Here are photos from the late 1800’s (1888) in Papua New Guinea. This pretty much wraps up the series for now. I hope you enjoyed it. Check out the afro at the bottom! So adorable!
Posts Tagged ‘Series’
Vintage: New Guinea (Part 3)
Friday, August 28th, 2009Vintage: New Guinea (Part 2)
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
In part 2 of the Vintage: New Guinea series, I gathered some pictures of New Guinean men. The ones in this post were used on postcards in the early 1900’s. Here is some neat tidbits about men in New Guinea around this time:
Typically, adult men of the Iatmul tribe, lived in men’s houses, while the women and children lived in a separate home. Men’s houses were created as a means to protect their communities from other groups. The house is similar to both a church and a club. In this house, men did things like perform rituals, socialize, and debate over political matters. Although women aren’t allowed in this house, they are meant to listen outside whenever the men prepare for rituals. If women are to ever step foot in this house, it’s taken as a sign that their community is disintegrating. (Keep in mind that some or all of the men in these pictures may not be of the Iatmul tribe, or even of a tribe that have men’s houses. The postcards were not specific in what tribe these men were from, and being that there are many tribes who have similar styles, it’s hard to tell. I just thought this was a neat tidbit on some of the men of New Guinea.) If you want to read more about men’s houses in different places of the world, a good book to check out is Women and Space: Ground Rules by Shirley Ardener.
Vintage: New Guinea (Part 1)
Friday, June 19th, 2009
This is part 1 of Afro Glitz’s New Guinea series. (I have so many pictures to show, that I had to break them up.)
New Guinea is the world’s second largest island, located north of Australia. (It’s actually a piece of land that was broken off from Australia.) The pictures in this post are specifically of those from Papua New Guinea in the early 1900’s. The country of Papua New Guinea takes up the eastern half of New Guinea. It has over 1,000 ethnic groups.
Here’s some neat information about the tattoos according to this website (you can also find more of these pictures on there as well):
As far back as the old men and women can remember, tattooing has been a tribal custom of the coastal peoples of Papua New Guinea. Among the Motu, Waima, Aroma, Hula, Mekeo, Mailu and other related southwestern groups, women were heavily tattooed from head to toe, while men displayed chest markings related to their exploits in the headhunt. By World War II, however, tattooing traditions largely disappeared in these areas and today only the Maisin and a few neighboring peoples of Collingwood Bay in southeastern Papua remain as the last coastal people to continue tattooing itself.
Tattoos were generally inked upon women in a fixed order among all coastal Papuans. First, girls between five and seven years of age were tattooed on the backs of hands to the elbows and from the elbows to the shoulders. Girls between seven and eight were tattooed on the face and lower abdomen, the vulva and up to the navel, then the waist down to the knees and the outside of the thighs. At ten, the armpits and areas extending to the nipples were tattooed with the throat done shortly thereafter. When puberty approached, the back from the shoulders down, then the buttocks, back of the thighs and legs were marked. When ready for marriage, V-shaped designs from the neck down to the navel were tattooed. Sometimes, special tattoos could be added if the father, brother, or close relative of the girl killed another man, or if they showed prowess in fishing or trading expeditions. All of these markings were ritualistic, and in some cases erotic. If a girl did not have them, she was not acceptable for marriage.
Ouch! So if you’re a teen wanting a tattoo and your parents won’t let you get one, just say “Well, the Papuans allowed their children to get tattoos!” (Haha…just kidding.) Here are some more neat photos.
