ABSTRACT
This chapter is about the living past in Papua New Guinea, a rapidly developing, future-oriented country, and about problems of reconciling a rich variety of preindustrial cultural heritages with the need for some degree of uniformity in a modern state. I call it the 'living past' because tens of thousands of the country's citizens are actively pursuing ancient ways of life that have been implicitly declared out of date by modern developments. What makes Papua New Guinea particularly interesting as a case study are its extraordinary social diversity, with over 700 languages spoken by a little over three million people; the dynamism and adaptability of the people of the Highlands, especially since they entered the modern labour market less than 40 years ago; and the determination of many young, educated people that traditional arts should be integrated into modern life, and not become merely tourist curiosities. Perhaps the most evocative of these attitudes is the new National Parliament Building in Waigani (Fig. 13.1) near Port Moresby: it is shaped like a large traditional house, and its woodwork and basic structure have been adorned by master carvers, painters, and sculptors who were brought in from many parts of the country.
