The Highland Peoples of New Guinea a Study of Distribution and Localization

Abstract

Iiving between lat. 3?and lat. 70 S., at altitudes ranging from 4300 to nearly ^9000 feet in valleys of the central cordillera of New Guinea, are some 900,000 people of Neolithic culture whose existence has been discovered only in the present century. The central mountains are at almost all points difficult of access from the coast, and it was long believed that there was only a single, continuous range, with? out important intermontane valleys (Fig. 1). Exploration of New Guinea in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth penetrated the foothills at a number of points, and in the course of the international to reach the snow mountains in Dutch New Guinea between 1905 and 1910?a race won by Lorentz in 1909 (Lorentz, 1911, 1913)?only a few outlying groups of highlanders were contacted. (For the whole history of exploration see Klein, 1954.) The first European to penetrate the intermontane valleys was the German boundary surveyor, Detzner, who passed right through the Kukukuku country (Menyama sub-district) and stood on the borders of the Fore and Gimi country near the Lamari river (Kainantu sub-district) in the course of a survey patrol along the colonial boundary in October 1914. He saw into the easternmost highland valleys to the north but at this moment news of the outbreak of war reached him and he turned back. Later in 1916, Detzner appears to have penetrated the headwaters of the valleys between the Kainantu and Asaro basins in the course of an attempt to reach the borders of neutral Dutch New Guinea. Because of an exceptionally fierce dr ought, he was unable to find food here, and so continued north of the Bismarcks for some way before he was forced to abandon his attempt (Detzner, 1921). Klein's map of Detzner's second journey shows him as entering the Wahgi valley, but Detzner's account states clearly that he went north of the Bismarcks. His description of the agriculture of the people at the Lamari and northward leave little doubt that he encountered true highlanders in 1914. He also recognized the dense populations extending far to the north. It is intriguing to consider that, but for the First World War and the change of sovereignty, Detzner's 1914 discoveries would eertainly have been followed up in 1915 or 1916 and the highland concentrations would have been discovered 15-20 years sooner. All Detzner's papers were lost during the war, and his discoveries were forgotten. Two minor discoveries were made during the 1920's: Kremer discovered the Swart Vallei, but crossed the Noord Baliem at an unpopulated point, in reaching Mount Wilhelmina (Oranje Geb.) from the north in 1921-2 (Klein, 1954) and in 1927 Karius and Champion passed through the territory of the Telefomin people in the course of the epic Fly-Sepik crossing (Karius, 1929; Champion, 1932). The easternmost valleys were rediscovered and fully penetrated by the Leahys in 1930, who crossed the Bismarcks in search of the sources of the alluvial gold found in the Ramu. In 1933 the Leahys accompanied Taylor and Spinks across the AsaroWaghi divide to discover the Chimbu area and the Wahgi valley. This was the lar? gest single discovery in the history of highland exploration (Leahy and Crain, 1937; Chinnery, 1934; Spinks, 1934, 1936; Leahy, 1936). Between 1933 and 1939 most of the remaining groups in the Australian area were discovered, principally by Hides and O'Malley in 1935, Champion and Adamson in 1936 and Taylor and Black in 1938-9 (Annual Reports of the Territories of Papua and New Guinea; Hides, 1936). The major discoveries in the Dutch area were also made in the 1930*3. Bijlmer