Tairora - History and Cultural Relations



People, perhaps ancestral to Tairora, have occupied the Region for at least 18,000 years. The earliest-known era archaeologically, the Mamu Phase, appears to have been a period of continuous growth and development, with subsistence based in hunting and collecting. After 3,000 B.P., in the Tentika Phase, evidence for sedentarism occurs, as do other suggestions of the adoption of horticulture. In general, oral traditions point to Tairora homelands to the west and southwest, but groups' origin myths tend to be highly localized. Tairora territory abuts those of other language groups on all sides, and many different sources have contributed to the linguistic and cultural diversity of the region. Since earliest contact with European missionaries, gold prospectors, and administrators (beginning in the 1920s in the north and 1950s in the south), the Tairora social universe has expanded considerably. The establishment of the Upper Ramu Patrol Post (now Kainantu) in 1932 and the Aiyura Agricultural Experimental Station in 1937—both in the north—were notable events, beginning the processes of pacification and economic Development leading to the current situation, in which Tairora play a prominent role in provincial government.

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