Groves of casuarinas and bamboo, as well as their ridge locations, clearly identified villages as distinct entities, and they were indeed centers of ritual and Ceremonial life. Temporary houses were erected in the surrounding gardens, beyond which pigs were put out to graze in the grassy, unclaimed area separating villages. Villages were enclosed with double palisades and located on narrow tops of ridges for defensive purposes. Prior to intensive European influence, Gahuku villages, with populations ranging from 70 to 700 people, consisted of twenty to fifty houses, occupied by women and children, laid out in a straight line with one or two men's houses at the end. Postwar roads, airstrips, economic development, political changes, and proximity to the town of Goroka have all brought Gahuku fully into the modern world. Goroka was established as an Australian administrative post in 1939, and World War II brought over 1,000 American and Australian servicemen to Bena Bena and Goroka. This was soon followed by the creation of an aerodrome at nearby Bena Bena and the arrival of Lutheran missionaries in 1932. While ancient trade linkages to distant coastal populations are suggested by cowrie shells dated at 7,000 b.c., the Gahuku did not experience direct contact with Westerners until 1930, in the form of an Australian gold prospecting party.
History and Cultural RelationsĪrchaeological evidence from the Kafiavana rock shelter indicates the presence of hunting and gathering populations in the Goroka Valley at about 9,000 b.c., with the transition to horticulture occurring probably thousands of years ago. Many Gahuku are bilingual in Asaro, Benabena, or Siane, and nowadays most younger adults and children speak Tok Pisin, with increasing numbers learning English in schools. Some linguists consider Gahuku to be a dialect, with Asaro (or Gururumba), of the Gahuku-Asaro language, which is grouped with Benabena, Fore, Gende, Gimi, Kamano, Siane, and Yabiyufa in the East-Central Family of the East New Guinea Highlands Stock of Non-Austronesian languages.
Currently, slightly more than 16,000 Gahuku speakers are Officially recognized. At first European contact in 1930, there were an estimated 50,000 people living in the Goroka area, but it is difficult to say how many of those were Gahuku. A marked dry season sometimes led to periodic food shortages in the past, but about 190 centimeters of rain fall annually, mostly from November to March.ĭemography. Centuries of forest clearance have left little timber in the Region, though the extensive grasslands are now being reForested through administration-sponsored schemes. Bounded to the north by the Bismarck Range, the Goroka Valley is drained by the Asaro and Bena Bena rivers and lies at an elevation of about 1,200 meters, with surrounding mountains reaching over 3,000 meters. Gahuku occupy the open grassland and ridges immediately to the west of the town of Goroka, which is located at 6 ★ ′ S, 145 ☂5 ′ E and serves as the administrative center of the Goroka District of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. The name "Gahuku," like "Gama," is that of a tribe or district group, but the former has been extended by linguists to include a congeries of such units and the Common language they speak. ETHNONYMS: Gahuku, Garfuku, Gorokans Orientation
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