Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T15:58:27.431Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The development of Sahul agriculture with Australia as bystander

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

D. E. Yen*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu HI 96822, USA

Abstract

The distribution of food-plants—both potential and actually exploited — reflects the natural history of contact across the seas and through the region, often long before Pleistocene times. The later and the human contribution has to be discerned from varied lines of evidence. The inventive process of early domestication leading to cultivation in the Sahulian north (New Guinea) was not a part of plant adaptation in the south (Australia). Neither did species diffusion result in adoption of agriculture or stimulation towards domestication among the Aboriginal hunter-gatherers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, J. 1991. Introduction, in Allen, J. & Gosdon, C. (ed.), Report of the Lapita Homeland Project: 18. Department of Prehistory, RSPacS, Australian National University. Occasional Paper in Prehistory 20.Google Scholar
Ambrose, W. 1991. Manus, mortars and the kava concoction, in Pawley, A. (ed.), Man and a half: 461–9. Auckland: Polynesian Society.Google Scholar
Ames, O. 1939. Economic annuals and human cultures. Cambridge (MA): Botanical Museum of Harvard University.Google Scholar
Balgooy, M.M.J. VAN. 1976. Phytogeography, in Paijmans (ed.): 122.Google Scholar
Barrau, J. 1965. L’humide et le sec, Journal of the Polynesian Society 74: 329’46.Google Scholar
Bayliss-Smith, T. & Golson, J. 1992. A Colocasian revolution in the New Guinea Highlands?: insights from Phase 4 at Kuk, Archaeology in Oceania 27: 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaton, J.M. 1982. Fire and water: aspects of Australian Aboriginal management of cycads, Archaeology in Oceania 17: 51–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunton, R. 1989. The abandoned narcotic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bulmer, R. 1964. Edible seeds and prehistoric stone mortars in the Highlands of east New Guinea, Man 64: 147–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cane, S. 1989. Australian Aboriginal seed grinding and its archaeological record, in Harris & Hillman (ed.): 99119.Google Scholar
Christiansen, O.A. 1975. Hunters and horticulturalists: a preliminary report of the 1972-1974 excavations in the Manim Valley, Papua New Guinea, Mankind 10: 2436.Google Scholar
Coates, D.J., Yen, D.E. & Gaffey, P.M.. 1988. Chromosome variation in taro, Colocasia esculenta: implications for origin in the Pacific, Cytologia 53: 551–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coursey, D.G. 1967. Vams. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Crawford, I.M. 1982. Traditional Aboriginal plant resources in the Kalumburu area. Perth: Western Australian Museum. Records Supplement 15.Google Scholar
Cribb, A.B. & Cribb, J.W.. 1982. Wild food in Australia. Revised edition. Sydney: Collins/Fontana.Google Scholar
Donoghue, D. 1989. Carbonised plant fossils, in Beck, W. et al. (ed.), Plants in Australian archaeology. 90110. St Lucia: University of Queensland. Tempus 1.Google Scholar
Dransfield, J. 1981. Palms and Wallace’s Lino, in Whitmore (ed.): 43-56.Google Scholar
Evans, B. 1991. A variety collection of edible nut tree crops in the Solomon Islands. Honiara: Dodo Creek Research Station. Research Bulletin 8.Google Scholar
Flood, J.M. 1983. Archaeology of the Dreamtime. Sydney: Collins.Google Scholar
Fredericksen, C, Spriggs, M. & Ambrose, W.. 1993. Pamwak rockshelter: a Pleistocene site on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, in Smith et al (ed.): 144–52.Google Scholar
