DOI article:
Clark, Grahame: [Rezension von: Axel Steensberg, New Guinea gardens, a study of husbandry with parallels in Prehistoric Europe]
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49001#0129
REVIEWS
125
human cultures and societies are in fact unique
historical products. This does not mean that
cross-cultural references are necessarily errone-
ous or a waste of time. It does suggest that they
need to be made with circumspection. This is
particularly true when comparisons are made be-
tween regions with widely varying ecologies. The
contrast between low-lying Denmark with its
temperate climate and omnipresent coasts and the
highlands of tropical New Guinea is surely
enough to redouble caution. Where ethno-ar-
chaeology can render service it is less in reaching
conclusions than in prompting questions, in itself
of key importance for prehistory.
In respect of clearance Steensberg’s observation
that the Mount Hagen people were able to fell
trees some four times more rapidly with steel than
with stone axes agrees closely with earlier obser-
vations on the Sanio-Hiowe tribe of New
Guinea. Of greater interest in some respects is the
emphasis he places on hafting and above all on
skill and experience. The famous experiments at
Draved showed that members of the National
Museum staff lacking experience of felling trees
with steel axes were more effective using flint
ones than professional tree-fellers whose tech-
nique was formed by the special qualities of steel
blades. Conversely men habituated to the use of
stone axes might find that steel ones were less
effective in their hands, as R.J. Forbes noticed in
respect of the Dayaks of Borneo. A detail of
special interest in this chapter is the consideration
of wood chips from prehistoric Europe in relation
to modern ones from New Guinea.
In discussing gardening techniques Steensberg
emphasises the importance of the methods used
to grasp items of digging equipment, a reminder
that form is only one criterion of use. His sug-
gestion that the traction ard may have been used
in the Mount Hagen region is a bold one, though
perhaps risky on the basis of analogies between
tanged stone blades from New Guinea and Syria.
The recent discovery of fifteen examples at the
Mesolithic fishing station of Tybrind Vig, Fyen,
Denmark, of wooden objects interpreted by Da-
nish prehistorians as paddles points again to the
danger of arguing from formal analogy alone: it
may be that closely similar objects were used as
spades in the New Guinea Highlands, but we are
bound to take account of find-associations in
interpreting those from Denmark.
Steensberg begins his account of the fencing
used in New Guinea to keep out feral pigs and
control the movements of domesticated ones by
emphasising the symbiotic relationship of men
and swine. His observation that pigs have an
interest in human food as well as men having an
interest in keeping a living store of flesh within
easy reach applies to an extensive range of Europe
and Asia. Steensberg ends by remarking that
“local conditions may dictate different types of
fencing within a distance of a few metres. If the
visiting scholar does not examine the nature of the
subsoil, his conclusions may be completely
wrong”, a pregnant warning, surely, for the over-
enthusiastic ethno-archaeologist.
The section on housing is notable for its fulness
of description and illustration. A point reflecting
ecological differences is that in New Guinea
houses had to be replaced every four or five years
whereas in Europe peasant houses seem to have
lasted at least a generation and when kept in
repair for very much longer. Some timbers of the
New Guinea houses were used for building new
ones and it is interesting that the people were
fully aware in laying out new gardens of the
organic richness of soils on old house sites.
Steensberg concluded by urging the authorities to
consider preserving indigenous architecture in or-
der to nourish the modern culture of the region
and help ensure the continuance of a distinctively
Papua New Guinea idiom. The treatment of fire-
making and cooking is similarly in large measure
descriptive, although Steensberg makes the inter-
esting suggestion that cooking in earth ovens such
as he observed in New Guinea was probably a
good deal more widespread in prehistoric and
medieval Europe than the archaeological excava-
tion reports might suggest.
The volume is rounded off by upwards of 150
wide-ranging references to the literature and an
adequate index.
Grahame Clark
125
human cultures and societies are in fact unique
historical products. This does not mean that
cross-cultural references are necessarily errone-
ous or a waste of time. It does suggest that they
need to be made with circumspection. This is
particularly true when comparisons are made be-
tween regions with widely varying ecologies. The
contrast between low-lying Denmark with its
temperate climate and omnipresent coasts and the
highlands of tropical New Guinea is surely
enough to redouble caution. Where ethno-ar-
chaeology can render service it is less in reaching
conclusions than in prompting questions, in itself
of key importance for prehistory.
In respect of clearance Steensberg’s observation
that the Mount Hagen people were able to fell
trees some four times more rapidly with steel than
with stone axes agrees closely with earlier obser-
vations on the Sanio-Hiowe tribe of New
Guinea. Of greater interest in some respects is the
emphasis he places on hafting and above all on
skill and experience. The famous experiments at
Draved showed that members of the National
Museum staff lacking experience of felling trees
with steel axes were more effective using flint
ones than professional tree-fellers whose tech-
nique was formed by the special qualities of steel
blades. Conversely men habituated to the use of
stone axes might find that steel ones were less
effective in their hands, as R.J. Forbes noticed in
respect of the Dayaks of Borneo. A detail of
special interest in this chapter is the consideration
of wood chips from prehistoric Europe in relation
to modern ones from New Guinea.
In discussing gardening techniques Steensberg
emphasises the importance of the methods used
to grasp items of digging equipment, a reminder
that form is only one criterion of use. His sug-
gestion that the traction ard may have been used
in the Mount Hagen region is a bold one, though
perhaps risky on the basis of analogies between
tanged stone blades from New Guinea and Syria.
The recent discovery of fifteen examples at the
Mesolithic fishing station of Tybrind Vig, Fyen,
Denmark, of wooden objects interpreted by Da-
nish prehistorians as paddles points again to the
danger of arguing from formal analogy alone: it
may be that closely similar objects were used as
spades in the New Guinea Highlands, but we are
bound to take account of find-associations in
interpreting those from Denmark.
Steensberg begins his account of the fencing
used in New Guinea to keep out feral pigs and
control the movements of domesticated ones by
emphasising the symbiotic relationship of men
and swine. His observation that pigs have an
interest in human food as well as men having an
interest in keeping a living store of flesh within
easy reach applies to an extensive range of Europe
and Asia. Steensberg ends by remarking that
“local conditions may dictate different types of
fencing within a distance of a few metres. If the
visiting scholar does not examine the nature of the
subsoil, his conclusions may be completely
wrong”, a pregnant warning, surely, for the over-
enthusiastic ethno-archaeologist.
The section on housing is notable for its fulness
of description and illustration. A point reflecting
ecological differences is that in New Guinea
houses had to be replaced every four or five years
whereas in Europe peasant houses seem to have
lasted at least a generation and when kept in
repair for very much longer. Some timbers of the
New Guinea houses were used for building new
ones and it is interesting that the people were
fully aware in laying out new gardens of the
organic richness of soils on old house sites.
Steensberg concluded by urging the authorities to
consider preserving indigenous architecture in or-
der to nourish the modern culture of the region
and help ensure the continuance of a distinctively
Papua New Guinea idiom. The treatment of fire-
making and cooking is similarly in large measure
descriptive, although Steensberg makes the inter-
esting suggestion that cooking in earth ovens such
as he observed in New Guinea was probably a
good deal more widespread in prehistoric and
medieval Europe than the archaeological excava-
tion reports might suggest.
The volume is rounded off by upwards of 150
wide-ranging references to the literature and an
adequate index.
Grahame Clark