Enga Culture - Research Paper Example

? Enga culture Task: Enga culture Practically all cultural systems are vibrant and advance from time to time due to diverse environmental and social influences. Cultural group locale is an integral part of the community, which defines and dictates the behavior of all individuals. Different perspectives of cultures get influenced by various external conditions. Some of the culture perspectives, which get influenced by external conditions, include belief system, technological status, and interaction among culture members with the main aspect being the mode of subsistence. The primary mode of subsistence within a culture plays imperative role towards strengthening or weakening various cultural aspects. The paper, therefore, places emphasis on how various ways of subsidence employed by Enga people affect their values, beliefs, social organization as well as kinship. Special emphasis gets awarded to the Enga community, which is rather a controversial and compelling community. The Enga community connotes as one of the diverse communities, which follows the arrangement of its belief, kinship, gender and values. In spite of influence from the western society, the primary mode of subsistence has remained remarkable and unchanged. The science of plant cultivation remains the paramount subsistence activity whereby they prepare the soil for tubers, seeds and propagated plants. The community dominates Enga province located in the highlands of New Guinea (Trompf, 2006). Like people living around, they have unique body paintings formulated from oil pants, mud, clay and animal oil. They dance and sing, as well as face paint in cultural festivals and social traditions. Contrary to other cultures, the Enga community has woman managing community resources including exchange items and livestock. Consequently, there is Enga’s belief on putative, agnatic ancestry with a shadowy past related to their clansmen. The main sedentary horticultural crops include sweet potatoes and pig raisers since they use pigs as their most significant aspect in exchange system. Over the years, the Enga community has been considered an indigenous as well as a diverse society, which gives emphasis on values, beliefs, kinship and gender relationship. The adaptations present in the land enable the Enga people live in their environment peacefully with a population of between 6000 to 9000 people. The impact of agricultural subsistence on the Enga community has been diverse as, starting from their ancestors up to present generations, they believe the working at land is the best treatment (Bonnemere, 2004). As a primary means of subsistence, men perform most heavy work including clearing, ditching, fencing, deep tilting and general farming. Women, on the other hand, remain with other family chores including maintaining the lands, ensuring round planting, harvesting the food and products, not forgetting processing of coffee after harvesting. The primary mode of subsistence for the Enga community has, therefore, transformed the community defining roles for all the community members. This is imperative as the current world encourages specialization and division of labor. Horticulture, which is the main mode of primary subsistence for the Enga people, has promoted varying societal and environmental changes. This is due to the ever-changing and dynamic world which imposes limitations upon all resources. For instance, the community has developed mechanisms of controlling population as well as means of reducing various risks (Rosman, Rubel & Weisgrau 2009). Horticulture remains the main subsistence of the Enga culture; however, due caution, the community realized it could not work under perceived risks such as potato diseases. The community developed various ways such as traditional methods of preservation to help in furthering stability of horticulture. This allows the Enga people to live within the environment full of constraints. Consequently, they are able to regulate performance of societal rituals, as well as share resources without causing disunity among its members. From this perspective, the primary mode of subsistence has increased invention in the Enga community’s social structure. Culture denotes a collection of ideas, principles, values and views of a group of people. The collections are for the common interest of the community as this defines and shapes various processes, as well as interaction prevalence (Trompf, 2006). The rugged terrain of Panguna, which is the heart of the Enga people in Guinea, does not encourage other forms of economic activities except horticulture and other types of farming activities. The primary mode of subsistence has influenced religious beliefs in many ways. The Mae magical and religious practices, for instance, rely on agricultural produce to accomplish various practices. The belief that people came from procreated immortal sky is an organization of agnatic segmentary society relating the primary mode of subsistence. This proves the celestial phratry present in the Enga land (Rosman, Rubel & Weisgrau 2009). The amount of rain received by the area inhabited by the Enga clan varies from 50 to 70 inches advantageous for horticultural activities. As a result, the Enga people experience many ecological problems ranging from too much rain and diseases, which reduce the supply for food. Diseases, for instance, spread fast killing the able people who can work in plantations (Bonnemere, 2004). Sleeping sickness, for example, forces limit on how the Enga people work as most of the time they sleep. The Enga people are some of the native people in the New Guinea. Since they rely on horticulture for subsistence, the community has developed various farming skills which enable them survive under various deviating conditions. Despite the advancement, horticultural subsistence of the Enga community has a leadership structure which offer communal decisions and advice. The reputable political structure intercedes in various social organizations that form a band for basic economic subsistence for farming. Rather than believing in the death of tradition, the Enga community believes and expresses confidence in an active tradition. It is in this regards that horticultural tradition has offered a means of innovation, whereby they invent new technologies in their presence of sustaining their daily needs. Despite the stress by European power on