French, B.R. 1986. Food plants of Papua New Guinea. Australia: Pacific Science Foundation.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1971. Australian Aboriginal food plants: some ecological and culture-historical implications, in Mulvaney & Golson (ed.): 196238.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1977. No room at the top: agricultural intensification in the New Guinea Highlands, in Allen, J. et al. (ed.), Sunda and Sahul: 601–38. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1982. Kuk and the history of agriculture in the New Guinea Highlands, in May, R.J. & Nelson, H. (ed.), Melanesia beyond diversity 1: 297307. Canberra: RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1990. Kuk and the development of agriculture: retrospection and introspection, in Yen & Mummery (ed.): 139–47.Google Scholar
Golson, J. 1991. The New Guinea Highlands on the eve of agriculture, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 11: 8291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golson, J. & Gardner, D.S.. 1990. Agriculture and political organisation in New Guinea Highlands prehistory, Annual Reviews in Anthropology 19: 395417.Google Scholar
Gorecki, P.P. 1986. Human occupation and agricultural development in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Mountain Research and Development 6: 159–66.Google Scholar
Gorecki, P.P. 1989. Prehistory of the Jimi Valley, in Gorecki & Giliieson (ed.): 130–87.Google Scholar
Gorecki, P.P. & Gillieson, D.S. (ed.). 1989. A crack in the spine: prehistory and ecology of the Jimi-Yuat Valley, Papua New Guinea. Townsville: Division of Anthropology and Archaeology, James Cook University of North Queensland.Google Scholar
Gorecki, P.P., Mahin, M. & Campbell, J.. 1991. Archaeology and geomorphology of the Vanimo coast, Papua New Guinea, Archaeology in Oceania 26: 119–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groube, L. 1989. The taming of the rain forests: a model for late Pleistocene exploitation in New Guinea, in Harris&Hillman (ed.): 292304.Google Scholar
Groube, L., Chappell, J., Mukl, J. &Price, D.. 1986. A 40,000 year-old human occupation site at Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea, Nature 324: 453–5.Google Scholar
Haberle, S.G., Hope, G.S. & Defretes, Y.. 1991. Environmental change in the Baliem Valley, montane Irian Jaya, Indonesia, Journal of Biogeography 18: 2540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallam, S.J. 1989. Plant usage and management in southwest Australian Aboriginal societies, in Harris & Hillman (ed.): 136–51.Google Scholar
Harris, D.R. & Hillman, G.C. (ed.). 1989. Foraging and farming. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Harlan, J. 1992. Crops and man. 2nd edition. Madison (WI): American Society for Agronomy.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, A. 1988. Cyrtospenna (Araceae) and its Old World allies, Blumea 33: 427–69.Google Scholar
Hay, A. & Wise, R.. 1991. The genus Alocasia (Araceae) in Australasia, Blumea 35: 499545.Google Scholar
Hayes, L.T. 1992. Plant macrofossils from archaeological sites in the Arawe Islands, Papua New Guinea. Unpublished Honours thesis, Dept of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Australia.Google Scholar
Isaacs, J. 1987. Bush food. McMahon’s Point: Weldons.Google Scholar
Johnson, R.W. 1986. Four new species of Ipomoea L., Austrobaileya 2: 217–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, A. 1968. Chromosome numbers in Ipomoea and related genera, Journal of Heredity 59: 99101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R. 1990. Hunters of the Dreaming: some ideational, economic and ecological parameters of the Australian Aboriginal production system, in Yen & Mummery (ed.): 2553.Google Scholar
Jones, R. & Bowler, J.. 1980. Struggle for the savanna: northern Australia in ecological and prehistoric perspective, in Jones, R. (ed.), Northern Australia: options and implications: 331. Canberra: RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Jones, R. & Meehan, B.. 1989. Plant foods of the Gidjingali: ethnographic and archaeological perspectives from northern Australia on tuber and seed exploitation, in Hams & Hillman (ed.): 120–35.Google Scholar
Kirk, R. & Szathmary, E. (ed.). 1985. Out of Asia. Canberra: Journal of Pacific History.Google Scholar
