Gahuku-Gama - Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Gahuku Subsistence is still based largely on garden crops, among which sweet potatoes are predominant, while bananas, yams, taro, greens, and legumes are also important. Mainly because of the lack of forest, hunting has been of little significance in Recent times, but domestic pigs are a major source of protein as well as being of vital importance in exchange relationships. Since the 1950s, cash crops, especially coffee, have provided cash income, as have some employment opportunities in nearby Goroka.

Industrial Arts. Traditional implements, including wooden digging sticks and stone adzes, were manufactured from local materials but have now largely been replaced with steel tools. Men's bark "G-strings" and women's string aprons have also yielded to Western clothing. Locally made bows and arrows are still possessed and used by most men.

Trade. Until the 1930s the Gahuku lived in a fairly closed world, maintaining trade and exchange relationships with their nearest neighbors such as Asaro and Benabena and extending to the Ramu Valley, circulating salt, shells, pigs, plumes, and stone axes. Modern trade stores have now diminished the importance of these exchanges.

Division of Labor. Gahuku tasks were traditionally assigned almost exclusively by age and sex, with no occupational specialization. Young girls began early to learn their primary responsibilities of gardening, cooking, weaving string bags, and caring for children. Boys spent their childhood in play, but with initiation began to assume their male tasks of hunting, land clearing, construction, and warfare.

Land Tenure. While stands of bamboo and casuarinas were individually owned by the men who planted them, land was held collectively by patrilineal descent groups, Membership in which conferred rights of use. In the vicinity of settlements such rights were clearly defined, but they became shadowy beyond those limits. With enemy groups often less than an hour's walk away, land outside of the garden areas was often contested. Individual claims to land, while not based in custom, have become increasingly important, and they have become grounds for disputes with the rise of Entrepreneurship, especially regarding coffee plantations.