ABSTRACT
The Arapesh are a Papuan-speaking people who inhabit a section of land which extends from the Pacific Coast over the triple range of the Prince Alexander Mountains down to the edge of the grass plains which are drained by the Sepik River. The energies of the Mountain people are devoted to obtaining food, building shelter, and walking about from Beach to Plains to obtain tools, implements, utensils, and the refinements of life. The Arapesh, like the rest of the tribes in this region of New Guinea, have clans, dual divisions, infant betrothal, and formal economic obligations which must be observed between families related in marriage. The whole society is a vast network of personal relationships, of temporary companionships and alliances, and there is nowhere an effective closed group which demands internal cooperation from its members and maintains its position by hostility to outsiders.
