The taro monoculture of central New Guinea

The Taro Monoculture of Central New GuineaAuthor(s): George E. B. Morren, Jr. and David C. HyndmanSource: Human Ecology, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Sep., 1987), pp. 301-315Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4602848 .

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Human Ecology, Vol. 15, No. 3, 1987

The Taro Monoculture of Central New Guinea

George E. B. Morren, Jr.' and David C. Hyndman2

An ancient, sustainable, and low risk Colocasia taro monoculture has per- sisted until modern times among the Mountain Ok peoples of central New Guinea. There is a monoculture-polyculture axis in the region with taro monocultures predominant in the rain forests of the mid-altitude fringe. We argue that when examined from the standpoint of ecosystem simplification, biological variability, and subsistence vulnerability, the taro monocultures exhibit many ecological and systemic properties commonly attributed to polycultures. Monoculture is not an exclusive category; specific cases must be placed in a broader context of the larger ecosystem and the options people have at their disposal. Reduction of the taro monoculture is occurring in response to modernization pressures.

KEY WORDS: New Guinea; taro; agriculture; monoculture; subsistence ecology.

INTRODUCTION

As the name of a cropping system feature, "monoculture" is a "dirty word" among environmental and appropriate technology advocates who cite instances in history when it has been linked to calamity. Most reported disasters, however, have occurred in colonial economies resulting from process- es of environmental, economic, and social change. The Irish case of the 1840's, to which we will refer, is the stereotypical case. Another stereotype associ- ates monoculture with intensification, especially mechanization. The complement of these widely-held views is that polyculture is a common (even universal) feature of traditional agriculture, especially in the tropics, that

'Department of Human Ecology, P.O. Box 231, Cook College, Rutgers University, New Brun- swick, New Jersey 08903.

2Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4967, Queens- land, Australia.

301

0300-7839/87/0900-0301$05.00/0 ? 1987 Plenum Publishing Corporation



302 Morren and Hyndman

it is more "natural" than monoculture, and that it preceded monoculture in cultural evolution. We disagree.

In this paper, we report on the cultivation of Colocasia esculenta in monoculture as a traditional feature of the subsistence of a diverse ethnolin- guistic group inhabiting an extensive region of central New Guinea. This as- semblage of peoples is the Mountain Ok, numbering 28,000, speaking eight languages, and distributed over 20,000 km2 (12,000 mi2). Data collected in the region, including our own field observations (Hyndman, 1979, 1982; Mor- ren, 1977, 1986, n.d.) as well as reports of others (Bayliss-Smith, 1985a; Bourke, 1979; Cape, 1980, 1981; Moylan, 1981; Perey, 1973; Poole, 1976; Reynders, 1962),3 show that there is considerable variability among groups (as well as among individual members of particular communities) and that some of this variation, including the persistence or reduction of an ancient monoculture, can be explained. We are particularly interested in shedding light on the use and misuse of both the monoculture and the polyculture models. Our study points up the need to examine the situation of a group without preconceptions, rather than to focus on a single feature of cropping systems in isolation.

THE MOUNTAIN OK

The sphere of the Mountain Ok is a broad belt across the middle of the island of New Guinea (see Fig. 1). Along this belt from north to south, major Ok groups live in the lowlands of the Sepik Plains, the Foothill and Lower Montane zone of the Thurnwald and Donner Ranges and Mt. Stolle, the high intermontane valleys of Ifitaman (Telefomin) and Oksapmin, the high altitude zone of the Hindenberg Range and Star Mountains, and the foothills and lowlands of the Fly-Strickland River drainage. Environmental diversity is at least partly reflected in sociocultural variability, but there are basic, seemingly underlying, cultural patterns which are played out over the whole region which give it a clear identity (Healey, 1964; Craig, 1969; Hynd- man and Morren, n.d.). Population densities range from 26 persons per km2 on land under 2000 m in the Bimin Valley, to 8-11.5 per km2 in Oksapmin (Bayliss-Smith, 1985a; Moylan, 1981; Perey, 1973), to less than one per km2 among the Kam Basin Wopkaimin (Hyndman, 1979) and certain Sa Nakai Miyanmin groups (Morren, 1986). These extremes describe what we refer to, respectively, as core and fringe. Table I assigns Mountain Ok groups to altitudinal zones and indicates their core or fringe status.

