Papuan Pasts: Cultural, Linguistic and Biological Histories of Papuan-speaking Peoples

This book is an inter-disciplinary exploration of the history of humans in New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands, which make up the biogeographic and cultural region that is coming to be known as Near Oceania, with particular reference to the people who speak Papuan (non-Austronesian) languages. Discoveries over the past 50 years have given Near Oceania a prominence in world prehistory far beyond its demographic, economic and political importance. Archaeological research has established that by 40,000 years ago people had made the ocean crossings from South-east Asia to the Australia-New Guinea continent and had reached New Britain and New Ireland. By 30,000 years ago they had penetrated the high valleys of the central highlands of New Guinea. There is evidence of cultivation of taro, yam and banana and associated forest clearance in some parts of the central highlands from 10,000 years ago and this takes on a more systematic, agricultural character after about 7,000 years ago. The northern third of New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse part of the planet, containing a concentration of disparate language families consistent with in situ diversification in the late Pleistocene. The Bismarcks and Solomons are a second area of great linguistic diversity. Research in population genetics, using mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA, shows a degree of genetic variation in Near Oceania consistent with at least 40,000 years of human settlement and in situ diversification of semi-isolated populations, while also in some cases suggesting several distinct population arrivals. The 28 chapters of the book include state of the art reports by archaeologists, historical linguists, environmental scientists, cultural anthropologists, biological anthropologists and population geneticists, together with introductions by the four editors.