How to Appreciate New Guinea's Culture

This mountainous island north of Australia has more than 1,000 tribes, each with its own fascinating culture.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• CD Players
• VCR Tapes
• VCRs
• CDs
• Airline Tickets To New Guinea

1. Pick up a copy of Peter Matthiesson's chronicle of two seasons in Papua New Guinea, "Under the Mountain Wall."

2. Follow author Audrey McCollum's decade-long relationship with a highlands woman in "Two Women, Two Worlds."

3. Take a look at some fascinating photographs in Andrew Strathern's book, "Man as Art: New Guinea" (photography by Malcolm Kirk), which explores the people behind the incredibly colorful masks and ceremonial regalia of the region.

4. Learn how an anthropologist was able to penetrate deep into tribal culture in Tobias Schneebaum's book, "Where the Spirits Dwell: An Odyssey in the New Guinea Jungle."

5. Lose yourself in a world of song, birds and insects with Steven Feld's "Voices of the Rainforest," which chronicles the music of the Kaluli people and the way they interact with the sounds of the rainforest.

6. Listen to New Guinea's famous 6-foot-long flutes on the album "Sacred Flute Music From New Guinea: Madang," out on Rounder.