Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson & Robin Hide (ed.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples (Pacific Linguistics 572).

White, Peter

ANDREW PAWLEY, ROBERT ATTENBOROUGH, JACK GOLSON & ROBIN HIDE (ed.). Papuan pasts: cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples (Pacific Linguistics 572). xxiv+817 pages, numerous illustrations & tables. 2005. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University; 0-85883-562-2 paperback Aus$135.

This tome of 28 chapters derives from a conference held in Canberra in 2000. As one might guess from the title, a) the region covered is primarily mainland New Guinea and b) of the ten questions which sparked the conference nine were structured linguistically or asked how could other disciplines assist in reconstructing the history of Papuan languages. Unsurprisingly, the papers often ignore directly tackling the second remit, though some useful approaches to the questions are sometimes apparent. So this book is multidisciplinary and not inter-disciplinary. To turn it from one to the other, the editors could usefully have written a concluding chapter returning to the original questions and attempting a history, or even just some answers to the questions, beyond the 'histories' of the subtitle. Interdisciplinary dialogue, said to be a feature of the conference, has left the rest of us out.

There are four sections--linguistics (220 pages), archaeology (295), environment (157) and human biology (145)--each with one editor's introduction which puts each group of papers into some historic and/or scientific perspective. Artenborough's, reviewing the various archaeogenetic methods in comprehensible language, is outstanding. I focus on some highlights of the papers--a personal view which will necessarily leave other worthy and useful ones unreferred to.

Linguistics. New Guinea now houses about 10 per cent of the world's languages, in a population of less than 5 million. There is increasing evidence of long-term stability of language families, even if individual languages have always lead precarious lives. There are hints, in papers by Pawley and Foley that the Trans New Guinea family may have expanded in the Holocene, perhaps in association with a developed agriculture. It comes as no surprise that different classifications give different results.

Archaeology. Three researches are important here. Denham argues that elaborate rectilinear water control systems pre-date 4000 BP and are an independent invention based on much older agricultural practices (see also Denham 2005, Denham et al. 2003). Evans and Mountain demonstrate how the relatively amorphous stone artefacts are amenable to analysis and show changes in mobility patterns of Highlanders throughout time. Swadling and Hide, also Golson, argue respectively that stone mortars and pestles, and axes and adzes, indicate that large-scale interaction spheres were operating back into at least the early Holocene. All four papers, and Specht's to some extent, give strong lie to the popular two-phase model of stasis after arrival 50 000 years ago, followed by the development of pottery, agriculture and trade when the Austronesians arrived. Demonstrating a much longer, large-scale and more complex history of the island is probably the book's most dramatic contribution.

Environment is a mixed bag. Notable are two solid papers on palaeoenvironments (Chappell, and Hope & Haberle), and a paper by Roscoe challenging the common view of all present-day New Guineans as 'agriculturalists'. He notes that sago foraging is widespread, diverse and locally adapted and must have been important in many prehistoric environments.

The human biology section will be a struggle for many prehistorians, dealing as it does variously with mitochondria, HLA, Y chromosomes, skeletal data and a lot of statistics. Attenborough's introduction is very helpful, but it is clear that different data sets and different statistical models lead to different answers concerning long-term histories. Here there are only a few, but there are many more in the wider literature. (I should note here too the propensity of many human biologists to interpret their findings in the light of the simplest linguistic models, though not in this book).

One fascinating analysis here, by Friedlander and colleagues, is that on Bougainville the so-called 'Polynesian motif', a 9 base pair deletion often seen as a genetic marker of Austronesian/Lapita pottery migration, is far more common among Papuan than Austronesian speakers. They suggest that it may not indicate migration from Taiwan at all. Others disagree.

Despite my earlier caveat, the book is an absolute mine of information and up-to-date material. It is well edited, well produced, includes some maps in colour and is very reasonably priced (about 55 [pounds sterling]). New Guinea, which had no metallurgy, cities or large-scale hierarchical societies, is like everywhere you've never been, a counterpoint against which many of our easy Euro- or Americano-centric assumptions about societies of the past can and should be tested. This book will help you do so.

References

DENKAM, T.P. 2005. Envisioning early agriculture in the Highlands of New Guinea: landscapes, plants and practices. World Archaeology 37: 290-306.

DENHAM, T.P., S.G. HABERLE, C. LENTFER, R. FULLAGAR, J. FIELD, M. THERIN, N. PORCH & B. WINSBOROUGH. 2003. Origins of agriculture at Kuk Swamp in the Highlands of New Guinea. Science 301: 189-93.

PETER WHITE

University of Sydney, Australia