3In 1984, we distributed a questionnaire to researchers who had worked in the Mountain Ok area. The survey included questions on subsistence.



Taro of Central New Guinea 303

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Table I. Altitudinal Zone and Core-Fringe Status of Mountain Ok Groups

Zone Core Fringe

Highland Telefolmin (Ifitaman Kasel) Sibilmin (Ngalum) Feramin Oksapmin Tifalmin Atbalmin Urapmin Bimin-Kuskusmin

Mid-altitude Telefolmin (Eliptaman Kasel) Faiwolmin Kamfaiwolmin Faiwolmin (Baktaman) Miyanmin (Am Nakai) Wopkaimin Kauwolmin Enkiakmin Duranmin (Om Tribes) Kwermin Seltamin Augobmin

Lowland Miyanmin (Sa Nakai) Faiwolmin (Minomin-Aekyom) Telefolmin (Ninataman Kasel) Paupe

Common traits in the agricultural sector include (1) slash-burn or slash- mulch agriculture, (2) cultural preference for Colocasia taro, (3) extensive swine production, (4) minimal tillage and control of environmental factors, (5) short cropping periods, and (6) long fallows. Thus, technical differences account for very little of the variability observed in the agricultural systems of the Mountain Ok, i.e., we assume that all of its peoples have had access to the same repertoire of technology.

Local garden differentiation according to crop composition is more significant. Although the "infield-outfield" system comparable to that in the highland centers of the eastern and western spheres is absent from the Moun- tain Ok, the Ngalum in the Ok Sibil (Reynders, 1962, pp. 56-59), the Bimin (Bayliss-Smith, 1985a; Poole, 1976, p. 266), and the Oksapmin (Perey, 1973, pp. 37-45) separate taro from sweet potato gardens. Moreover, sweet potato rather than taro is the staple for these high altitude fringe peoples. Among mid-altitude fringe peoples such as the north slope Miyanmin (Morren, 1986) and the south slope Wopkaimin (Hyndman, 1982, p. 242) and Baktaman- min (Barth, 1975, p. 30), undifferentiated garden plots are planted in the staple taro, and sweet potato is either absent or a marginal subsidiary crop. The Mountain Ok are widely identified as "taro people" (Watson, 1977;




Brown, 1972, p. 20, 1978), a view that corresponds to people's preferences universally. This characterization is inaccurate, however, because it masks considerable variability in the relative importance of taro and sweet potato among Mountain Ok groups. It is principally applicable to groups of the mid-altitude fringe where taro cultivation is a virtual monoculture.

THE MONOCULTURE-POLYCULTURE AXIS

It is conventional wisdom among advocates of appropriate and alternative technology in modern agriculture that polyculture is superior to monoculture. For example, Wortman and Cummings (1978) claim that monoculture is not as common as polyculture in traditional farming. This may be a valid modern observation, but it is not a "rule." Indeed, we suspect that monocultures were once more widespread than they are today, particularly in predominantly moist-forested areas. The key dimension is not just the diversity of crops cultivated by traditional farmers, but the diversity of the larger system in which they participate. The element of risk arising from the interaction between cropping pattern and the larger system and the flexibility of the farmer is particularly significant.

