Enga Culture Is Unique

The Enga is one of the provinces that is located in Papua New Guinea (PNG), having been divided from the Western Highlands to become a separate province, and is a fascinating area that is rich in ethnological traditions. The Enga are a majority ethnic group with around 500,000 people. The Enga people are horticultural people whose primary source of survival is to plant and prepare the soil for planting. We live very different cultures than the Enga people. Our differences in our beliefs and values, kinship, and political organization may vary in many ways.  

Three topics that are important aspects for the foundation to the history of the Enga tribe are their beliefs and values, kinship, and political organization.   Rituals are very important to the Enga people. They believe that the moon and the sun to be mother and father, who created immortal sky people. Ancestry worship and sorcery for the Enga was normal. Much of the Enga traditions and ceremonies have been lost in the past years, but the young are learning of how to keep the Enga culture alive. The Enga culture is very fascinating and different from most communities. Their way of life and concept of work and reward are very different than the western society. The Enga people work hard and have learned to adapt to their lands. The Enga tribe had dealt with a lot of gender regulations due to the separation of the sexes.

The women work the hardest in the tribe, they tend to their children, prepare and cook food, tend to the pigs, carry water and firewood, and they know just when the land should be prepare to plant. The men work the clearing, tilling, fencing, and digging the ditches around for drainage. The women and daughters do the planting, weeding, harvesting daily, and any repairs needed.

The women are in charge of tending of the livestock. Their main crop being sweet potatoes, and pig raisers, pigs are the most valuable wealth items in the tee exchange system, which the women are in charge of....