papua New Guinea. Not all of them are in use and not all are still alive, but there are a lot of them out there. In addition, there are two more international languages: Tok Pisin And Motu. Pidjing is spoken mainly in the western part of PNG, Motu - in the eastern and islands. And, of course, English is international language, which everyone understands. By the way, pidging is a derivative of English, or plain English. I didn’t learn pidging at all, because it’s of no use, but I improved my English quite well during the 2.5 months of living there.
About marriage
IN best traditions patriarchal society, society in PNG is male-centric, i.e. patriarchal, actually. Man is number one and woman is number two after man. Just like Muslims, a Papuan man can have several wives, and this is not condemned by society, but is considered the norm. Of course, many wives will be jealous of their husbands, and perhaps even hate their competitors, but often they are friends and communicate together. It all depends on the woman herself. There is such a guy in Somboy - Smith, he is about 50, and has 4 wives and 13 children. He provides for everyone by working in the city. There are much larger families in other places.
Papuan mother feeds baby (Smith's wife and son Nellie)
Jessica (19 years old) and her two daughters, her husband lives with another
Official marriage is not particularly valued here and is not often concluded; the value of this piece of paper (certificate) is almost zero. No, of course, in an urban environment this piece of paper somehow figures into some bureaucratic problems, but in the countryside, no one cares. Here they begin to consider any cohabitation as marriage if a man and a woman live together in the same living space, in the same room. I myself was married to a local girl from Somboya and lived with her all this time, so I became a member of their family, but perhaps we’ll omit the details.
Not to say that marriages are strong, like any other cohabitation, their marriage can easily be dissolved. Men go to other wives, often simply abandoning their families. Many women cheat on their husbands and not all remain faithful. However, strong happy families I watched a lot. To a greater extent, this is due to their piety: the less pious people are, the more likely various vices, including betrayal, will be present in their lives.
About religion
The majority of the Papuans of Sandown Province are Seventh-day Adventists, i.e. Protestants. There are Catholics in other provinces and even Muslims live in the mountainous regions. Residents of Bevan are also Adventists; they, like Jews, are supposed to pray on Saturday, and not on Sunday, like Orthodox and Catholics. It is prohibited to consume alcohol and the meat of certain animals, such as pigs, bandicoots and some others. I attended a service once and talked with pastors many times - they willingly reached out to talk with the “enlightened Whiteman.” We talked about politics, world trends, science and others general issues, they, in turn, took advantage of the opportunity to try to preach the Word of God to me.
Seventh Day Adventist Church, Somboy
On duty
As the grandson of a Marxist, I will tell you that in such a society, religion plays a very important role, and it is necessary to build the foundations of this society. Religious people are pious, educated, cultured, and are drawn to work and creation. Seasoned sinners are drawn to alcohol, marijuana, fornication and parasitism. It turns out that religion in this society is the engine of progress and its development, and this is perhaps the only useful thing that the Whitemans brought to their island.
About sloppiness
Not all Papuans are devout Christians; most are far from the dogmas of the Church and observance of the Commandments. Young men respect consumption alcoholic drinks. And most often they drink either beer" SP" (South Pacific, 4,5% , price 7-8 kina), or rum" Warrior" (50% , cost ~ 20-30 kina). Alcohol makes many people go crazy and they become sick. They can fight, they can shout something all night long, in short, in a drunken stupor the Papuans are very unpleasant. Drunken husbands also often beat their wives, often with good reason. I tried to avoid them when they drank alcohol, but it was difficult because they did it every weekend.
Buy SP at a beer store
Many more guys like to smoke marijuana and grow it on their plantations. Cigarettes in PNG are all made in Indonesia and are brought from abroad. Local tobacco is also popular" timber"(common tobacco plant). Various rolled-up cigarettes are rolled from it and smoked heartily, also having a nicotine addiction. Both the bar itself and newspapers are on sale. One newspaper costs 3 kina. If our newspapers are thrown into the trash, sometimes even unread, then any paper there is worth its weight in gold - everything is used for rolling cigarettes.
About labor
Only about 100 people are employed in PNG 20% population, the rest are engaged in agriculture, peasant farming, speculation, or simply idle. As in all nations, among the Papuans there are quitters and workaholics; whoever wants to, makes money; whoever doesn’t wants to, plays the fool. We won’t talk about ordinary jobs - they are the same as everywhere else, but I will talk about the unemployed. In order to get money, Papuans most often engage in speculation in some goods, mainly from Indonesia, since the border is very close. Cigarettes are popular by the piece; one cigarette costs 1-2 kina, depending on the brand.
