The Enga Culture

Sheila Hummings

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Instructor Tristan Marble

March 25, 2013

The Enga Culture is considered to be diverse in their community. Enga is one of the provinces located in Papua, New Guinea. The population of the Enga community range from 6000 to 9000 people. For years the Enga culture has been diversed in their beliefs, values , gender and kinship relationships. This culture primary source of survival is through horticulture. They use the sweet potato as the most important crop. Sweet potatoes make up more than 60 percent of all production. The fields where the potatoes are grown are made up of mounds. These mounds can be up to 9 feet in diameter. Most of the soil is soft, which makes it easy for planting. After they have completed gathering their harvest, they rebuild the mounds. They pull the mounds apart and mulch with old potatoes and leaves. Enga also grow bananas and yam swiddens. Swidden cultivation occurs when the land is cleared and cultivated for a temporary timeframe. They also are pig raisers. Enga’s do very little hunting or foraging. In this culture the women performed most of the labor. They did most of the planting, weeding and harvesting activities. The men’s responsibilities were to clear and burn the land in the swidden cultivation process. The men were better able to perform these duties because of their physical strength. The division of sexual labor came from foraging societies. The foragers practiced moving across the land. The women were more knowledgeable of the type of soils and which plants could grow in that area better. In horticultural societies, the women could not easily leave the young alone for long periods of times. Another factor is the children could not be put in danger. The religious views of the Enga culture is strongly clan based. The Mae Enga believe the sun and the moon are “the father and the mother of us all.” All Mae Enga belong to named localized patricians which are exogamous. There are no villages, people live in homesteads scattered about the compact clan territories. Men and women occupy separate houses. Clan land is inherited patrilineally. Patrilineages are made up of elementary and composite families. They appoint what they refer to as “Big Men” to oversee their wealth. These Big Men show rivals that they should become allies. The Enga perceive themselves as surrounded by enemies. They believe that the enemies are ready to dispossess them at the slightest show of weakness. How they deal with this insecurity is to show strength from within. The distribute food and wealth generously through the Big Men at their feasts. When this type of display takes place, they look more attractive to rivals. Rituals are very important to the Enga people. Magic was use to enhance the men’s personal well being. They used sorcery to acquire valuables and pigs. Clan bachelors secluded themselves to remove by magic and by washing the dangerous effects of inadvertent contacts with women. The Enga women used magic to cleanse themselves after menstruation. They also occasionally used magic to protect their garden crops. The Enga people have no elected officials. The Enga are an egalitatian society with no one man or group having total control.