Lawrence, P. & Meggitt, M.J.. 1965. Introduction, in Lawrence, P. & Meggitt, M.J. (ed.), Gods, ghosts and men in Melanesia: 126. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lawrence, P. & Meggitt, M.J.. 1965. Introduction, in Lawrence, P. & Meggitt, M.J. (ed.), Gods, ghosts and men in Melanesia: 126. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lebot, V. & Aradhya, K.M.. 1991. Isozyme variation in taro [Coìo-casia esculenta (L.) Schott) from Asia and Oceania, Euphytica 56: 5566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lebot, V., Aradhya, M.K. & Manshardt, R.M.. 1991. Geographic survey of genetic variation in kava [Piper methysticum Forst, f. and P. wichmanii c. DC), Pacific Science 45: 169–85.Google Scholar
Lebot, V. & Levesque, J.. 1989. The origin and distribution of kava [Piper methysticum Forst, f., Piperaceae): a phytochemical approach, Allertonia 5: 223–80.Google Scholar
Leenhouts, P.W. 1959. A monograph of the genus Canarium (Burseraceae). Leiden: Ijdo.Google Scholar
Loy, T., Spriggs, M. & Wickler, S.. 1992. Direct evidence for human use of plants 28,000 years ago: starch residues on stone artefacts from the northern Solomon Islands, Antiquity 66: 898912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macarthur, M. 1960. The food quest and the time factor in Aboriginal economic life, in Mountford, C.P. (ed.), Becords of the American-Australian scientific expedition to Arnhem Land 2: Anthropology and nutrition: 145–94. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. 1935. Coral gardens and their magic 2. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Matthews, P.J. 1990. The origins, dispersal and domestication of taro. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Matthews, P.J. & Terauchi, R.. 1994. The genetics of agriculture: DNA variation in taro and yam, in Hather, J.G. (ed.), Tropical archaeohotany: applications and new developments: 251–62. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Meggitt, M. 1964. Aboriginal food-gatherers of tropical Australia, in International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Proceedings and Papers, 9th Technical Meeting, The Ecology of Man in the Tropical Environment: 3037. Morges: IUCN.Google Scholar
Modjeska, C.N. 1982. Production and inequality: perspectives from central New Guinea, in Strathern, A. (ed.), Inequality in New Guinea Highlands societies: 50108. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mulvanky, D.J. 1975. The prehistory of Australia. Revised edition. Melbourne: Penguin.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, D.J. & Golson, J. (ed.). 1971. Aboriginal man and environment. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Nix, H.A. & Kalma, J.D.. 1972. Climate as a dominant control in the biogeography of northern Australia and New Guinea, in Walker, D. (ed.), Bridge and barrier: the natural and cultural history of Torres Strait: 6191. Canberra: Department of Biogeography & Geomorphology, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
O’Connell, J.F., Latz, P.K. & Barnett, P.. 1983. Traditional and modern plant use among the Alyawara of central Australia, Economic Botany 37: 80109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ooststroom, S.J. & Hoogland, R.D.. 1954. Convolvulaceae, Flora Malesiana Series 1, 4: 388511.Google Scholar
Paijmans, K. (ed.). 1976. New Guinea vegetation. Canberra: CSIRO.Google Scholar
Powell, J.M. 1976. Ethnobotany, in Paijmans (ed.): 106–83.Google Scholar
Rhoads, J.W. 1980. Through a glass darkly. Unpublished Ph.D thesis, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Rhoads, J.W. 1982. Sagopalm management in Melanesia: an alternative perspective. Archaeology in Oceania 17: 2027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruddle, K., Johnson, D., Townsend, P.K. & Rees, J.D.. 1978. Palm sago. Honolulu (HI): East-West Center.Google Scholar
Sauer, J.D. 1971. A reevaluation of the coconut as indicator of human dispersal, in Riley, C.L. et al. (ed.), Man across the sea: 309–19. Austin (TX): University of Texas Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmonds, N.W. 1959. Bananas. London: Longmans. Google Scholar