Mountain Ok gardeners have a range of means at their disposal for minimizing or at least reducing risk. All else equal, monoculture is more risky than polyculture. All else is rarely equal, however. There is a distinction among the various Mountain Ok peoples between monocultures of high flexibility and low risk in the mid-altitude fringe and those associated with diminished flexibility and high risk in core areas such as Ifitaman, Oksap- min, and Bimin. The transition from taro to sweet potato, which is only just occurring in the high altitude core, is due to population pressure and environmental problems (Bourke, 1979). According to recent observers, malnutrition (assessed on the basis of weight-for-age of children under 5 years) is actually worse in the Bak and Bimin valleys than in the more densely popu- lated Tekin and Oksapmin valleys (Bayliss-Smith, 1985a; Cape, 1980). Thus, our investigation of the viability of taro monoculture focuses on the nature of agronomic problems and hazards and the subsistence alternatives available to the peoples of the mid-altitude fringe.

Current arguments about the alleged shortcomings of monoculture have focused on three interrelated elements: (1) simplification of the ecosystem, (2) loss of biological variability, and (3) general vulnerability of the food supply. It should be emphasized that these too are variables rather than dis- crete elements and that it is possible to find alternatives in traditional monocultures that mitigate the risks and hazards entailed.




SIMPLIFICATION OF THE ECOSYSTEM

Clifford Geertz (1963) was one of the earliest to argue that swiddens were "miniaturized tropical forests," simulating such features as diversity, closed cover, and nutrient storage in vegetation. Although details of Geertz's model have been criticized and qualified (Beckerman, 1983), students of tropical forest agriculture have tended to follow his lead in demonstrating the widespread occurrence of polyculture in South America (Ewel and Poleman, 1979; Harris, 1971; Wilken, 1977), Africa (Miracle, 1967; Igbozurike, 1971; Okigbo, 1981; Okigbo and Greenland, 1976; Neumann, 1983; Zeuner, 1981), and Australasia (Bompard, Ducatillion, Hacketsweiler, and Michon, 1980; Dobra, 1983; Freeman and Fricke, 1984; Kunstadter, Chapman, and Sah- hasri, 1978; Manners, 1981; Marten, 1986; Rappaport, 1968, 1971). Details vary as do their relevance (see Weinstock, 1984). Harris (1971), Rappaport (1968), and Manners (1981) all speak in terms of the substitution of desired cultivated plants for forest species. Igbozurike (1971, p. 528) cites the con- plementary relationship between diverse cultivars and, along with Harris (1971), emphasizes the importance of the maintenance of nutrient cycling in swiddens. Boster (1983) cites the architecture and spatial aspects of polycultural planting of cultivars of various heights in relation to light and nutrient requirements.

One of the problems we encountered in assessing such claims regard- ing the virtues of polyculture is the scarcity of experimental results, especially involving trials of the cultigens of our study area. Kass' (1978) useful review is concerned almost exclusively with polycultures of grains or other western field crops.

Still, contrasting reports have begun to appear of outright monocultures or monocultural tendencies among swidden agriculturists suggesting that much more variation exists than earlier reports allowed. Beckerman (1983) has reported a tendency to avoid intercropping with whole field monocropping or monocrop zoning within fields. Boster (1983) and Hames (1983) find that polyvarietal planting of multiline cultivars in monocultures functions much the same as polycultural interplanting. In a comparative study also from South America, Flowers, Gross, Ritter, and Werner (1982) have shown that polyculture is a variable. We examine the latter study in more detail in a subsequent section of this paper. Here, we present an argument that agriculture in general, and monoculture in particular, need not be viewed as "simplifying the ecosystem."

All agricultural systems, at least temporarily, simplify specific portions of their "natural" ecosystems. Some do this more than others and some produce more irreversible effects than others. Note, however, that there is a competing view, taking hold among some students of tropical forest dy-




namics and of swidden agriculture, that agricultural and other disturbances have a critical role in increasing and maintaining complexity in tropical forests (Pickett and Thompson, 1978; Kunstadter et al., 1978). This contrasts with the older view, exemplified by Dasmann, Milton, and Freeman (1973, p. 158), that monoculture is a greater departure from natural species diversity in the tropics than in temperate zones. Tropical forests consist of a mosaic of patches of varying sizes in which single species predominate. In this regard, a swidden field is just a large patch. This is the ultimate meaning of Conklin's (1957) identification of the "integral-established" type of shifting cultivation. The swidden is part of the forest ecosystem. This is consistent also with the fact that people and their agriculture have been an integral part of the tropical forest in Australasia for 10,000 years. Thus there is more to "designing with nature" than maintaining or simulating a statistical diversity. In shifting agriculture, problems may nevertheless arise, including monocultural disasters, when the site is inappropriate, marginal, and easily degraded.

