Word: papuan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Nearly half of Netherlands New Guinea's 700,000 Papuans still live in primitive villages where the cowrie shell is the medium of exchange and where women often rank below pigs on the social scale. For the primitive tribesmen of the interior, the concept of government does not exist; their only political guideposts are myth and magic. Head-hunting and cannibalism are still practiced in some areas. Some Papuan natives wear no clothes save for string, have no dishes or cooking utensils. They consider death the action of a wizard, often chop off the ends of their fingers...