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Almost two hundred years ago the colonists and the missionaries have started the process of Papua New Guineas globalization. They brought them civilization with all its charms and mistakes. They brought the Papuans (people living in Papua New Guinea) the true God and His religion Christianity. How did these people, the Papuans, accept it? And what was the influence it made on them? To answer all these questions we must understand all Papua New Guineas cultures because there are many of them.
The isolation of Papua New Guinea from outer world created the ideal conditions for the development of hundreds of different cultures with their own languages and religions. Eight hundred languages, of which some are not related, are spoken in Papua New Guinea. The diversity of cultures and religions most of which deal with animism (worship to nature) didnt stop the colonists and the missionaries from converting these people to Christianity. How did they do it and what the situation is today these are the questions we are going to answer in this paper.
Globalization of Papua New Guinea Religion Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half of the tropical island of New Guinea (which it shares with the Indonesian territory of Irian Jaya) as well as numerous smaller islands and atolls in the Pacific. The central part of the island has mountains known as the Highlands, a territory that is so densely forested that the island's local peoples remained isolated from each other for thousands of years. The smaller island groups of Papua New Guinea include the Bismarck Archipelago, New Britain, New Ireland and the North Solomons. Some of these islands are volcanic. It is believed that Papua New Guinea was originally inhabited by Asian settlers over 50, 000 years ago. The first European contact in 1526 - 27 was by the Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses, who named the island Ilhas dos Papua's (Island of the Fuzzy Hairs).
The Spaniard Inigo Ortiz de Rete's later called it New Guinea because he thought the people similar to those of Guinea in Africa. Further exploration followed, including landings by Bougainville, Cook, Stanley and John Moresby. A large, rather daunting place, New Guinea was left alone for several centuries, with only the Dutch making any effort to assert European authority over the island. But in 1824, the Dutch (seeking to shore up their profitable Dutch East Indies empire) formalized their claims to sovereignty over the western portion of the island. Germany followed, taking possession of the northern part of the territory in 1884. Colonization was completed three days later when Britain declared a protectorate over the southern region; outright annexation occurred four years later.
In 1906, British New Guinea became Papua, and administration of the region was taken over by newly independent Australia. With the outbreak of WWI, Australian troops promptly secured the German headquarters at Rabaul, subsequently taking control of German New Guinea. In 1920, the League of Nations officially handed it over to Australia as a mandated territory. During WWII the northern islands and most of the northern coast fell to the Japanese who advanced southward until stalled by Allied forces. By 1945 the mainland and Bougainville had been recaptured, but the Japanese were impregnable in New Ireland and especially Rabaul in New Britain, where they dug 500 km of tunnels. They surrendered these strongholds at the end of the war.
Post-war, the eastern half of New Guinea reverted to Australia and became the Territory of Papua & New Guinea. Indonesia took control of Dutch New Guinea in 1963 (incorporating it into the Indonesian state as Irian Jaya). Papua New Guinea was granted self-government in 1973, and full independence was achieved in 1975. Papua New Guinea's most immediate concern after independence was its relations with powerful neighbor Indonesia. After Indonesia's takeover of Irian Jaya, many West Papuans organized a guerrilla resistance movement - Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) - which fought Indonesian forces with limited success.
Tensions decreased markedly after 1985, as the flow of refugees (estimated at over 10, 000) between Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea slowed. There are still 7500 Irian Jaya refugees living in camps in Western Province - the largest expatriate group in the country. The first inhabitants of Papua New Guinea, probably migrants from the Indonesian archipelago, arrived about 50, 000 years ago. These migrants arrived in several waves, and the land that they came had a remarkable effect on cultural development. Because New Guinea is marked by big mountains and extremely rugged territory, different population groups developed in isolation. Each group developed its own language and its own tribal culture, a development that gives Papua New Guinea one of the world's most diverse and fascinating cultural landscapes.
