Motuan people

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The Motuans are native inhabitants of Papua New Guinea, living along the southern coastal area of the country. Their indigenous language is known as Motu, like several other languages of the region an Austronesian language. They and the Koitabu are the original inhabitants and owners of the land on which Port Morseby — the national capital city — stands. The largest Motuan village is Hanuabada, north west of Port Moresby.

Friedrich Ratzel in The History of Mankind[1] reported in 1896 on tattooing in Melanesia. Among the light-skinned Motus he found tattooing in patterns similar to those of Micronesia. He also reported, among the old women, blackening the body with a kind of earth which gives a lustre like black lead. This was said to be a sign of mourning.

Charles Gabriel Seligman came into contact with the Motuan, whom he simply referred as the Motu, in 1904. He noted that the Unlike many of their neighbors in the region, the Motuan did not practice exogamy. Every year, the Motuan practiced the hiri, when communtiy members made a trading voyages through the Gulf of Papua. Women made pottery for sale through the hiri.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Ratzel, Friedrich. The History of Mankind. (London: MacMillan, 1896). URL: www.inquirewithin.biz/history/american_pacific/oceania/melanesian-tattooing.htm accessed 21 October 2009.
  2. ↑ Seligman, C.G. (1910). The Melanesians of British New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 49. 

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