Category Archives: Culture 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 […]  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 […]  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 […]  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 […]  In communities without a written language, culture is passed down through the oral traditions of art, story-telling, music, and dance. Even architecture and weaponry can signify meaning. In Papua New Guinea, there are more than more than 850 discrete spoken languages, and until recently, none of them were written down. Even today, adult literacy sits […] |
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