Logo
Prev
Bookmark
Rotate
Print
Next
Contents
All Pages
Related Articles
Browse Issues
Help
Search
Home
'
National Geographic : 1982 Aug
Contents
say women, children, and chiefs should not be injured or killed and that no person killed should be burned. These are sacred rules, but they have not been observed lately." Land, women, pigs-these have been the issues over which neighboring highland tribes have long waged wars. When there were wars to fight, the men became almost full-time warriors. The pax australianaen forced by field officers thus deprived the men of a principal role in their lives. The highlands may be losing their warriors, but they are gaining babies. PapuaNew Guinea Public-health services introduced by West erners have contributed to a population ex plosion in a region that already was densely inhabited when the first white men "discov ered" it in the 1920s and 30s. Dr. John Christie, Eastern Highlands Provincial Medical Officer, told me: "Popu lation growth is about 3 percent per year more than doubling every 24 years. High land families were always large-to be a'big man' you had to have a big family. But then, if a woman had ten children, six or seven would have died; now seven or eight live." 163
Links
Archive
1982 Sep
1982 Jul
Navigation
Previous Page
Next Page