PAPUA   - NEW GUINEA

Hela - Huli tribe

The Huli clan call the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea home. Unmarried Huli men prepare themselves for adulthood in a unique way. They enter a school for bachelors for a period of between roughly 18 months to 3 years where they receive instruction on the biological and ritual process of masculinization. The young males are separated from their mothers and all women for much of this period and when they aren't, they are absolutely forbidden from physical contact with any female. Pigs are the Huli's main exchange commodity and they are often used to pay for bride price (30 pigs), death indemnities as well as ritual payments.