Moka: Papua New Guinea’s Most Selfless Ceremony | Disappearing World | TRACKS

The influential leader of New Guinea’s Kawelka tribe spends five years amassing an abundance of valuables, only to give them away in a festive ceremony called the Moka. A key component to Kawelka culture, the Moka ceremony finds those seeking to gain influence attempting to do so not by acquiring valuable objects, but by giving them away. Unfortunately, things do not go as planned and the leader of the tribe is ultimately threatened with violence as a result of his outwardly selfless act of giving. The documentary series “Disappearing World” was originally broadcasted between 1970-1975. As an anthropological landmark of its time, the series tells the story of traditional communities endangered by the modern world’s progressions. The series stands as a historical document of daily life in remote and threatened societies, such as the Cuiva, Embera and Panare Indians of Colombia, the nomadic Tuareg of the Sahara, the Kurdish Dervishes, and the Meo of China. Subscribe to see more full d