Enga Province - Culture

Culture

Like many other highland Papua New Guineans living west of the Daulo Pass (between Simbu Province and Eastern Highlands Province), the traditional Engan settlement style is that of scattered homesteads dispersed throughout the landscape. Historically sweet potato was the staple food, sometimes supplemented by pork. The modern diet places an increasing emphasis on store bought rice and tinned fish and meat. Pigs remain a culturally valued item with elaborate systems of pig exchange also known as "tee" that mark social life in the province.

Traditional Engan culture practiced strict segregation of sexes. During initiation young men between the ages of 16 and 19 were purified in seclusion at a ceremony called the "sangai," in which their eyes were ritually washed with water, to remove any taint resulting from contact with females, and where they prepared traditional finery, the most notable item being a wig made out of their own hair. This distinctive round wig topped with sicklebird feathers is, more than any other item, an icon or symbol of Engan culture today.

Today the most popular religions in Enga are Catholicism, the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) (the Papua New Guinea Missouri Synod Lutherans being confined to Enga and styling themselves the Gutnius Lutheran Church, formerly the Wabag Lutheran Church), the Baptist Church and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Charismatic and pentecostal movements are growing in popularity.

The lifestyle and customs of the Enga people was extensively studied and reported upon by the American anthropologist Mervyn Meggitt.

Kompiam is another District located on the Northern edge of Enga Province as Maramuni a District of its own situated a head of Kompiam sharing border with East Sepik Province. Both Kompiam and Maramuni do share the Physical geography, human geography and culture with the entire Enga Province.