On August 8th, 2023, I had the pleasure of traveling to Papua New Guinea. This adventure was undoubtedly different from my prior travels, as Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a place unlike any other. The culture, the tribes and the vibe are all unique. I spent just over three weeks in this country having some amazing experiences and learning as much as I possibly could about this largely ignored culture.
My travels throughout this amazing country are documented in six separate posts. You can see Papua New Guinea through my eyes by perusing the posts in the carousel below.
Papua New Guinea inspired me to introduce a new section to my travel blog. Cultural Snapshots will be where I will delve a bit further into certain aspects of the cultures I have encountered during my travels. I hope to provide my readers with a deeper look and first-hand knowledge that you simply cannot get from search engines.
In this Cultural Snapshot, I will be introducing you to the Melpa tribe.
The Melpa
The Melpa (also spelled Medlpa) are a Highland group numbering approximately 60,000 people. Often called “Hageners”, the Melpa reside predominantly in Mount Hagen and the Western Highlands province areas of Papua New Guinea. They speak a language of the same name, as well as Tok Pisin (an English-based pidgin).
There is an origin myth which continues to be passed down through Melpa generations. I was not privy to the particulars of the myth but should it be revealed, expect an updated post. As with the Kalam tribe I wrote about previously, there are sacred objects associated with these myths. Groups of people who share a common ancestor are called “Mi”. Clan heroes and ancestors are celebrated with speeches and legends.
Society
Traditionally, men and women maintained separate residences. When missionaries arrived to the region, family homes were encouraged where the husband, wife and children slept together. More modern minded Melpa have adopted this setup while more traditional members maintain the original arrangement.
Typically, men’s houses are round with conical roofs. As part of their rite of passage ritual , young boys also reside with the men from approximately age eight. Women and their unmarried daughters live in rectangular-shaped women’s houses. The women’s house includes pig stalls to prevent the pigs from wandering off or being stolen.
A typical village consists of at least one male and one female house. Members of a clan traditionally reside in the same area with houses and gardening areas linked by paths.
Family Life
Marriage
The Melpa are a patrilinear society and clans are created from individuals who share a male ancestor. Intermarrying with the clan is forbidden, mates must hail from outside.
Marriage involves the exchange of valuables between the families of the bride and groom. The majority of the goods are given by the groom’s family and kinfolk to the bride’s family as compensation for the loss of their daughter. Anthropologists refer to this as “bride wealth” or the “bride price.”
Bride Price
The bride price generally reflects the perceived value of the girl or young woman. For instance, a young woman who is a talented cook or seamstress would command a higher price. This contrasts sharply with the concept of the common dowry, which is the price paid to the groom or utilized by the bride to establish her new household.
Traditionally, the bride price consisted of a number of pigs and shells. Nowadays, cash payments are also accepted as part of the transaction. The bride’s family typically provides the new couple with a number of breeding pigs. The negotiation of a bride price is a significant part of the marriage transaction. Failure to reach an agreement on both sides could cause a potential marriage to be canceled.
Once married, the couple resides together in the groom’s father’s village, until a separate residence can be erected for the bride near the groom’s men’s house.
Divorce
Divorce is a costly affair. To validate a divorce, a portion of the bride price must be repaid, especially if the woman is viewed as the reason for the dissolution of the marriage.
Inheritance
As the Melpa are a male dominated society, inheritance is based on patrilineal principles: sons inherit from their fathers. Land is the most important item passed down from generation to generation. Father’s gift parcels of land to their sons upon marriage. When daughters are married they are not eligible to inherit land, however, their fathers may grant them gardening rights designated parcels.
Communication
In some areas, villages are very remote, separated by valleys and mountains. Unlike most of the world that stays intimately connected via technology, the Highlands are at a distinct disadvantage in that respect. With no electricity and no cell service in the majority of the region, communicating long distances is extremely challenging. The Melpa have found a simple but somewhat unexpected solution – yodeling. Believe it or not, greetings, directions, requests, commands, and challenges are often yodeled back and forth across a ravine or ridge. This is all done while the two parties are completely out of visual range of each other.
