book chapter
The origins and development of New Guinea agriculture
foraging and farming : the evolution of plant exploitation • London • Published In 1989 • Pages: 678-687
By: Golson, Jack.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Golson critiques the findings from Kuk, in particular, the 9,000 year old date, in light of the assumption that agriculture on New Guinea originated in Asia. Golson points out the problems with the findings such as the researchers only found agricultural ditches, and they found no plant remains and few tools. Another problem is today Kuk is located at the upper altitudinal limit for cultivation of most plants grown today in the New Guinea highlands. The climate 9,000 years ago would have just been warming up to todays temperature range so agriculture may have been even more difficult then. Golson goes on to hypothesize that agriculture may have started independently on New Guinea. This hypothesis is partly supported by studies which indicate that "feral" taro may actually not be feral, but indigenous to the island. Evidence of early agriculture has now been found in more than one place so the early date at Kuk is partially supported by early agricultural terraces found around the Arona Basin in the Eastern Highlands.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Theoretical orientation in research and its results
- Flora
- Tillage
- Chronologies and culture sequences
- traditionCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- New Guinea Neolithic
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2000
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Melanesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- book chapter
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Archaeologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Sarah Berry; 1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- not specified
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 9,000 BP - 100 BP
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Kuk and the Highlands; Papua New Guinea
- NotesAdditional notes
- Jack Golson
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 685-687)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 88028751
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Papua New Guinea Antiquities