Report of the New Guinea nutrition survey expedition, 1947 / [edited by E.H. Hipsley and F.W. Clements].

  • Australia. Department of External Territories
Date:
[1947?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the New Guinea nutrition survey expedition, 1947 / [edited by E.H. Hipsley and F.W. Clements]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to ceremonial occasions. The typical native fowl is small, lean and leggy with variegated plumage—it has a very low egg production rate, and is prized principally for its coloured feathers. Dogs are kept as household pets and for hunting and sometimes figure as a source of meat, although this practice has been dying out with the extension of European influence. Politico-economic Determinants of Native Agriculture. Numerous authorities have drawn attention to the lack of development of accepted hereditary chieftainship principles in Melanesian society, and to the local form of organisation which produces a large number of small politreally independent communities. Within these communities prestige and the right to govern are attained largely by economic activity aimed at the accumulation of food and other goods for gift-making, which builds up a pattern of indebtedness. This form of political organisation and the associated systems of land tenure have an important determining effect on the nature of agricultural practice. Each community tends to regard itself as having a definite communal right to the agricultural land to which it claims boundary, but within this limitation, communal ownership and communal] cultivation are relatively rare and family and individual rights are widely recognised. Matrilineal, patrilineal, and bilinea] inheritance patterns may be found. This situation is adjusted to the system of “bush fallowing rotation,” described above, by the wide extension of nonfructory rights within the community, without prejudice to rights of ownership. Under these conditions large areas of cultivation are a comparative rarity and usually result from some special circumstances such ag confusion of tenure in a long-cultivated area. Even when a large area is communally eleared and fenced as a solution to this sort of problem, it is invariably divided subsequently into a number of small plots, which are planted, cultivated, and harvested individually. Another important result is that there has been little tendency in any part of the Territory towards the development of specialised food producing population groups. The principal economic factors affecting native agriculture in Papua- New Guinea are (1) the generally low population density, (2) the low cegree of technological development associated with food production and (3) the limited scope for export and trade provided by local political and geographical conditions. The extensive long-fallow type of land use method which has been described is only possible where the available acreage per head is high, but it must be remembered that a considerable portion of the land so employed is for topographical and climatic reasons of dubious value under any other type of cultivation. The implements used are simple —axes and knives for clearing, and the digging stick and the hoe for enltivation. Inevitably burning is widely used in clearing and has a special significance, which will be mentioned below. Crude irrigation systems are found very occasionally, while fertilisers and manures are virtually unknown. Cultural and Religious Determinants of Native Agriculture. As might be expected with a primitive people practising subsistence sericulture, agricultural practice invariably has close ties with local culture ard religion. Various magico-religious ceremonies, particularly the con- ducting of fertility and weather rites, and the casting of good and evil
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