the Enga community, the culture has a planetary culture diversified into indigenous adaptations. Global homogeneity, as well as local differentiation, is some of the impact of subsistence of the Enga culture, which has brought native cultural economy (Trompf, 2006). The planetary organization is known as the culture of cultures due to natural subsistence. On the social perspective, the primary subsistence on agriculture has induced formation of many songs in the Enga community. The songs signify the dignity the Enga people posse and command in addressing various agricultural issues. The Enga songs fall within the world cultural order indigenizing various activities associated with the Enga people (Rosman, Rubel & Weisgrau 2009). Primary subsistence, therefore, plays the role of indigenizing the Enga culture to modernity. On the contrary, the struggle of nonwestern people including the Enga people to induce modernity received dichotomy of rationality, as well as metaphysical consequences. Paradoxically, the Enga community belongs to the neo traditional phase of people who treasure and believe in their cultural ethnicity. People often wonder why Christian masses and church hymns are not considered as part of Pacific tradition. This is because of the quintessential nature of the hymns, which offer a gloss of distinction in the pre-colonial past. Consequently, exogenous elements of the Enga culture remain a hybrid of state affair making horticultural subsistence a mix of cultural ethnography. Horticulture within the eastern highlands has also introduced a pattern of settlement where there are scattered homesteads. This leaves ample land for agricultural practices, which get supplemented by pork from the many pigs (Trompf, 2006). Culturally, the pig exchange system introduced a mode of exchange called “tee system”. This elaborate system marks a new social system with distinct topped systems. Apart from creating a distinct political system, the primary mode of the Enga community induces ritual in many ways. By the use in ancestry worship and sorcery, magic gets derived from farm products. Consequently, the agricultural practices mark various seasons for undertaking different activities. For instance, the Enga community has continuous cultural activities marked every season of harvest and plantation (Rosman, Rubel & Weisgrau 2009). Diverse movements characterize the mode of subsistence of the Enga people as a form of shift cultivation. This assists in exploiting land, while at the same time refurnishing the same land for future production. The societal band organization constitutes composite families with male and females living in separate homesteads (Bonnemere, 2004). Patrilineally, inheritance is the order of the day in the Enga community as the egalitarian society encourages continuity and harmony in the society. Land is, therefore, an essential aspect of the Enga community, which offers access in terms of food and general subsistence to the Enga culture. Each family has the role of providing enough food for the family and any problem gets solved by the grievances body. “Big men” is the term used by the Enga people to call those who help in giving intellectual advice on various issues. It is for this reason that the culture has a long, lasting harmony (Trompf, 2006). Notably, the primary mode of subsistence employed by the Enga community has created an interlocking progeny of new values, which help in providing stability of the culture. The Enga people believe that land and people got created by the immortal sky. Consequently, they call the moon as their mother, while the sun is the father. They count farming as a blessing from their supernatural being (Bonnemere, 2004). As such, they foster a crucial part of the time in farming fields trying to impress their creator. Due to it, food is in abundance in the Enga culture, thus, creating security. What is, however, surprising is the basis that not a single individual has the total control of resources. This is because the traditional beliefs stipulate and designate authority to ether man or woman. They also believe in offering various gifts and sacrifices to their immortal creator through various gifts. The gifts constitute crop stuff and other modes of gifts they consider holy for their creator. Last but not the least, the Enga culture is a diversified culture which relies on horticultural activities for subsistence. The primary mode has initiated various effects on the community culture fostering a minute shift in the general operations. Conclusively, culture is a dynamic fraternity subject to influence from external forces; however, the Enga community has proven the opposite. This is due to the stability and conformity the culture has adopted in the process of shaping its various traditions. It is the basic form of subsistence, which shapes various activities undertaken in a community, as well as the culture. The Enga people, like any other community, have modulated various beliefs and cultural practices due to horticultural farming. Their means of settlements, for instance, remain a key concern as they are scattered. In spite of living separate from each other, men and women contribute to the success of farming activities (Rosman, Rubel & Weisgrau 2009). In conclusion, kinship, political organization, beliefs and social values remain an essential aspect of the Enga community, which has helped in furthering its long-term durability and stability. In as much as every community has its own culture beliefs and norms, it is significant to understand and respect cultural behavior of other cultures. This applies to all traditions including the Enga culture as it defines various activities in the Enga community. The Enga culture has a system centered on horticultural farming; notably, it has helped the community achieve milestone aspirations. Consequently, it has shaped the culture right from the season and mode of celebration to various cultural rituals, not forgetting the political system. References Bonnemere, P. (2004). Women as Unseen Characters: Male Ritual in Papua. Philadelphia: New Guinea University of Pennsylvania Press. Rosman, A., Rubel, P. G. & Weisgrau, M. (2009). The Tapestry of Culture: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. Lanham, MD: Rowman Altamira. Trompf, G. W. (2006). Religions of Melanesia: A Bibliographic Survey. Washington, DC: Greenwood Publishing Group. Read More