Pig-based trade between the groups and pig-based feasts are a common theme with the other peoples of southeast Asia and Oceania. The island is presently populated by almost a thousand different tribal groups and a near-equivalent number of separate languages, which makes New Guinea the most linguistically diverse area in the world. The most startling discovery took place on 4 August 1938, when Richard Archbold discovered the Grand Valley of the Baliem River, which had 50,000 yet-undiscovered Stone Age farmers living in orderly villages. Omissions? The separation is not merely linguistic; warfare among societies was a factor in the evolution of the men's house: separate housing of groups of adult men, from the single-family houses of the women and children, for mutual protection from other tribal groups[citation needed]. There the arc bifurcates, one arm sweeping northwestward through New Ireland and the Admiralty Islands, the other proceeding southeastward through Buka, Bougainville, and the country of Solomon Islands. Yet the two land masses share a similar animal fauna, with marsupials, including wallabies and possums, and the egg-laying monotreme, the echidna. They later used this name only to refer to islands off the north coast of Papua proper, the Schouten Islands or Biak Island. Research indicates that the highlands were an early and independent center of agriculture, with evidence of irrigation going back at least 10,000 years. The territory was renamed West Irian (Irian Barat) and then Irian Jaya. The first European contact with New Guinea was by Portuguese and Spanish sailors in the 16th century. The name Irian, which was originally favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta.[2]. Singapore: Periplus Editions. This is a place of living and flourishing traditions, where local people practice dramatic initiation rites and don elaborate costumes for ‘sing sings’ and huge annual festivals. The flora of New Guinea is a mixture of many tropical rainforest species with origins in Asia, together with typically Australasian flora. The highlands, northern and eastern parts of the island became key battlefields in the South West Pacific Theatre of World War II. [40] On 18 October, his expedition reached the western part of the island in present-day Indonesia, and also claimed the territory for the King of Spain. Owen Stanley Range, southeast Papua New Guinea. Home to around 750 tribes, each with its own distinct beliefs and customs, Papua New Guinea is culturally fascinating. Before about 1930, European maps showed the highlands as uninhabited forests. Professor of Geography, James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville, Australia. The low-lying plains of southern New Guinea are geologically part of the Australian Plate. … Culture & customs in Papua New Guinea. [34], The western part of the island was in contact with kingdoms in other parts of modern-day Indonesia. It is mainly mountainous but has low-lying plains in southern New Guinea. Such basins, therefore, are usually very fertile. By John Roach, for, Collingridge, George The discovery of Australia, Sidney, 1895, pp.186–187, Translation of Torres’ report to the king in Collingridge, G. (1895), Jackson, Michael. [48] The Indonesian courts' enforcement of the Law on Special Autonomy blocked further creation of subdivisions of Papua: although President Megawati Sukarnoputri was able to create a separate West Papua province in 2003 as a fait accompli, plans for a third province on western New Guinea were blocked by the courts. The Law established a Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) with representatives of the different indigenous cultures of Papua. [3] However, Westerners, beginning with Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez in 1545, used the name New Guinea, referring to the similarities of the features of the indigenous peoples to those of native Africans of the Guinea region of the continent. "Climate of Papua". New Guinea is an island to the north of the Australian mainland, south of the equator. The Dutch, who arrived later under Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten, called it Schouten island. [30] Sugarcane was cultivated for the first time in New Guinea around 6000 BC.[31]. Papua New Guinea, WHO, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and other partners are working together to end the polio outbreak. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Miss Papua New Guinea was stripped of her crown for posting a twerking video and critics are calling the decision misogynist. In 2000, Irian Jaya was formally renamed "The Province of Papua" and a Law on Special Autonomy was passed in 2001. [7][8][9] Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both north and west of the central ranges. Prohibitions . New Guinea (Tok Pisin: Niugini; Hiri Motu: Niu Gini; Indonesian: Papua, historically Irian) is the world's second-largest island and, with an area of 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq mi), the largest island in the Southern Hemisphere. The territories under Australian administration became collectively known as The Territories of Papua and New Guinea (until February 1942). The more extensive southern lowlands are drained by a larger number of rivers, principally the Digul in the west and the Fly in the east. "Melanesia, the ethnogeographic region that includes New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia, contains some of the most remote and inaccessible populations on earth." During the 1950s, the Dutch government began to prepare Netherlands New Guinea for full independence and allowed elections in 1959; the elected New Guinea Council took office on 5 April 1961. It occupies the eastern half of New Guinea (the world’s 2 nd largest island) and includes numerous offshore islands. Perishable noninfectious biological substances. The southern New Guinea plains, called the Fly-Digul shelf (named for the Fly and Digul rivers), are geologically stable. Overview of holidays and many observances in Papua New Guinea during the year 2021 These Austronesian migrants are considered the ancestors of most people in insular Southeast Asia, from Sumatra and Java to Borneo and Sulawesi, as well as coastal new Guinea. September 2010, "Conservationists discover more than 1,000 species in New Guinea", "Progress on Southeast Asia's Flora projects", "New Guinea has the world's richest island flora", "Freshwater Ecoregions of the World: A New Map of Biogeographic Units for Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation", "Marine Ecoregions of the World: A Bioregionalization of Coastal and