30. A Divided Nation

The main challenge posed to anyone who wants to search for artifacts in this region is that there are so many physical boundaries. This imposing topography makes it difficult for the people of Papua New Guinea to form one national identity because they are mostly separated by the terrain. There are about six million current residents in the country, and most of them live in remote, secluded lands.

Since they don’t have much contact with each other, they are not united as one people. This leads to fierce clan loyalty for people who generally lead simple lives of hunting and growing foods like pawpaw, yams, and other native crops.