Sugarcane in Prehistory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6038192 |
|---|---|
| Authors | John Daniel (0009-0002-4071-9450), J Scott Daniels (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies), John Daniels (0000-0002-7598-4660, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Nishigahara 4‐51‐21, Kita‐ku Tokyo 114 Japan), Christian Daniels (0000-0003-3118-137X, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Nishigahara 4‐51‐21, Kita‐ku Tokyo 114 Japan) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-7 |
| Publication date | 1993-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeology in Oceania/Archæology & physical anthropology in Oceania (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0728-4896 • E-ISSN: 1834-4453 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/j.1834-4453.1993.tb00309.x |
| OpenAlex | W2154375453 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 18 |
| References cited | 11 |
We suggest that sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) was a major food for pigs (Sus scrofa) in the New Guinea Highlands prior to the introduction of the sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) about 250 years ago. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) has been favoured in the literature, but pigs do not like raw taro and will only eat most varieties when cooked. Pigs consume sugarcane avidly and it provides a high calorie diet combined with suitable fibre roughage. Evidence is provided to show that large fields of sugarcane were grown in monoculture in the highlands at the time of European contact. Humans consumed sugarcane as a major food in some areas in the early 20th century. S. officinarum is usually recorded as having evolved in New Guinea and Indonesia east of the Wallace line, from the wild cane Saccharum robustum Brandes & Jeswiet ex Grassl. An alternate theory that S. officinarum was derived from the Chinese sugarcane, Saccharum sinense, transported east of the Huxley line by Austronesian speakers is mentioned as a serious possibility. Both hypotheses are compatible with sugarcane being available for human and pig food from about 6000 years ago
Biology · Botany · Cane · Colocasia esculenta · Domestication · Ethnology · Geography · New guinea · Saccharum · Saccharum officinarum · Cocoa and Sweet Potato Agronomy · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Sugarcane Cultivation and Processing · Ecology · Food Science · Horticulture
Sugarcane
CO2, Grasses, and Human Evolution
Clarifying ambiguity
Diet and social status on Taumako, a Polynesian outlier in the Southeastern Solomon Islands
Archaeology of Architecture and Production in Industrial Sugar-Mill Contexts. Technological and Productive Changes in the Ingenio Lastenia Site (Tucumán, Argentina) During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Language Dispersal Beyond Farming
Pharmacological Influences on the Neolithic Transition
Stable isotopic analysis of human diet in the Marianas Archipelago, Western Pacific
Mitochondrial DNA variation is an indicator of Austronesian influence in Island Melanesia
Archaeology in the Pacific Islands
Can Climate Influence Cultural Development? A View through Time
Identification of cultivated Pandanus and Colocasia in pollen records and the implications for the study of early agriculture in New Guinea
Contributions to the agrarian history of Eastern Arabia II. The cultivars
The prehistory of the Austronesian-speaking peoples
A renewed archaeological and archaeobotanical assessment of house sites at Kuk Swamp in the highlands of Papua New Guinea
Envisaging early agriculture in the Highlands of New Guinea
Archaeology and the Austronesian expansion
Early Agriculture and Plant Domestication in New Guinea and Island Southeast Asia
Pigs for the Ancestors
A prehistory of Australia, New Guinea, and Sahul
New Guinea
The Malay Archipelago
Settlement and economy in prehistoric Papua New Guinea
Plant Resources and Palaeobotanical Evidence for Plant Use in the Papua New Guinea Highlands
Palaeoecology and prehistory in New Guinea
Local Study and Comparative Method
Austronesian culture history
| Unique citing works | 18 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,56 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2026 (33) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 18 |