GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL - Cloverport Independent Schools

YALI'S PEOPLE • 305
the coast and rivers subsist at low densities by slash-and-burn agriculture
based on bananas and yams, supplemented by hunting and gathering. In
contrast, lowland New Guinea swamp dwellers live as nomadic huntergatherers
dependent on the starchy pith of wild sago palms, which are very
productive and yield three times more calories per hour of work than does
gardening. New Guinea swamps thus provide a clear instance of an environment
where people remained hunter-gatherers because farming could
not compete with the hunting-gathering lifestyle.
The sago eaters persisting in lowland swamps exemplify the nomadic
hunter-gatherer band organization that must formerly have characterized
all New Guineans. For all the reasons that we discussed in Chapters 13
and 14, the farmers and the fishing peoples were the ones to develop morecomplex
technology, societies, and political organization. They live in permanent
villages and tribal societies, often led by a big-man. Some of them
construct large, elaborately decorated, ceremonial houses. Their great art,
in the form of wooden statues and masks, is prized in museums around
the world.
NEW GUINEA THUS became the part of Greater Australia with the
most-advanced technology, social and political organization, and art.
However, from an urban American or European perspective, New Guinea
still rates as "primitive" rather than "advanced." Why did New Guineans
continue to use stone tools instead of developing metal tools, remain nonliterate,
and fail to organize themselves into chiefdoms and states? It
turns out that New Guinea had several biological and geographic strikes
against it.
First, although indigenous food production did arise in the New Guinea
highlands, we saw in Chapter 8 that it yielded little protein. The dietary
staples were low-protein root crops, and production of the sole domesticated
animal species (pigs and chickens) was too low to contribute much
to people's protein budgets. Since neither pigs nor chickens can be harnessed
to pull carts, highlanders remained without sources of power other
than human muscle power, and also failed to evolve epidemic diseases to
repel the eventual European invaders.
A second restriction on the size of highland populations was the limited
available area: the New Guinea highlands have only a few broad valleys,
notably the Wahgi and Baliem Valleys, capable of supporting dense popu-