Taro plantation
Sale of timber
They sell beatlnut, 3 nuts + mustard = 1 kina
Drying vanilla
Smoked fish for sale
They also sell timber (tobacco), Beatlenut, vegetables and fruits, smoked fish (but not salted), various clothes, DVDs and other Chinese consumer goods. In Bewani, most men (and women too) are employed on oil palm plantations, the work of such a worker is paid timely and costs 3,2 kina per hour. About half wages The average man spends on SP and smoking, the rest on food for himself and his family. From the neighboring district of Nuku, people bring vanilla and sell it to Vanimo, vanilla grown in Bevani is of poorer quality, the cost of 1 kg of dried vanilla is - 600 kina.
About food
If in Russia the most important product is bread, then in New Guinea it is sago. Sago is made from the pith of the sago palm and is a jelly-like tasteless mass that I cannot eat, or fried sago, which resembles flat cakes. The second most popular product, as in Southeast Asia, is rice. Rice is boiled in coconut milk, and stewed leaves of edible wild plants that women collect from the forest are added as gravy.
Roasted sago
Sago with fried fish
Robinson's breakfast
Bandicoot meat, rice with tuna and stewed pumpkin
Wild plant leaves are stewed
Pandan
For protein foods, eat canned tuna or mackerel. Chicken eggs or chicken meat. Sometimes the meat of a wild animal: pig, cassowary, deer, bandicoot. Where people live in river basins, huge amounts of fish are consumed constantly. Vegetables: cucumbers, pumpkin, taro, yams, sweet potatoes, cassava (kasawa), tomatoes, garlic. From fruits: bananas, watermelon, pandan, mango, papaya, citrus fruits, coconuts, pineapples. Papuans cook terribly! The chicken is cooked for about 2 minutes, as soon as it turns white, they immediately take it out and start eating its rubbery meat. The meat of the animal is baked over a fire, forgetting to add salt, and the pieces are often not cooked through. The food doesn't have much variety, it's pretty boring. PNG is not a country where you should go for culinary delights. At the end of my stay in PNG, I was so tired of rice and tuna that I literally couldn’t eat it anymore - I ate bananas, sweet potatoes and beach bags, which, by the way, are also used as a gravy for rice.
About getting food
The sago palm is cultivated in vegetable gardens; bananas and other plants are also grown. cultivated plants. Vegetable gardens are not like our garden beds at dachas - they are just a piece of the jungle where cultivated plants grow, and may be overgrown with other wild plants, various vines, etc. In general, there is no need to constantly cut them down, but, nevertheless, they try to keep the gardens clean. The garden does not require special care - plant it and it will grow on its own. There is no need to water or fertilize, just weed occasionally - that’s all. Bananas generally grow on their own, and you don’t need to monitor them.
Hunter
They often go hunting, there are plenty of animals. Many men use firearms, often purchased illegally, and brought across the Indonesian border. Others use traditional bows, spears, and harpoons. Small animals, such as bandicoot, are caught using loop traps.
In a new home, already as a member of their family
While on these promised lands, tasting the fruits of nature - “milk and honey”, with each new day getting used to my new state of soul - my body and all my flesh, down to the last atom, tried to mimic the environment around me. I became one of them and received sincere, genuine satisfaction from these metamorphoses. I rejoiced at the fact that I was moving away from the old world and every new day on these lands was a new step away from that rotten Babylon, to which I myself had the negligence to belong, being entirely its product. I am a Whiteman, a white devil, exactly the same as all those colonists and exploiters who brought Civilization here, destroying everything living and inanimate, with their own selfish motives. And the more I lived here, the more I thought about it, the more ashamed I was of my Caucasian origin!
I tried with all my might to show myself not like a Whiteman, white gentleman With Mainland, but as the same as them, common man, for man is always friend, comrade and brother to man! And they understand this, and that's why I found it so easy with them mutual language and like a seasoned spy, he entered their circle of trust, became a full member of their open society, their large family.
The role of master did not suit me at all, and I did my best to suppress any attempts to see something like that in me. I encouraged any familiarity and always, at the right moment, reminded them that we are all the same and there are almost no differences in us. Yes, they are not stupid people at all, it is only at first glance that it seems that they are savages, like some Neanderthals or Australopithecus, but I assure you, this is not so! Despite the fact that they have no TV, no computers with the Internet, not even a radio - and only one for the whole village, they understood all the things that I told them in my broken English.
I find it funny all those who, at the right opportunity, use the word “Papuan” as a curse word or a way of designating someone as a savage, an ignoramus. Who scoffs at this word, considering themselves the apogee of the development of human Civilization and scientific and technological progress! The Papuans are by no means worse than any of us. And yes, of course, they, like any other society, have their black sheep and their nuggets, but in our society, is it really possible that everyone and everything is a nugget?! Likewise, any individual Papuan is not at all to blame for the fact that he was born here and not in Great Britain, that he is forced to study at a rural school and not at the prestigious Oxford. It is not his fault that electricity was not installed in his village, and it is certainly not his fault that his rich country is such a poor state! He, just like others, can be a quitter and a workaholic, smart and a fool, honest and a scoundrel.