The peoples of the mid-altitude fringe of the Mountain Ok area and New Guinea generally, are able to practice a conservative form of shifting cultivation because, under most circumstances, population densities are low and territories are extensive. Specific conservative features include (1) the selection of flat or gently sloping tracts, (2) the almost exclusive use of secondary growth, (3) small garden patch size and significant forest margins between gardens, (4) stunning of trees by scorching or ringing rather than total clearing, (5) planting in undisturbed forest litter without a general burn, (6) deferred completion of clearing until the crop is established, (7) polyvarietal planting of the staple crop, (8) a brief cropping period, and (9) long forest fallows.

The use of flatter ground reduces the riks of water erosion, particularly sheet erosion. Clearing secondary rather than primary forest takes advan- tage of its possible greater soil fertility (Soedjito, 1985) and entales no further disturbance of primary forest. Small patch size and forest margins buffer the field from pests and enhance successional fallows. The latter is also fostered by the absence of complete clearance and burning because the seed banks of forest species are maintained, and stunned trees as well as stumps and roots readily revive or re-sprout. Deferral of clearing not only protects vulnerable young plants but reduces drying and prevents erosion. Polyvarie- tal planting increases genetic diversity within the monoculture. The charac- teristically brief cropping period, only one harvest of the staple here, saves vital nutrients for trees and discourages a disclimax dominated by annuals. Finally, a long forest fallow, 12 years at a minimum but typically longer, provides for the restoration of fertility in terms of such essential nutrients as potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and organic matter.




LOSS OF BIOLOGICAL VARIABILITY

The concern for loss of biological variability in monocultures is main- ly associated with use of modern hybrid varieties. The problem with hybrids is twofold; they show only limited expression of the total genetic variability of a particular species, and they tend to be adopted wholesale with one or two hybrid varieties replacing a multitude of long-established or traditional nonhybrid varieties.

Studies of traditional polycultures in several areas of the world have claimed that the pattern relates to a variety of factors and problems. Ig- bozurike (1971, p. 526) argues on theoretical grounds that polycultural intercropping is advantageous because the "juxtaposition of so many different kinds of plants tends to minimize the incidence of pests and diseases, many of which are virulent when acre upon acre is given to one crop" (Wrigley, 1969). It is also claimed that polyculture facilitates the use of micro- environments in swiddens which, by definition, have not been subject to the "homogenizing" action of intensive cultural practices. The characteristics of different plants may complement each other as when "the nutrient robbing propensity of some crops is counteracted by the enriching quality of others" in polycultural fields (Igbozurike, 1971, p. 528).

Yet, other researchers (Boster, 1983; Hames, 1983) conclude that the same effects may be achieved with polyvarietal interplanting in monocultures. According to Boster, polyvarietal variation in manioc branching pattern, leaf shape, and growth period promotes effective vertical and lateral exploitation of light, warmth, and moisture and is therefore structurally similar to intercropping distinct cultigens.

Taro monocultures of the mid-altitude fringe tend to utilize an exceed- ingly large number of stable varieties of Colocasia taro; the Wopkaimin, Bimin, and Oksapmin (Bayliss-Smith, 1985, p. 108; Cape, 1981, p. 155) recog- nize over 100 cultivars, and the Miyanmin have at least 50. These have evolved and proliferated through uncontrolled breeding and cultural trials. The tendency toward many varieties of taro arguably afford these agro-ecosystems the advantages of polyculture, such as protection from losses due to pests and pathogens (Gagne, 1982, p. 232).

