Melpa

The Melpa, also called Medlpa or Mbowamb and often known as the Hagen people, are a large Papuan people of the Wahgi Valley around Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea, with the Enga to their west and the Wahgi people to their east. They are split into northern, central and eastern territorial groups, each divided into tribes and patrilineal clans; marriage was traditionally patrilocal, often polygynous, and commonly arranged through the exchange of sisters. Highland farmers without draught animals, they work their gardens by hand: women tend the underground crops of sweet potato, yam and taro, while men grow bananas and pandanus, and every household keeps herds of pigs.

Their public life turns on the moka, a ritual cycle of reciprocal gifts of pigs in which each side tries to give more than it received; the increment, the moka itself, brings renown to the giver and underpins the influence of the Melpa big man, who leads by prestige rather than command. Their language, Melpa, is close to Chimbu and is noted for its binary counting and for a special pandanus register used during the karuka nut harvest.