ABSTRACT
It would be difficult not to notice the pervasiveness of betelnut 2 chewing in twenty-first century Papua New Guinea (PNG). Whether in the national capital city of Port Moresby, regional towns of Goroka, Lae, Madang, Mount Hagen or Popendetta, or villages in any of the country’s twenty provinces, betelnut is consumed on a regular basis. 3 This has not always been the case, and certainly before the Second World War of the twentieth century the use of betelnut would have been very different. A coastal and lowlands convention, in effect, has come to be adopted by highlands people who constitute the majority population of the country. In the current environment of betelnut use, betelnut has become an extremely important money-making endeavour for numerous peoples.