Among mid-altitude Mountain Ok peoples, new varieties of taro are being constantly introduced through diffusion or by discovery and trial. The element of innovation is probably important in both the traditional and modern context because the "life expectancy" of varieties resistent to the diversity of pathogens attacking them is relatively short (McNew, 1966). We speculate that one impact of modernization is to shorten this "life expectancy" even more through the introduction of exotic pests and pathogens (such as Dasheen mosaic virus) and other means such as restricting mobility, part of the global trade in hazards (Morren, 1983).




Flowers et al. (1982) present polyculture as a variable feature of swidden or shifting agriculture rather than as a constant. This contrasts with the generally held view, propounded by Geertz (1963, p. 7), that diversity of cultivated species is the essence of swidden agriculture. In their study of four societies of the dry Cerrado region of central Brazil, Flowers' team found a general tendency to plant single crop plots in swiddens with each group apparently emphasizing a different crop. It should be noted, however, that in no case did any group seem to practice a monoculture. Two groups de- rived more than 6007o of their food from rice, two others gained approximately 4007o from manioc, and one of the latter also gained a comparable amount from rice as well. According to the authors, the Cerrado groups con- trast strongly with tropical forest Indians where much greater diversity pre- vails. It also seems that low crop diversity among the Cerrado groups is at least partly due to the effects of contact: territorial loss, population increase, new crops and techniques, opportunity for cash sales, and the like.

More than the Cerrado case, the Mid-altitude taro monoculture of the Mountain Ok contrasts vividly with the "rain forest metaphor" of the ideal- ized polyculture. Of their cultivated foods, the Miyanmin gain approximately 89Wo and the Wopkaimin 81 Vol by weight from Colocasia taro. Other vegetables, or groups of vegetables, such as leafy greens, pandanus, banana, pumpkin, sugar cane, and beans (in descending order) provide from 5Wo to less than 1%o by weight in the Miyanmin diet. This pattern is replicated by the weight returns from cultivated vegetables in the Wopkaimin diet which, in descending order of importance, are leafy greens (7Wo), pumpkin and cur- curbit (307o each), sago and tubers other than taro (2Wo each), and bananas and sugar cane (1 Wo each).

Mid-altitude fringe taro monoculture contrasts with the agricultural pattern of the central Ifitaman groups such as the Telefolmin, Urapmin, and Tifalmin and also with the high altitude fringe groups east and west of Ifita- man such as the Ngalum speakers (Sibilmin), and the Atbalmin and Bimin, who all grow significant amounts of sweet potato in addition to taro. Wop- kaimin taro gardens average 0.11 ha per capita compared to Bimin mixed taro-seet potato gardens of 0.056 ha per capita (Bayliss-Smith, 1985a, p. 112). For the Telefolmin and their neighbors in the Ifitaman, taro remains the human staple with most of the sweet potato providing fodder for pigs. For the other groups, sweet potato is very significant in the human diet as well.

VULNERABILITY OF THE FOOD SUPPLY

The vulnerability of a single staple food plant such as taro to disaster from pest, blight, and climatic changes is related, not only to the variable elements discussed previously, but also to the established capacity of the




agriculturalist to exploit other crops and subsistence resources to buffer both the ecosystem and life-support system.

The monoculture-polyculture axis may also pivot on climatic factors (Kass, 1978, p. 56). Polyculture may be more common in dry areas with highly seasonal regimes, with monocultures in moist areas of low seasonality.

