Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea defies every generalization about masculinity because it contains more distinct masculine cultures than any country on earth. The Huli Wigmen of the Highlands grow elaborate wigs as masculine adornment, embodying a beauty-focused masculinity that contrasts sharply with the warrior cultures of the Eastern Highlands. The Sepik River communities practice male initiation through scarification — cutting the skin to resemble crocodile scales — a ritual that is simultaneously a cultural treasure and a trauma. These traditions carry deep meaning, but when they collide with modern state structures, the result is often violence and confusion.

The sorcery crisis reveals the darkest dimension of PNG's masculine emergency. Men accused of sorcery — or whose female relatives are accused — face vigilante violence that includes torture, burning, and murder. The accusation of sorcery is often a proxy for economic jealousy or interpersonal conflict, and the men who participate in sorcery-related violence are themselves victims of a system that channels fear and frustration into murderous scapegoating. The raskol gangs of Port Moresby recruit young men from broken Highland communities who migrated to the city without skills, connections, or cultural support. These men create their own masculine order — territorial, hierarchical, violent — because the city offers nothing else. PNG's resource extraction economy — LNG, gold, copper — employs relatively few Papua New Guineans while enriching foreign companies, creating a masculine frustration rooted in watching outsiders extract your country's wealth while you remain poor.