The first contact with the island by Europeans occurred in the early 16 th century, when the Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses sighted the country and named it Ilhas dos Papua's (Land of the Fuzzy-Haired People). However, it wasn't until the mid- 1800 's that European missionaries and traders began to settle on the island, and even those few settlers limited their presence mostly to the accessible coastal areas. Over the next several decades Papua New Guinea was claimed by the Germans, the British, and the Dutch, but it came under the control of Australia after World War One. The inland Highland region, thought to be too inhospitable for habitation, wasn't even explored until the 1930 s.
European explorers in search of gold instead discovered over one million people, living in fertile mountain valleys and in cultures that hadn't changed since the Stone Age. By the 1960 s there had emerged a significant independence movement in the country, and in 1975, after a brief period of internal autonomy, Papua New Guinea declared its full independence. The people can be divided into four ethnic groups: New Guineans (from the north of the main island), Papuans (from the south), Highlanders, and Islanders. There is, however, considerable cultural variation within each of these groups. The peoples of the south coast were notorious for headhunting and cannibalism before the arrival of the Europeans. Many people still live in small villages and follow traditional tribal customs.
Although English is the official language in schools and government, almost 800 distinct languages are spoken in the islands. The cultural variation in Papua New Guinea is unique in the history of human societies. Residents of Papua New Guinea, who number nearly 4 million today, speak one-quarter of the world's languages, around 800 distinct tongues. Many of these languages are spoken by fewer than 1, 000 people and many are in danger of disappearing altogether with the spread of two common languages, English and New Guinea Tok Pain. And most importantly, the overwhelming proportion of Papua New Guinea people are still village dwellers in their traditional land; most of their languages will continue to be spoken and transmitted for the time being. Papua New Guinea is not just one culture but a myriad of cultures.
Each of the 800 language groups has its own distinct cultural practices, and variation in customs and traditions can be as different between the highlands and the coastal areas as between neighbouring areas within the same province. In some parts of the country, especially the remote, rural areas far from the towns, traditional culture is still prominent and some tribes still live in near-stone-age societies. At the other extreme there are areas in Papua New Guinea where village people now live much modernised lives and have small connection with their ancestry. In the Gazelle district of East New Britain, for example, there are no longer any villages with traditional-style leaf houses - all village houses are now built of modern materials and the people all wear manufactured clothing and go from village to town every day by public transport for work, school or shopping. The vast majority of Papua New Guineans live in villages somewhere between these two extremes, living in traditional-style houses and continuing to supply their own food through growing gardens, hunting, gathering and fishing.
They continue to follow tribal practices concerning the roles of men and women, belief in spiritism, the application of body tattoos, courtship and marriage rituals, and the exchange of pigs and shell money when bartering for goods. However Western influence is visible in most villages in the form of imported gardening tools and household goods, and the wearing of western-style clothing bought in second-hand shops in the provincial towns. In most areas of Papua New Guinea, traditional costume (clothing) is now only worn on special occasions such as marriages, civic ceremonies and the arrival of visitors in the village. Likewise, some dances and rituals are also only performed on special occasions, and some traditional foods which are difficult to prepare are not cooked on a day-to-day basis but are only brought out for special feasts and visitors.
Along the Sep River, mens houses (haus tambalas) remain central to daily and ceremonial village life. Drums, ancestral figures, masks, posts representing spirits of the bush and soaring gable roofs some topped by a man with a bird on his shoulder representing the collective fighting spirit of the village continue to play an important role in rituals and ceremonies that are at the heart of local traditions. In the Highlands dancers compete and show off their extraordinary body decorations, tapa coverings and stylized hairdos. In the Trobriand Islands off the southwest coast of the mainland, a few elegantly decorated canoes still can be seen. Standing tall amidst the thatched huts of Trobriand villages, the Chiefs distinctively decorated yam storage houses proclaim their gardening ability and magical powers that helped produce such a prolific harvest. Known as a very industrious and capable group, the Today people include many of the countrys leaders.
The Totals home area is in the Gazelle Peninsula on the outer island of New Britain and on the nearby tiny islands...
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