Category Archives: Culture

Papua New Guinea is known for its colourful tribes. Even the official government tourism site features different tribal groups in their elaborate tradition costumes and face paint. Of course, the country is also known for its ongoing inter-tribal animosities. Tribal warfare continues to be the subject of regular news reports and academic study. Papua New […]

View full post »

It is one of those iconic images: one of the world’s largest monoliths rising out of a sea of gravelly sand, with colours all along the red spectrum, ever changing in the light. Uluru.  Sacred to the Indigenous Anangu people, this giant sandstone rock formation was said to have been created in the very beginning […]

View full post »

Papua New Guinea is fascinating! Home to just over nine million people, at last estimate there were over 7000 different cultural groups with almost 850 distinct languages being spoken. The country is routinely touted as the most linguistically diverse place on the planet. Of course, with the pressures of the modern world, and the double-edged […]

View full post »

Every society that has been studied by history, anthropology, or sociology, celebrates the passage of its individuals from one social or religious status to another. The ceremonial events that mark these rites of passage can take very different and colourful forms. Many are private affairs, with elders initiating others into secrets that are not shared […]

View full post »

The Kazakh people of Western Mongolia practically live on horseback. For hundreds of years, Kazakh nomads had been roaming across the Altai Mountains – between what is now Mongolia and Kazakhstan – riding their small but hardy Kazakh horses (similar to Mongolian horses, but daintier), herding their fat-tailed sheep, horses, cattle, goats, Bactrian camels, and […]

View full post »