Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia

Irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia, Solomon Islands

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12654146
AutoresTim Bayliss‐smith (University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia), Tim P Bayliss-Smith, Edvard Hviding (0000-0002-1782-4802, University of Bergen)
Año2014
Volumen20
Número4
Páginas425-436
Fecha de publicación2014-11-06
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironmental Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1461-4103 • E-ISSN: 1749-6314
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1179/1749631414y.0000000049
OpenAlexW1967357896
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas22

In the Pacific islands, subsistence diversity made possible continuous production of food while well-developed exchange networks redistributed these foodstuffs as well as items within the prestige economy. All these were aspects of the ‘storage structures’ that enabled social and nutritional value to be saved, accumulated and later mobilised. In addition, there were investments in the land, landesque capital, which secured future food surpluses and so provided an alternative to food storage, in a region where the staple foods were mostly perishable, yams excepted, and food preservation was difficult. Landesque capital included such long-term improvements to productivity as terraces, mounds, irrigation channels, drainage ditches, soil structural changes and tree planting. These investments provided an effective alternative to food storage and made possible surplus production for exchange purposes. As an example, in the New Georgia group of the western Solomon Islands irrigated terraces, termed ruta, were constructed for growing the root crop taro (Colocasia esculenta). Surplus taro from ruta enabled inland groups to participate in regional exchange networks and so obtain the shell valuables that were produced by coastal groups. In this paper, we reconstruct how this exchange system worked in New Georgia using ethno-archaeological evidence, we chart its prehistoric rise and post-colonial fall, and we outline the factors that constrained its long-term expansion

Agricultural economics · Agriculture · Agroforestry · Archaeology · Biology · Colocasia esculenta · Economics · Geography · Irrigation · Productivity · Subsistence agriculture · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Ecology