DOI issue:
Vol. VI : 4 1991
DOI article:Steensberg, Axel: Hafting of a stone axe-adze and its use in the fire-clearance husbandry of Papua New Guinea
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49003#0248
234
AXEL STEENSBERG
Fig-4 T
Fig-5
man is himself the most sophisticated and
versatile »personal computers His ability is a
product of hundreds of thousands of years
during which his experiences have become
part of his genetic inheritance. His body,
arms, fingers and toes function as his basic
implements; tools are only prolongations of
these.
The technique of clearing woods for agri-
culture has been developed over less than
about ten thousand years which in global
terms is an insignificant time-span. But man
had probably long before that been able to
make small clearings by »cooking« trees in
order to attract game. This technique was
commonly practised when I visited Papua
New Guinea in 1975, and my informant Irari
Hipuya at Puya-kira’go, pointed out a num-
ber of trees in the wood that had been killed
by »cookmg« as firewood-reserves.
Puya-kira’go is situated west of Kopiago
airstrip in the calcareous rocks of the Muller
Range of the Southern Highlands. It is pos-
sible to drive by Land-Rover to the turbulent
Tumbudu River, a tributary of Stickland Ri-
ver. But in 1975 one had to walk through a
wilderness of rainforest up and down cliffs,
balancing on long tree-trunks in passing from
one rock to another. The foot-path was often
invisible if one did not know where to move
from experience. For a white man it was an
AXEL STEENSBERG
Fig-4 T
Fig-5
man is himself the most sophisticated and
versatile »personal computers His ability is a
product of hundreds of thousands of years
during which his experiences have become
part of his genetic inheritance. His body,
arms, fingers and toes function as his basic
implements; tools are only prolongations of
these.
The technique of clearing woods for agri-
culture has been developed over less than
about ten thousand years which in global
terms is an insignificant time-span. But man
had probably long before that been able to
make small clearings by »cooking« trees in
order to attract game. This technique was
commonly practised when I visited Papua
New Guinea in 1975, and my informant Irari
Hipuya at Puya-kira’go, pointed out a num-
ber of trees in the wood that had been killed
by »cookmg« as firewood-reserves.
Puya-kira’go is situated west of Kopiago
airstrip in the calcareous rocks of the Muller
Range of the Southern Highlands. It is pos-
sible to drive by Land-Rover to the turbulent
Tumbudu River, a tributary of Stickland Ri-
ver. But in 1975 one had to walk through a
wilderness of rainforest up and down cliffs,
balancing on long tree-trunks in passing from
one rock to another. The foot-path was often
invisible if one did not know where to move
from experience. For a white man it was an