Papuan Cultural Diversity within the context of Melanesian traditions and cultures.

Case in Papua New Guinea

Prof. Andrew Strathern and Dr. Pamela J. Stewart

University of Pittsburgh, USA

 Support for cultural practices in general and for cultural diversity in particular depends on prior knowledge of cultural themes and their distribution.  Many of these themes in the context of Papua New Guinea are shared with other islands in the South-West Pacific (conventionally labeled Melanesia), but also with the much wider Austronesian-speaking areas, including those in Eastern Indonesia, for example, and thus the cultural patterns in West Papua. 

Widespread indigenous themes include:  elaborate life-cycle and communal rituals marked by costumes and decorations, dancing and song, exchanges of wealth and intricate speech-making, along with mythological themes that relate these practices to the realms of the cosmos (the wider perceived order in the world) and religion. 

In Papua New Guinea national cultural institutions were set up in the 1970s under the auspices of the National Cultural Council, catering to the various aspects of cultural heritage, including the arts, music, ethnographic knowledge, and museum preservation.  In analytical terms efforts of this kind to support  cultural practices can be divided into:  recording work, maintenance, encouragement of creativity and innovation, preservation, and recognition of heritage. 

In Papua New Guinea, as in West Papua, the compilation of knowledge about the great diversity of languages and cultures is of pre-eminent importance, along with the need to provide venues and incentives to promote local cultural themes in regional and national contexts.  It is of particular importance both to pay attention to endangered languages and cultures, and to encourage the efflorescence of movements of cultural revival within a broad national context.  In this way marginal themes and populations can be integrated into the centres of influence in both national and transnational terms.