Diet
Like other Highland cultures, the traditional staple foods are sweet potatoes, taro and pork. While pigs are considered a valuable commodity and indicator of wealth, they are not above being consumed. Tinned fish and noodles have also gained in importance as they are imported from Singapore.
Division of Labor
Men are responsible for building houses and fences, creating garden plots and defending the village. The women rear the children, take care of the household chores, tend the pigs and weed, plant and harvest the crops. Modern Melpa work in various capacities in Mount Hagen – driving taxis, as porters at the airport or as sales assistants in shops.
Education
Traditional education consisted of socializing young people to become competent members of society. Currently, public and parochial school educations are available supplementing the traditional methods. In the highlands region, Western-style education has been integrated with traditional ways of life to produce individuals who seem to exist in two very different worlds at the same time.
Religion
Although many traditional supernatural beliefs still exist, the majority of the population profess to be Christians. Christianity has existed in the Melpa region since the founding of Mount Hagen as an administrative, trade, and missionary center in the 1930s.
The majority of their non-Christian religious practices center around the ghosts of dead family and clan members. Whenever illness strikes the village or prior to dangerous activities such as tribal warfare, pig sacrifices are made to appease the ghosts.
The Melpa also have religious “experts” who are responsible for curing the sick and act as intermediaries between the human and spirit worlds. The expert is always male. However, it is believed that women may be used as a spiritual medium and can also foretell the future. Papua New Guineans, in general, are very fearful of witchcraft and sorcery. Unsurprisingly, these activities fall in line with and feed the belief that all women are witches.
Clothing
Everyday
Men wear Western style clothing , shoes if they own them, favor knitted caps and carry bilum bags. Women wear A-line dresses usually made of floral fabric known as Meri blouses. They also carry bilum bags but theirs are larger in size. Women also wear shoes if they own them but men are more likely than women to own shoes.
The Meri blouse was promoted by missionaries who first arrived in PNG in the late 1870s and 1880s. The blouse was meant to teach modesty as many women wore only grass skirts.
Most people own only one change of clothing and it is still possible to see Melpa dressed in traditional clothing, including the wig made from human hair that adult males wear on special occasions. Stone axes and digging sticks are also considered part of their traditional clothing.
Ceremonial
Male
Melpa men wear knit caps decorated with feathers of the bird of paradise and parakeets. In the absence of kina shell breastplates, crescent shaped cardboard cutouts are substituted and fashioned into necklaces accented by necklaces of tiny shells. Their arms were decorated with armbands woven from cane and decorated with fern fronds and mosses.
The essential male dress, similar to that of the Huli wigmen, is comprised of a wide belt (hago) that holds a long woven knee-length apron. A shorter apron, which covers the genitals is also worn. The rear is covered with long cordyline leaves which are bound together and inserted under the belt. Cordyline leaves are selected specifically for their shiny red and green coloring accented with yellow edging. Sometimes the leaves are folded accordion style.
Traditional body paint was produced using clays, muds and local dyes mixed with pig fat. More recently many have opted for store bought mixtures. Their faces are all painted in warlike colors of bright red and yellow with blue, black and white outlines. The American product Liquid Paper (a white correction fluid) has become a favored substitute for traditional white paint. The reason for the odd substitution? The intensity of whiteness one can achieve using this medium.
White paint covers the forearms and calves and the ubiquitous bilum bag is slung across one shoulder to complete the look. Each man has either a triple spiked spear or an axe. Hmm…if hope for the best but prepare for the worse was a tribe.
Female
Melpa women dress similarly. In the first photo of this post a woman is profiled against a backdrop of mountains. If you look closely you will see she is wearing a breastplate. The breastplates are mother of pearl shells (the main currency in the Highlands until the 1970s). Their headdresses are loaded with feathers of the bird of paradise and parakeets.