Marginal, low flexibility, high risk monoculture is vulnerable to the stereotypical monoculture disaster even under routine conditions. Thus, the vulnerability of Irish potato farmers in the 1840's arose, not from the monoculture per se, but from the fact that many had no effective agricultural or subsistence alternatives when the blight struck. Although hybrids were not involved, there had been a gradual reduction in the variety and quality of potatoes cultivated. "The better 'minnion' and 'cup' varieties were replaced by the more prolific coarse 'lumper"' (Regan, 1983, p. 112). Indeed, under British rule, potato cultivation with fewer varieties on marginal land was the end-point of a long series of adjustments to conquest and the alienation of prime land; arguably, Irish peasants had used the last agricultural option available to them. The modern practitioner of specialized, high-yield, capi- tal intensive, mechanized agriculture is in a similar situation of reduced flexibility to the extent that a large debt load may make a switch to other crops and production techniques extremely difficult.

The high flexibility-low risk taro monoculture of the Mid-altitude Mountain Ok is vulnerable, but the potential for disaster is buffered by various options. Therefore, it assumes a different form and magnitude to the Irish famine. In particular, with sweet potato as an option not yet exercised by many individuals and groups, possible disasters in the future could be of shorter duration, lesser magnitude and scope, and potentially reversible so that long-term or chronic famine of the classic sort might be avoided.

Any lack of diversity of Miyanmin and Wopkaimin agriculture is relieved by considerable flexibility in the presence and exploitation of a wide variety of alternative wild and domesticated foods (Hyndman, 1982; Mor- ren, 1986) and the fact that taro is locally represented by such a large number of varieties. Although neither sago nor sweet potato turned up in Morren's samples in the 1960's, he observed small quantities of both items among higher altitude Miyanmin groups. Some Miyanmin have significantly increased their production of sweet potatoes in response to a variety of modernization pressures in the 1970's and 1980's (Morren, 1986, n.d.).

The monoculture of the mid-altitude fringe nevertheless entails risks including those associated with new and recently appearing plant diseases and pests and climatic hazards which have occurred in the past. Taro is subject to low level infestation by specialized insect pests and corm rot. Corm rot seems to be due to excessive moisture and high soil temperature. According to Gardner (1981), it is particularly prevalent among low altitude groups of Miyanmin living on the August River.




Throughout the region, small local losses also result from invasions by domestic and particularly wild pigs which appear to enjoy the garden milieu more than the taro itself. In New Guinea, 75%17 of the major pests of taro are territorial and have a long generation time because gardens are surrounded by naturalized and/or derelict plants near new gardens, thus creating a more constant habitat (Gagne, 1982, p. 233). The major insect pest is the taro beetle Papuanna spp. which is common in Miscanthus grassland but virtually absent in wooded areas (Bayliss-Smith, 1985b, p. 307).

Various Mountain Ok groups, including some Miyanmin, have recently been afflicted with taro leaf blight Phytophthora colocasiae (Pearson and Thistleton, 1981) that seems to inhibit corm growth. A combination of this pathogen and Dasheen mosaic virus totally destroyed the taro stock of several small Miyanmin groups on the Right May River in 1981 and gave rise to a localized famine.

When, in 1981, people from many different Mountain Ok groups started moving to Ok Tedi in search of employment, some observers feared that they might transport infected planting stock to the detriment of the local Wop- kaimin people. They associate corm rot with lower elevations and formerly did not regularly cultivate taro below 1200 m. As of 1985, these fears appear to have been realized with Hyndman's observation that Phytophthora had spread from northern Mountain Ok groups to the Kam Basin heartland of the Wopkaimin. In response to the appearance of leaf blight and the growth of roadside settlements near the Ok Tedi project, the Wopkaimin are under- taking increased plantings of sweet potato, banana, and Xanthosoma taro in gardens located at 700 m near the confluence of the Ok Tedi and Ok Kam rivers.

Taro monocultures were probably universal in the higher rainfall mid- altitude fringe and highland areas of New Guinea (see Bayliss-Smith, 1985b). Their alteration or replacement was contingent, not on disaster, but the need to expand capacity to produce pig foder (Morren, 1977). The choice was sweet potato, a crop that permits cultivation to be extended into areas, especially into higher altitudes, that would otherwise be marginal or absolutely unfavorable to taro.

