Culture Change and Epidemiological Patterns among the Hagahai, Papua New Guinea

The role of introduced epidemic disease in highland New Guinea is considered in light of recent debate concerning pre-contact adaptations. Seroepidemiological studies of the Hagahai, a small isolated groups of hunter-horticulturalists in the fringe highlands of Papua New Guinea, document the recent introduction of mumps, hepatitis B, specific types of influenza, and rotavirus. Results are related to ethnographic findings, detailing past levels of intergroup contact and recent changes in settlement patterns, travel, feasting, health care, and other cultural factors. Data suggest that inter-group disease transmission is greatly increased decades before officially recorded time of contact and that mortality levels documented soon there-after are not indicative of the pre-contact adaptation.