Men traded wares – but women traded knowledge: what a new archaeological study tells us about PNG sea trade

Women loading pots on a Motu lakatoi trading vessel, in this photograph published in 1887. J. W. Lindt

Australia’s closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea, is a place of remarkable cultural diversity. Home to cultures speaking more than 800 languages, this region has been interconnected by seafaring trade networks for thousands of years.

Because seafaring was most often undertaken by men, it has long been assumed by anthropologists and archaeologists that information sharing between different cultures came via men.