Kwoma people

The Kwoma are a people of northeastern New Guinea who live in the Peilungupo mountains north of the Sepik River.

The Kwoma territory consists of ridges with precipitous sides, nowhere rising above 1,500 feet, covered by a very dense forest canopy, as well as adjacent lowland swamps full of sago palms, an important food.

The political system is acephalous and relatively egalitarian, though prestige is accorded senior men who have taken a head in warfare.

In the resolution of legal disputes, all males past puberty preside and have an equal voice in the final decision.

John Whiting's ethnography of the Kwoma, based on fieldwork conducted in 1936, was a groundbreaking effort to describe the socialization of children in a traditional, non-Western culture.