THE ENGA CULTURE

The Enga Culture



Abstract

In this paper, we try to focus on the Enga people of New Guinea. In this paper, we try to focus and identify on their Kinship, Social Org, economy, and social change. Throughout this research paper, we have learned that the primary mode of subsistence (how a culture makes a living) impacts many other aspects of cultural behavior and has been an effective way to organize thoughts and studies about culture.

The Enga Culture

Thesis Statement

Enga tribe is horticultural and a "paritineal" line. The line of descent comes from the male's side and is bought by bride wealth.

Introduction

The Enga culture is a part of the Horticultural. There is a variety of aspects that will be discussed, such as kinship organizations, social organizations, gender relations and the wars and crops throughout the tribe members. This will cover a large span of time from ancient times to the way of life for current Enga tribe. This should explain the culture of the Enga tribe for a better understanding of how they live. However, Enga is also considered being the land that they all live in records show that the Enga tribes date back no further than 1806, but have likely been present in this area for a very lot longer than that. The data that have been collected is a good source of information; however, it is only for a short time period. Ecological studies show most of the information was from the recall of older tribe members and has little weight (Wohlt, P.B. 2004).

Background

The initial Enga tribe was located north and east of the southern highlands in rugged terrain of Panguna, New Guinea. There are several thousand communities located in the country. They have stayed in this area all of their lives. This providence is approximately the size of California, about 462,840 sq km (US Department of State, 2010, October 8, Geography). The estimated population in 2008 was 6.5 million, with a growth rate of 2% 2005 to 2010.

English is an official language of the country, one of the three, but there are about 860 different languages spoken in New Guinea (US Department of State, 2010, October 8, People). With the limited records, it is estimated that the land was first used for the pandanus fibers, then as a gardening site and finally as the permanent residence (Wohlt, P.B., 2004).

Discussion

Kinship

Genealogy is one of the three ways to be able to track the kinship as an accurate database; this was one of the best ways to figure out the past. The kinship organization of this tribe is of patrilineal descent. Big men of the tribe could persuade other tribe member to give their food and goods to him for distribution at ceremonial meetings. This shows other members not of their tribe, that they work as one and agree to what the Big Man says or does. The Enga tribe feels that everyone around them is enemies. This is why working together is so very important to show the ...