Youth and society: perspectives from Papua New Guinea

Abstract

These studies of youth and their communities were initiated while I was on research leave in 1983/8 4. Some papers were written during this period, others in recent months. Many common themes have emerged, although the collection does not provide a complete overview of the problems and challenges facing young people and their elders in post-independence Papua New Guinea. Rather, it offers a range of perspectives which reflect different traditional and colonial contexts and changing social and economic circumstances. The period considered by some writers covers more than fifty years of out-migration of youth 1n search of economic benefits, the new knowledge and technology of the strangers who offered them employment, and the challenge and adventure involved in moving from a familiar environment into the unknown world beyond the village. Photographs from the H.A.J.Fryer collection illustrate this period in Papua New Guinea's history. Show more