About the Book
This book explores the human past in West New Guinea (otherwise known as Indonesian Papua, West Papua, or Irian Jaya). The western part of New Guinea and its surrounding islands were critical for the early peopling of the Pacific region over 50,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens moved out of Africa and into Asia, seafaring through the islands of Wallacea as far as New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Islands. After arriving on the shores of West New Guinea, people adapted to diverse environments including coral reefs, tropical rainforests, swamps, montane cloud forests, and savannah grasslands. Over millennia, people transformed these habitats by burning and cutting the forests, translocating plants and animals, and managing access to resources. Food production later emerged in the region as the global climate warmed up around 10,000 years ago. Between 4000–3000 years ago, the Austronesian languages began to enter West New Guinea, with its speakers settling around the coasts and offshore islands. New forms of exchange connected people and, particularly within the last 2000 years, drew West New Guinea into global networks. The objects produced and traded at ethnographic contact—like pottery, stone axes, string bags, shell ornaments, and wooden carvings—can be informative about these networks, but they are increasingly changing as people navigate and transform their material worlds in the present. The examination of these objects in museums not only casts light on their makers, traders, and collectors, but also highlights the ongoing connections that Papuans have with their material culture in the twenty-first century.
The 22 chapters in this book contribute novel perspectives and critical data on each of these themes. The authors come from archaeology, social anthropology, biological anthropology, linguistics, museology, palaeoecology, and beyond. They write about a wide array of West New Guinea's regions, including the highlands, north and south coasts, Bird’s Head Peninsula, Cenderawasih Bay, and the Raja Ampat Islands.
Table of Contents:
List of figures
List of tables
Preface
Introduction: The human histories of West New Guinea – Dylan Gaffney and Marlin Tolla
A historiography of research on West New Guinea's human past – Dylan Gaffney and Marlin Tolla
Language as a lens into the prehistory of West New Guinea – Laura Arnold
Deep histories in New Guinea: Insights from human genetics on regional demography and archaic introgression – Guy Jacobs, Pradiptajati Kusuma, and Robert Attenborough
Deep histories in New Guinea: Insights from human genetics on local demography and social processes – Pradiptajati Kusuma, Guy Jacobs, and Robert Attenborough
Deep histories in New Guinea: Insights from genetics on human adaptation to malaria and diverse environments – Robert Attenborough, Guy Jacobs, and Pradiptajati Kusuma
A submerged landscape at the entrance of Sahul – Fabian Boesl, Shinatria Adhityatama, and Alexander F. Wall
First footsteps across the Lydekker Line: An archaeological survey in the northern Raja Ampat Islands – Dylan Gaffney, Daud Tanudirjo, Zubair Mas’ud, Erlin Novita Idje Djami, Abdul Razak Matcap, and Tristan Russell
Last Glacial Maximum to Late Holocene occupation on the Bomberai Peninsula: Preliminary results of archaeological research at Andarewa Cave, Fakfak Regency, West Papua Province – Bau Mene, Adi Dian Setiawan, and Dylan Gaffney
Late Holocene human diets in the lowlands of West New Guinea: The isotopic evidence – Marlin Tolla, Patrick Roberts, Mary Lucas, Dominik Bonatz, and Cosimo Posth
Rock art from caves in the Keerom Regency, Papua Province – Klementin Fairyo
Prehistoric sites in the western Lake Sentani area, Papua Province – Hari Suroto
Decorated pottery from the Kayu Batu area, Jayapura – Klementin Fairyo
Tracing the remains of World War II on Biak Island – Sonya Kawer and Dylan Gaffney
Agentive seas and animate canoes: Tangible and intangible dimensions of marine voyaging by the Marind-anim of central-southern New Guinea – Ian J. McNiven
Carving time: Axes and ancestrality in Asmat, West New Guinea – Tom Powell Davies
Shell material culture in the West New Guinea Highlands: An ethnographic kaleidoscope – Beatrice Voirol
Meege as bride price in Mee culture, central ranges of West New Guinea – Martinus Tekege
Muyu noken (men): Shifting economic opportunities and cultural values among string bag makers and users in Merauke, southern New Guinea – Veronika Triariyani Kanem
A collection of relationships: Kamoro material culture in the museum – Karen Jacobs
The prism of respect: Exhibiting a Raja Ampat altar – Fanny Wonu Veys
The East and West divide – Roxanne Tsang and Glenn Summerhayes
Contributors
