Vanuatu's fractured terrain has produced a kaleidoscope of cultures and more than 100 indigenous languages. Isolated from each other by sea or impassable mountains, disparate groups of islanders had hundreds or thousands of years to jealously guard their own cultures and languages or to throw them in the mix with their neighbours. The indigenous population is an assemblage of Melanesian - the black people of the Western Pacific with links to Papuans and Australian Aborigines - Polynesian, the lighter skinned people of the eastern Pacific, and varying degrees in between. While Bislama is a linguistically unifying factor, English, and more commonly, French are also spoken.

In a country that owns up to being predominantly Christian, traditional beliefs hold sway over much of the populace. The missionaries had success in imposing an alien faith over people who already had strong beliefs, but that success may have been due in part to some remarkable similarities between Christianity and local beliefs. Many islanders believed in a Creator Tahara who didn't sound too different from Jehovah, a Garden of Eden where the original man and woman ate fruit from the forbidden rose apple tree and fell from grace, and the demon Saratau, who neatly paralleled Satan. The Vanuatu world is still inhabited by spirits and demons, despite the missionaries' best efforts to expel them.

IAnything tabu is sacred or holy, and the word is in common use - on signs it can mean simply 'no entry'. Traditional dances and ceremonies still play a major role in villagers' lives, with participants acting out the roles of mythical figures or their ancestors. The Nimangki system, or 'grade taking', is important to many islanders in the north. Participants publicly give away wealth through a series of ceremonies, including a full-blooded slaughtering of pigs. Pentecost Island's spectacular naghol or land diving is a significant fertility rite.

Around 80% of the population dwells in rural villages and their main pursuit is agriculture. The food is basic but a few standard dishes can be infinitely varied. Yams, manioc and taro root are the most important crops in village life. Laplap, a stodgy paste of ground manioc, taro or yam with wild spinach and grated coconut is Vanuatu's national dish. Pork, beef, fish, poultry, seafood or bush meat like flying fox can be added, and the mixture is wrapped in banana leaves and baked in an underground oven.

When the French arrived, of course, they brought more familiar foods from home, and exotica like frogs' legs, escargots and croissants now figure on many menus. Kava (Piper methysticum), the 'anti-anxiety herb', is the national drink and virtually a national obsession. Vanuatu's kava is reputedly the strongest and best in the Pacific, and fantastic claims have been made for its stress-relieving properties, (should you be stressed by Vanuatu's beaches, reefs, forests, mountains and other pleasures). It was traditionally picked and prepared by young boys, but the modern industry encompasses plantations, 'instant' powdered kava, and nakamals, or kava bars, where stress evaporates, Captain Cook's condemnation drifts off over the horizon and 'island time' comes into its own."