Culture & Identity of Papua New Guinea
Introduction
The culture and way of life in Papua New Guinea varies from village to village and city to city as there is the seemingly conflicting sense of diversity in languages, cultures, and ethnicities, but a shared history, landscape, and, to many degrees, lifestyle.
There are few cities in Papua New Guinea and those that do exist only hold a small percentage of the population, in fact less than one in five people live in a city in Papua New Guinea. Despite this, the rural regions in the country tend to be more densely populated than rural lands in many other countries as large farms or land plots are rare. Due to this heavily rural population, farming, hunting, and living off the land tend to be the most common occupations in the country and most lands are community owned, but members are welcome to farm there, making community very important.
For many people in the mountains and more rural areas their "occupation" is simply farming, hunting, and fishing to provide for themselves and their families. In cities there may be a much more structured work schedule as employees are expected to arrive and depart at certain times; however this lifestyle is only found in the cities. The average income in the country also reflects this lifestyle of sustenance farming as little is produced to be sold, but rather only grown for a family's or community's own use.