Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian J. McNiven
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Aboriginal Peoples ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
Exchange Networks ◽  
The Past ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Torres Strait

Cultural interactions between Aboriginal peoples of northeastern Australia and Melanesian peoples of southern New Guinea have caught the attention of anthropologists and archaeologists since the nineteenth century. Moving away from older models of one-way diffusion of so-called advanced cultural traits from New Guinea to mainland Australia via Torres Strait, this article elaborates the concept of the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere (CSCIS) as a framework to investigate two-way interactions, gene flow, and object movements across Torres Strait. The CSCIS centres on a series of ethnographically known, canoe-voyaging, and long-distance maritime exchange networks that linked communities over a distance of 2000 km along the south coast of mainland Papua New Guinea and the northeast coast of Australia. Archaeological evidence for temporal changes in the geographical spread of pottery and obsidian use indicates that the CSCIS was historically dynamic, with numerous reconfigurations over the past 3000 years. The CSCIS developed as the confluence of major cultural changes and demographic expansions that took place in northeastern Australia and southern mainland Papua New Guinea.

COMBINING ORAL TRADITIONS AND BAYESIAN CHRONOLOGICAL MODELING TO UNDERSTAND VILLAGE DEVELOPMENT IN THE GULF OF PAPUA (PAPUA NEW GUINEA)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
Quan Hua ◽  
Henry Arifeae
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gulf Of Papua ◽  
The Village

ABSTRACT When European colonists arrived in the late 19th century, large villages dotted the coastline of the Gulf of Papua (southern Papua New Guinea). These central places sustained long-distance exchange and decade-spanning ceremonial cycles. Besides ethnohistoric records, little is known of the villages’ antiquity, spatiality, or development. Here we combine oral traditional and 14C chronological evidence to investigate the spatial history of two ancestral village sites in Orokolo Bay: Popo and Mirimua Mapoe. A Bayesian model composed of 35 14C assays from seven excavations, alongside the oral traditional accounts, demonstrates that people lived at Popo from 765–575 cal BP until 220–40 cal BP, at which time they moved southwards to Mirimua Mapoe. The village of Popo spanned ca. 34 ha and was composed of various estates, each occupied by a different tribe. Through time, the inhabitants of Popo transformed (e.g., expanded, contracted, and shifted) the village to manage social and ceremonial priorities, long-distance exchange opportunities and changing marine environments. Ours is a crucial case study of how oral traditional ways of understanding the past interrelate with the information generated by Bayesian 14C analyses. We conclude by reflecting on the limitations, strengths, and uncertainties inherent to these forms of chronological knowledge.

Swamp and Delta Societies of the Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Urwin ◽  
James W. Rhoads ◽  
Joshua A. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Large River ◽  
Place Making ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
River Deltas ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Physical Environments ◽  
Key Sites

The Papuan Gulf’s littoral coastline has been emerging and transforming since the late Pleistocene. Large river deltas such as the Fly, Kikori, and Purari transport sediments into the Coral Sea, and these are reworked by prevailing tides and seasonal currents to form a world of sand and swamps that Papuan Gulf peoples inhabit. This article reviews the archaeology of key sites in the region and identifies themes for future explorations of the region’s rich heritage. It explores how the region’s delta-dwelling societies occupied, modified, and made sense of their relatively fluid physical environments. Two aspects are explored in detail: (1) the potential to historicize the emergence of sago cultivation and its role in sustaining local settlements and long-distance trade; and (2) the contribution of nuanced spatial histories of migration and place-making to the region’s narrative.

scholarly journals Ben Bohane's portrayal of spirit and war in Melanesia

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-174
Author(s):  
Ben Bohane ◽  
Bec Dean
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
International Community ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cape York ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Western Media

As a photojournalist, writer and producer of television documentaries, Ben Bohane has spent the past 12 years posting stories about life on the islands of Melanesia to the Western media—illuminating the struggles and the spirit worlds behind the news. Melanesia is as close to Australia as a 150km cruise from the tip of Cape York across the Torres Strait to Papua New Guinea, connecting Australasia to the rest of Oceania and Asia. Until recently, though, these islands have seemed distantly removed from Australia and New Zealand’s notion of its international community.

scholarly journals Changing use of Lizard Island over the past 4000 years and implications for understanding Indigenous offshore island use on the Great Barrier Reef

