1st Edition

Tracing Early Agriculture in the Highlands of New Guinea Plot, Mound and Ditch

By Tim Denham Copyright 2018
216 Pages
by Routledge

216 Pages
by Routledge

216 Pages
by Routledge

In this book, historical narratives chart how people created forms of agriculture in the highlands of New Guinea and how these practices were transformed through time. The intention is twofold: to clearly establish New Guinea as a region of early agricultural development and plant domestication; and, to develop a contingent, practice-based interpretation of early agriculture that has broader... Read more

TABLE OF CONTENTS





PART I. RETHINKING EARLY AGRICULTURE





CHAPTER 1. EARLY AGRICULTURE IN THE HIGHLANDS: AN UNEXPECTED STORY; CHAPTER 2.





PART II. PLACES, PRACTICES AND PLANTS



DEFINING EARLY AGRICULTURE IN NEW GUINEA; CHAPTER 3. THE IMPORTANCE OF PLACE; CHAPTER 4. CULTIVATION PRACTICES IN THE HIGHLANDS; CHAPTER 5. THE PLANTS OF HIGHLAND CULTIVATION





PART III. PRACTICES IN THE PAST





CHAPTER 6: EXPLOITING DIVERSITY IN THE PLEISTOCENE; CHAPTER 7: AMBIGUITIES OF PRACTICE DURING THE EARLY HOLOCENE; CHAPTER 8. THE EMERGENCE OF SHIFTING CULTIVATION; CHAPTER 9. THE ADOPTION OF MOUND CULTIVATION DURING THE MID HOLOCENE; CHAPTER 10. THE DIGGING OF DRAINAGE DITCHES DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE; CHAPTER 11. LATER INNOVATIONS, INTRODUCTIONS AND ADOPTIONS



PART IV. TAKING A BROADER VIEW





CHAPTER 12. HISTORICAL RESILIENCE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE HIGHLANDS; CHAPTER 13. THE GLOBAL SIGNIFICANCE OF EARLY AGRICULTURE ON NEW GUINEA; BIBLIOGRAPHY; INDEX





 



 



 



 



 



 



 

Biography

Dr Tim Denham is Reader/Associate Professor of Archaeology at the Australian National University. He has undertaken fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, mostly in the highland interior, since 1990. His primary research has focussed on plant exploitation and the emergence of agriculture in the highlands during the Holocene. He has also published on the Holocene histories of Island Southeast Asia and northern Australia. Over the last decade, his interests have diversified to include: the domestication of vegetatively propagated crops, especially bananas; geoarchaeology and environmental change, mainly in the wet tropics; and, the application of new technologies to archaeological questions.