Antoni Judit: „Ablakok Pápua Új-Guineára" (Távoli világok emberközelben II. Gödöllői Városi Múzeum, 2008)

overflow their banks, inundating the whole of their flood area. The annual cycle of activities - primarily those of gardening and the rituals related to it - is determined by these seasons. The living world of the coastal region and that of the various islands in its vicinity largely depends on the surrounding sea. Flora and fauna is less abundant on the islands, but island populations reap compensatory benefits from the richness of the sea and from long-established bartering systems. The coastal regions form a transition between the islands and the inner parts of the mainland, and coastal people maintain extensive relations in both directions. The plain of the Sepik region is only 40 m above sea level. In the dry season, it is a grassy plain punctuated by lakes and winding rivers, but during the rainy season it becomes a marshy area engulfed by water, from which only a few island-like hills emerge. The vegetation changes as we move along the length of the river: in the delta region, we find mangrove forests; in the marshy fields the dominant plants are different species of grasses, ferns, and Job's tears; in the bogs (which dry out seasonally) grow reeds, bamboos and sago-palms, while the higher areas are covered with grasses. It is characteristic of the tropical virgin forest that its fauna is poorer than its flora. Southeast Asia is separated from Australia and New Guinea by a Zoogeographie boundary, and the animal world of New Guinea is similar to that of Australia. There are more than fifty species of marsupial animals (including some small kangaroos), as well as the pigs and dogs introduced by man. More than 860 bird species live on the island. The southern cassowary is represented by several species, as are birds of paradise, pigeons, parrots, and many smaller bird species. Among the reptiles we find snakes, lizards and crocodiles. Crocodiles, in particular, are given great respect all over the island, and often regarded as ancestors. While the rivers provided trade routes linking the coastal region, the Sepik basin and the mountains, trading was typically confined to exchanges between neighbouring peoples. The isolation of New Guinea villages resulted in a high degree of diversity in traditions, architecture and artistic styles that is now recognised all over the world. Cultivated plants play a vital role in subsistence: whether in the mountains or in the plain, Papua New Guineans are born gardeners. Sago is the most important plant in the shallow, marshy lake regions: here even wild sago bears fruit. In the market gardens people grow taro, yam, breadfruit, sweet potato, coconut and banana. Relatively recent addition are tobacco and cocoa, and numerous other plants are used in healing, in rituals or as raw materials for making jewellery. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is a close relative of Lordsand-Ladies. Its edible, beet-like tubers can weigh in at 1 m long and 12 kg in weight. The yam (Dioscorea esculenta and Dioscorea alata) is a creeper; tubers are first planted in the soil, then more soil is heaped up above each of them to stimulate growth. The harvest of each crop is always a significant occasion, but yam festivities are especially important. The gardens are jointly established and cultivated by several families during the dry season. The soil is loosened by digging sticks and the gardens are enclosed by fences to protect them against pigs. Once the soil is exhausted, more forest land is cleared and planted. Description of the peoples represented by the exhibit groups The peoples of New Guinea are primarily identified by their linguistic groups. A people which sometimes means only the inhabitants of a single village - is constituted by those who speak the same language, although they may of course be related to other peoples belonging to the same family of languages. In the territories of Papua New Guinea described here we can identify several branches of a few major language families. All are Papuan languages, except for those spoken by the peoples living on the northern shore and in the nearby islands: their languages belong to the Austronese family (previously also called Malay-Polynesian). The 570,000 or so souls living in the flats of the rivers Sepik and Ramu and their tributaries use more than 80 different languages. Mostly, they belong to the Sepik-Ramu branch of the Papuan languages, but the languages of the Torricelli branch are also spoken. An example is the one spoken around Lumi: this is, according to scholars, perhaps the most archaic language on the whole island. The languages spoken by the peoples of the Highlands are members of the most widespread language family (Trans-New Guinea Phylum), within which numerous subunits of varying sizes are differentiated. The 131