Disastrous failures of taro leading to the wholesale adoption of sweet potato occurred in the lowlands of the Solomon Islands in the 1940's (Oliver, 1955; Connell, 1978a, b; Mitchell, 1976; Packard, 1975; Scheffler, 1965), but disasters of similar scale have not been reported for the Mountain Ok. In addition to the recent Wopkaimin and Miyanmin incidents referred to, the Miyanmin report the occurrence of a similar blight in the May Valley possibly in the 1930's. They were able to survive by consuming residual crops and wild foods such as sago and recovered by slowly rebuilding their taro stocks with gifts from friendly groups. The Bimin experienced a taro famine in 1981 due to taro leaf blight, taro beetle, and garden neglect caused by




an exceptional nut pandanus season (Cape, 1981), and in the past decade have gradually been expanding sweet potato plantings (Bayliss-Smith, 1985a).

Drought has threatened taro in the area, most recently in the early 1970's. Due to its moisture demands, taro is more susceptible to drought than sweet potato. Established plants are preseved in the ground and can be har- vested, but a prolonged drought will kill new plantings and destroy planting stock. Groups in the Ifitaman have reportedly responded to droughts in the past by uprooting some of their stock and replanting in swamps (Morren, field notes; Brumbaugh, personal communication; Swadling, 1983, p. 14).

CONCLUSION

A monoculture-polyculture axis can be observed in the cultivation practices of the Mountain Ok peoples. By the criteria of ecosystem simplification, biological variability, and vulnerability of the food supply, the taro monocultures of the mid-altitude fringe are more sustainable, flexible, and entail less risk than the taro-sweet potato polycultures in the high valley of Ifitaman and the high altitude fringe. When seen as an integral compo- nent of the ecosystem, taro monocultures do not reduce the diversity of the rain forest mosaic. In terms of loss of variability, polyvarietal interplanting of taro provides many of the same advantages as polycultural intercropping. Finally, conservative taro monoculture under low population density in extensive territory in the mid-altitude zone counters vulnerability of the food supply by flexibly exploiting a wide range of domesticated and wild foods.

The persistence of this ancient monoculture is threatened by modernization, especially by the intrusion of the Ok Tedi mining project and similar schemes such as the prospective Frieda project. The polyvarietal taro monoculture of the Wopkaimin is quickly giving way to polyculture of new staple foods due to Phytopthora and the pressures of life in the new roadside communities near the mine. A similar process is unfolding among Miyan- min groups clustered around an airstrip in the Hak Valley.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

George Morren's work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, The Research Foundation of the State University of New York, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, The Faculty Aca- demic Study Program of Rutgers University, the Rutgers Research Founda- tion, and the National Agriculture and Natural Resources Curriculum Project. Gratitude is also extended to the government of Papua New Guinea for




research permits, and the University of Papua New Guinea, the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, and the Papua New Guinea National Museum for sponsorship and other assistance. Morren's greatest debt is to the Miyan- min people of the Hak and upper May Valleys.

David Hyndman has been supported by the University of Queensland, Australian National University, Australian Research Grants Scheme No. 461, and Natural Systems Research. Hyndman is also grateful to the Department of Human Ecology of Rutgers University for hospitality during a study leave in 1984, to the government of Papua New Guinea for granting research permits, to the Papua New Guinea National Museum, the University of Papua New Guinea for extending affiliations, and to the Wopkaimin people for their continued support over the years.

We also acknowledge the generosity of fellow researchers in the region who responded to a survey in 1984 including Fredrik Barth, Etan Berkovitch, Robert Brumbaugh, Barry Craig, Brian Cranstone, Dan Jorgensen, Tom Moyland, and Wolf Schiefenhovel. For criticisms and comments on earlier versions of this paper, we thank A. P. Vayda and anonymous reviewers.

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The taro monoculture of central New Guinea

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