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 43-109
Author(s):  
Ariana B.J. Lambrides ◽  
Ian J. McNiven ◽  
Samantha J. Aird ◽  
Kelsey A. Lowe ◽  
Patrick Moss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Great Barrier Reef ◽  
Barrier Reef ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
Offshore Island ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Coral Sea ◽  
Lizard Island ◽  
Reef Islands ◽  
Torres Strait

Archaeological records documenting the timing and use of northern Great Barrier Reef offshore islands by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout the Holocene are limited when compared to the central and southern extents of the region. Excavations on Lizard Island, located 33 km from Cape Flattery on the mainland, provide high resolution evidence for periodic, yet sustained offshore island use over the past 4000 years, with focused exploitation of diverse marine resources and manufacture of quartz artefacts. An increase in island use occurs from around 2250 years ago, at a time when a hiatus or reduction in offshore island occupation has been documented for other Great Barrier Reef islands, but concurrent with demographic expansion across Torres Strait to the north. Archaeological evidence from Lizard Island provides a previously undocumented occupation pattern associated with Great Barrier Reef late Holocene island use. We suggest this trajectory of Lizard Island occupation was underwritten by its place within the Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere, which may highlight its significance both locally and regionally across this vast seascape.

scholarly journals From Planning to Action: Forest Conservation and Management in Papua New Guinea

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy MacKinnon
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Forest Conservation ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Subsistence Agriculture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Eastern Half ◽  
Conservation And Management

Papua New Guinea (PNG) occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and still boasts 33 million hectares of closed natural forest (77% of the country), home to numerous endemic species. Overall PNG is sparsely populated with some 700 distinct cultural/ language groups. Economic growth over the past two decades has been spurred by large-scale mining, petroleum and logging operations though the majority of the population continues to rely upon subsistence agriculture (swidden) and collection and utilization of forest products. Some 15 million hectares of forests are accessible for logging, of which 1.5 million hectares have already been logged, generally in an unsustainable manner. Of the over 6 million ha of approved timber blocks more than 1.5 million hectares have been located in areas of high biological value. Forest loss and degradation is now becoming a serious problem.

Revision of the genus Mitelloides Evans, with two new species from northern Australia (Homoptera: Cicadellidae)

1990 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-288
Author(s):  
M.M. Stevens
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Type Species ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
North East ◽  
Two New Species ◽  
Torres Strait

AbstractThe genus Mitelloides Evans is revised. Three species are recognised and described; M. moaensis Evans (the type species) and two new species, M. thorntonensís and M. mouldsi. A key to the males of the genus is provided, and the known distributions of all species are mapped. The genus is known only from north-east Queensland, the Torres Strait Islands, and Papua New Guinea.

Estimates of fertility and infant and child mortality for Lae urban area of Papua New Guinea: a comparative analysis

1987 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-148
Author(s):  
William K. A. Agyei
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Child Mortality ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Fertility Rates ◽  
Rural And Urban Areas ◽  
The Past ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Infant And Child Mortality

SummaryData collected on fertility, mortality and family planning in two surveys in Papua New Guinea are presented. The first survey was conducted in rural and urban areas between November 1979 and March 1980 in eight provinces of Papua New Guinea, and the second between late June and early July 1981 in the Lae urban area. The unadjusted total fertility rates suggest that fertility is lower in the Lae urban area than in the rural and provincial urban areas. However, the adjusted rates indicate that fertility is higher in the provincial urban areas than in the rural and Lae urban areas. The results also confirm a trend towards lower infant and child mortality over the past 15 years, as well as the existence of moderate differentials between rural, provincial urban and the Lae urban areas.

Conceptions of Health and Illness Held by Australian Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Papua New Guinea Health Science Students

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gillian Boulton-Lewis ◽  
Hitendra Pillay ◽  
Lynn Wilss ◽  
David Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Educational Status ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Torres Strait

Health is considered to be a fundamental human right and developing a better understanding of health is assumed to be a global social goal (Bloom, 1987). Yet many third-world countries and some sub-populations within developed countries do not enjoy a healthy existence. The research reported in this paper examined the conceptions of health and conceptions of illness for a group of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Papua New Guinea university students studying health science courses. Results found three conceptions of health and three conceptions of illness that indicated these students held a mix of traditional/cultural and Western beliefs. These findings may contribute to overcoming the dissonance between traditional and Western beliefs about health and the development of health care courses that are more specific to how these students understand health. This may also serve to improve the educational status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and potentially improve the health status within these communities.

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