Simmonds, N.W. 1962. The evolution of bananas. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Smith, M.A. 1986. The antiquity of seedgrinding in central Australia, Archaeology in Oceania 21: 2939.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M.A. 1987. Pleistocene occupation in arid central Australia, Nature 328:710–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M.A. 1989. Seed gathering in inland Australia: current evidence from seed-grinders on the antiquity of the ethno-historical pattern of exploitation, in Harris & Hillman (ed.): 305–17.Google Scholar
Smith, M.A. & Sharp, N.. 1993. Pleistocene sites in Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia: geographic and temporal structure of the archaeological record, in Smith et al. (ed.): 3759.Google Scholar
Smith, M.A., Spriggs, M. & Fankhauser, B. (ed.). 1993. Sahul in review. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, RSPacS, Australian National University.Google Scholar
Soos, A. & Latz, P.. 1987. The status and management of the native sweet potato Ipomoea polpha in the Northern Territory. Darwin: Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1985. The Lapita cultural complex: origins, distribution, contemporaries and successors, in Kirk & Szathmary (ed.): 185206.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1993. Pleistocene agriculture in the Pacific: why not?, in Smith et al. (ed.): 137–43.Google Scholar
Stone, B.C. 1963. The role of Pandanus in the culture of the Marshall Islands, in Barrau, J. (ed.), Plants and the migrations of Pacific peoples: 6182.Google Scholar
Telford, I.R.H. 1986. Dioscoreaceae, Flora of Australia 46: 196202.Google Scholar
Tonkinson, R. 1978. The Mardudjara Aborigines: living the dream in Australia’s desert. New York (NY): Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Tryon, D.T. 1985. The peopling of the Pacific: a linguistic appraisal, in Kirk & Szathmary (ed.): 147–59.Google Scholar
White, J.P. 1971. New Guinea and Australian prehistory: the‘Neolithic’ problem, in Mulvaney & Golson (ed.): 182–95.Google Scholar
White, J.P, Crook, K.A. & Ruxton, B.P.. 1970. Kosipc: a late Pleistocene site in the Papuan Highlands, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 36: 152–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, J.P. & O’Connell, J.F. 1982. A prehistory of Australia, New Guinea and Sahul. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T.C. (ed.). 1981a. Wallace’s Line and plate tectonics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Whitmore, T.C. (ed.). 1981b. Wallace’s line and some other plants, in Whitmore (ed.): 7080.Google Scholar
Wilder, G.P. 1928. The breadfruit in Tahiti. Honolulu (HI): Bishop Museum. Bulletin 50.Google Scholar
Williams, F.E. 1936. Papuans of the Trans-Fly. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Williams, F.E. 1969 reprint. 1940–41. The natives of Lake Kutubu, Papua, Oceania 1112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, S.M. 1985. Phytolith evidence from Kuk, an early agricultural site in Papua New Guinea, Archaeology in Oceania 20: 9097.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1971. The development of agriculture in Oceania, in Green, R.C. & Kelly, M. (ed.), Studies in Oceanic culture history 2: 112. Honolulu (HI). Pacific Anthropological Records 12.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1985. Wild plants and domestication in Pacific islands, in Misra, V.N. & Bellwood, P. (ed.), Becent advances in Indo-Pacific prehistory: 315–26. New Delhi: Oxford & IBH. Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1989. The domestication of environment, in Harris & Hillman (ed.): 5575.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1990. Environment, agriculture and the colonisation of the Pacific, in Yen & Mummery (ed.): 258277.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E. 1991. Domestication: the lessons from New Guinea, in Pawley, A. (ed.), Man and a half: 558–69. Auckland: Polynesian Society.Google Scholar
Yen, D.E., Gaffey, P.M. & Coates, D.J.. 1992. Chromosome numbers of Australian species of Ipomoea L. (Convolulaceae), Austrobaileya 3: 749–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yen, D.E. & Mummery, J.M.J. (ed.). 1990. Pacific production systems: approaches to economic prehistory. Department of Prehistory, RSPacS, Australian National University. Occasional Papers in Prehistory 18.Google Scholar