Shelf Areas", Autonomy isn’t independence; Indonesian democracy stops in Papua, Report claims secret genocide in Indonesia – University of Sydney, "Papua New Guinea massacre of women and children highlights poor policing, gun influx", Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the last 13,000 Years, Facsimile of material from "The Discovery of New Guinea" by George Collingridge, Scientists hail discovery of hundreds of new species in remote New Guinea, tapa ["masi" (Fiji), "ngatu" (Tonga), "siapo" (Sāmoa), " ʻuha" (Rotuma)], Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Research Consortium, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Guinea&oldid=1015472909, Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Articles containing Tok Pisin-language text, Articles containing Indonesian-language text, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from January 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2011, Wikipedia articles incorporating citation to the NSRW, Wikipedia articles incorporating citation to the NSRW with an wstitle parameter, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 1 April 2021, at 17:45. [citation needed], There has been some resistance to Indonesian integration and occupation,[46] both through civil disobedience (such as Morning Star flag raising ceremonies) and via the formation of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM, or Free Papua Movement) in 1965. How to make that Papua New Guinea trip happen 5 min read • Published Apr 15, 2016 Papua New Guinea is one of those places on a lot of people’s wishlists, but many are put off by a lack of good information. The wealth of indigenous culture in Papua New Guinea (PNG) truly sets it apart from other countries. awaits you. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Human habitation of New Guinea over tens of thousands of years has led to a great deal of diversity, which was further increased by the later arrival of the Austronesians and the more recent history of European and Asian settlement through events like transmigration. Located north of Australia, Papua New Guinea is an island country that's heavily forested and has a population of fewer than 9 million people. [3] The name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies, ultimately meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. Papua New Guinea has lifted stay at home orders and resumed some transportation options and business operations. [44], Netherlands New Guinea and the Australian territories were invaded in 1942 by the Japanese. In Papua New Guinea those mountains reach elevations in excess of 13,000 feet (4,000 metres), rising to the country’s highest point of 14,793 feet (4,509 metres) at Mount Wilhelm in the Bismarck Range, part of the Central Range. Author of. Pollen studies show that it was adopted during an ancient period of extreme deforestation. Papua New Guinea. Updates? [23] Between 2011 and 2017, researchers described 465 previously undocumented plant species in New Guinea. Steeply sloping mountain areas, exceptionally heavy rainfall, geologic instability in all except the most southerly areas, and the rapid growth of both population and commercial enterprise have combined to create some of the highest soil-erosion rates in the world, rivaling those of the Himalaya region. ), making it the world's most floristically diverse island, surpassing Madagascar (11,488), Borneo (11,165), Java (4,598), and the Philippines (9,432).[25]. It is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Bismarck and Solomon seas to the east, the Coral Sea and Torres Strait to the south, and the Arafura Sea to the southwest. Large areas of New Guinea are yet to be explored by scientists and anthropologists. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Consequently, while rivers are usually quite short in length, they carry extraordinarily high sediment loads, which have built up vast swampy plains and deltas, especially along the Sepik, Ramu, Fly, and Purari river systems. Ploeg reports that the word papua is often said to be derived from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning "frizzly-haired", referring to the very curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. Reeftours Milne Bay. [37] Sultan Nuku, one of the most famous Tidore sultans who rebelled against Dutch colonization, called himself "Sultan of Tidore and Papua",[38] during his revolt in 1780s. 17 7694–7698. The New Guinea campaign of the Pacific War lasted from January 1942 until the end of the war in August 1945. He commanded loyalty from both Moluccan and Papuan chiefs, especially those of Raja Ampat Islands. As of 2020, the Western portion of New Guinea, Papua and West Papua, accounts for 54% of the island's primary forest and about 51% of the island's total tree cover, according to satellite data. The northern volcanic fringe contains some of the most fertile soils of the islands. Australia Papua New Guinea’s magnificent and varied scenery reflects a generally recent geologic history in which movements of the Earth’s crust resulted in the collision of the northward-moving Australian Plate with the westward-moving Pacific Plate. [33] A unique feature of New Guinea permaculture is the silviculture of Casuarina oligodon, a tall, sturdy native ironwood tree, suited to use for timber and fuel, with root nodules that fix nitrogen. Prior to the 1970s, archaeologists called the single Pleistocene landmass by the name Australasia,[12] although this word is most often used for a wider region that includes lands, such as New Zealand, which are not on the same continental shelf. "The team also dated features consistent with the planting, digging, and tethering of plants and localized drainage systems to 10,000 years ago. Papua New Guinea suffers from a critical shortage of human resources for health. The Australian territories were put under military administration and were known simply as New Guinea. The Highlands also feature enclosed upland basins whose floors are usually at 4,500 feet (1,370 metres) or higher. The gardens of the New Guinea Highlands are ancient, intensive permacultures, adapted to high population densities, very high rainfalls (as high as 10,000 mm per year (400 in/yr)), earthquakes, hilly land, and occasional frost. Highly divergent molecular variants of human T-lymphotropic virus type I from isolated populations in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, A Gessian, R Yanagihara, G Franchini, R M Garruto, C L Jenkins, A B Ajdukiewicz, R C Gallo, and D C Gajdusek, PNAS September 1, 1991 vol. 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