Angu

The Angu or Änga people, previously called Kukukuku (pronounced "cookah-cookah"), are a small group speaking a number of related languages and living mainly in the high, mountainous region of southern Eastern Highlands Province, south-western Morobe Province, and north-eastern Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. Even though they are a short people, often less than five feet tall, they were feared for their violent raids on more peaceful villages living in lower valleys. An account of some of the first contact between the Angu and westerners is described vividly by J. K. McCarthy in his 1963 book Patrol into Yesterday: My New Guinea Years. At the time, despite the high altitude and cold climate of their homeland, the Änga wore limited clothing, including grass skirts, with a piece similar to a sporran, and cloaks made from beaten bark, called mals. Today, four of the Änga languages are almost extinct, but the largest tribe, the Hamtai, are thriving, with a population of 45,000. Some Aseki district tribes have become a tourist attraction due to their smoked mummies. There are three famous mummy sites around Aseki in the Hamtai territory. The Hamtai people now have a small income from charging scientists, tourists and photographers a fee before entrance to the mummy sites.…

The Angu or Änga people, previously called Kukukuku (pronounced "cookah-cookah"), are a small group speaking a number of related languages and living mainly in the high, mountainous region of southern Eastern Highlands Province, south-western Morobe Province, and north-eastern Gulf Province of Papua New Guinea. Even though they are a short people, often less than five feet tall, they were feared for their violent raids on more peaceful villages living in lower valleys. An account of some of the first contact between the Angu and westerners is described vividly by J. K. McCarthy in his 1963 book Patrol into Yesterday: My New Guinea Years. At the time, despite the high altitude and cold climate of their homeland, the Änga wore limited clothing, including grass skirts, with a piece similar to a sporran, and cloaks made from beaten bark, called mals. Today, four of the Änga languages are almost extinct, but the largest tribe, the Hamtai, are thriving, with a population of 45,000. Some Aseki district tribes have become a tourist attraction due to their smoked mummies. There are three famous mummy sites around Aseki in the Hamtai territory. The Hamtai people now have a small income from charging scientists, tourists and photographers a fee before entrance to the mummy sites. Although it is unclear when their practice of mummification began, it ended in 1949 with the arrival of missionaries. ==References== ==External links== A New Venture into the Unknown, booklet produced by the Melanesian Mission on their proposed mission to the Kukukuku people of New Guinea, 1935. "Kukukuku, the Angu people, Papua New Guinea" by Carolyn Leigh, Art-Pacific, August 19, 2002. Retrieved December 28, 2005 "The Smoked Corpses of Aseki" by Ian Lloyd Neubauer "BBC - Travel", December 3, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2016

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