Older women may go topless, while younger women may don bandeaus made from bilum string or cuscus fur. Their lower half is covered by a long skirt made from grasses secured with a belt at the waist. An apron of colorful cordyline leaves folded accordion-style are worn on top of the grass skirt. Their faces are painted in bold colors meant to incite fear in their enemies. The women below each have a ceremonial drum as part of their attire. They claim the drums work great on bad spirits.
Culture
Tee Ceremony
The most important ceremonial event in traditional Melpa society was an exchange process known as the “moka” or “tee” ceremony. During the ceremony, a male gives a gift to another male who then gave a gift, plus something more, to that individual. These exchange partnerships would continue throughout the adult lives of the men.
Creating Bonds
In order to sponsor a great moka, men begged and borrowed from their clansmen to amass wealth. Before the introduction of European goods, the most valued items exchanged were pigs (live and cooked) and kina shells. Today, cash and machetes are also highly prized gifts.
Redistribution
The purpose of accumulating valuables here is the exact opposite of the western aim of building up assets. The Highlanders’ aim is to give away, not keep, as much as possible. Anthropologists refer to this type of exchange as “redistribution.”
The trick with a moka or tee is the need to return an equal amount plus more creating a system of incremental exchange, not balance. In this way, men are intertwined in escalating relations of generosity and debt.
The Hagen and Goroka Festivals and the Tee ceremony were all created to encourage enemies from different clans to reconcile group animosities.
The goal of the exchange is to gain status and prestige in the eyes of the community by giving more than one received. The more one distributes the more prestige one acquires and the greater one’s reputation. This is achieved by each man acquiring numerous exchange partners.
“Big-Man”
A man with numerous exchange partners who has the ability to give away significant wealth is known as a “big-man”. As you can imagine, he wields a lot of power and influence within the clan. The system is also purely democratic in that there was no hereditary office of “big-man”, the title must be earned.
Rites of Passage
In the past the Melpa had elaborate initiation rituals for males but have since abandoned this practice due to influences from the outside world. Unlike most other Highlanders, the Melpa do not socially recognize or celebrate a girl’s first menstruation. However, it is common practice to segregate males and females. Similar to the Crocodile Men, they fear the males will be polluted or emasculated by females, particularly through contact with menstrual blood.
Music
Music is important in Melpa society, especially vocal. Courtship songs are common in many Highland cultures. Men woo their mates by composing and performing songs that have double-entendre lyrics (one of which is often sexual in nature). Men deck themselves out in finery when going to serenade women in other villages.
Sports and Recreation
As in other parts of Papua New Guinea, rugby is the sport of choice in and around Mount Hagen.
Many individuals who dwell in towns have access to electricity and enjoy watching television. There are not many locally produced programs so most of their shows hail from Australian broadcasting, which in turn purchases shows from the United States. Therefore, Hageners have access to American culture in the form of situation comedies.
Social Problems and Challenges
Revenge was the basis for many violent actions taken by the Melpa prior to “pacification”. Pacification is the term used to describe when European missionaries “encouraged” tribesmen to act more peacefully. Revenge murders often pitted the male members of one clan against another with skirmishes lasting months to years. This mentality has not been completely eradicated from Melpa society.
The greatest change within the Melpa community has been the suppression or decreased frequency of inter-group warfare. The younger generations are increasingly embracing more modern ideals. Traditional cultural values which placed importance on battle skills, sorcery and ritual tribal knowledge are slowly being eroded and replaced with material prestige.
Next Post: The Kumipana, Kunai and Mendi
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I very much enjoyed your article. Thank you so much for the information. Very cool.
BTW, i wrote a work of fiction based on the “John frum” religions on Tanna Vanuatu. Free on Google. “FRUM GOD: the mostly true adventures of a modern day messiah”
Hi, David:
Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to comment! Thanks for the info I would love to read it.
Lati