Ramu River Research Articles

Fishers’ ecological knowledge of sawfishes in the Sepik and Ramu rivers, northern Papua New Guinea

Fishers’ ecological knowledge of sawfishes in the Sepik and Ramu rivers, northern Papua New Guinea

Care as Process: A Life-course Perspective on the Remaking of Ethics and Values of Care in Daiden, Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACTThis article addresses care as a socially, culturally, historically, and politically constituted ‘process’ and relates to ethnographic data gained during long-term anthropological fieldwork in Daiden, a place in the Lower Ramu River area of Papua New Guinea. It focuses in particular on the situation of elderly people as well as on intergenerational shifts. Analytically, the four dimensions of care (caring about, taking care of, care-giving, care-receiving) and their related values (attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness), as developed within the ‘ethics of care’ framework by feminist scholars are applied in order to delineate the remaking of local ethics of care in the face of wider contemporary societal transformations. By means of a ‘life-course perspective’ the article aims to shed light on the ways in which such a remaking has been perceived and evaluated in Daiden, thus augmenting the idea of care as a process rather than as a natural and/or atemporal disposition. The article also tackles pressing social welfare issues in contemporary Papua New Guinea in a more general way.

Revisiting NFB: Ceramic technology in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea at 3200 calBP

AbstractThis paper adds to the emerging body of evidence for 3000‐year‐old pottery in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Through detailed review of the archives of the original excavation, it becomes clear that the earliest pottery at the NFB site in the Eastern Highlands dates to 3133–3379 calBP (UW 261), thereby necessitating revision of current models for the geographical and chronological distribution of ceramic technology. These finds are approximately the same age as the earliest ceramics thus far known from the Central Highlands, demonstrating that early pottery was present across the northern flank of the highlands along the Ramu River watershed.

New species (130) of the hyperdiverse aquatic beetle genus Hydraena Kugelann from Papua New Guinea, and a preliminary analysis of areas of endemism (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae)

New species (130) of the hyperdiverse aquatic beetle genus Hydraena Kugelann from Papua New Guinea, and a preliminary analysis of areas of endemism (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae)

Beta diversity of frogs in the forests of New Guinea, Amazonia and Europe: contrasting tropical and temperate communities

AbstractAim To test the hypothesis that animal communities within environmentally relatively uniform lowland forests are characterized by low beta diversity, both in tropical and in temperate areas.Location Lowland forests in the basins of the Sepik and Ramu rivers in New Guinea, the Amazon river in Bolivia, and the Elbe and Dyje rivers in the Czech Republic.Methods A network of 5–6 study sites spanning distances from 20–80 to 300–500 km in each study area was systematically surveyed for all frogs, using visual detection and call tracking. The community data were analysed for alpha and beta diversity.Results Local (alpha) diversity of frog communities was similar in the two tropical areas, New Guinea (mean ± SE of 22 ± 1.4 species per site) and Amazonia (24 ± 1.7 species), but was significantly lower in Europe (8 ± 0.8 species). In Amazonia, 36 of the total of 70 species were recorded from single sites. In contrast, widespread species dominated in Europe, whereas New Guinea exhibited an intermediate pattern with both local and widespread species well represented. The rate of species accumulation across different sites was lowest in Europe, intermediate in New Guinea and highest in Amazonia. The regional species diversity, expressed as the combined number of species from five study sites, was 1.5 times higher than the local species diversity at a single site in Europe, 2.0 times higher in New Guinea and 2.7 times higher in Amazonia. The proportion of species shared between communities decreased with geographic distance in New Guinea and Europe, but not in Amazonia.Main conclusions Frog communities in the lowland tropical rain forests of New Guinea and Amazonia had similar numbers of species, but differed in their beta diversity. More species in Amazonia had restricted distributions than in New Guinea. Both tropical areas had markedly higher alpha and beta diversity than the temperate area in Europe.

Two new nematode species, Paragendria papuanensis sp. n. (Seuratoidea) and Rhabdochona papuanensis sp. n. (Thelazioidea), from freshwater fishes in Papua New Guinea

Two new nematode species, Paragendria papuanensis sp. n. (Quimperiidae) and Rhabdochona papuanensis sp. n. (Rhabdochonidae), are described from the intestine of freshwater fishes Glossamia giellerupi (Weber et Beaufort) (Apogonidae) and Melanotaenia affinis (Weber) (Melanotaeniidae), respectively, from the Sogeram River (Ramu River basin), Madang Province, northern Papua New Guinea. The former species is characterized mainly by the absence of oesophageal teeth, the presence of conspicuously inflated papillae of the last two subventral pairs, a gubernaculum, spicules 69-75 microm long, eggs measuring 57-66 x 39-45 microm, and by a small body (male and female 3.2-3.7 and 5.8 mm long, respectively). Paragendria is considered a valid genus, to which P. aori (Khan et Yaseen, 1969) comb. n., P. guptai (Gupta et Masoodi, 2000) comb. n., P. hanumanthai (Gupta et Jaiswal, 1988) comb. n. and P. vermae (Gupta et Masoodi, 2000) comb. n. are newly transferred. Rhabdochona papuanensis differs from all congeners mainly in having hammer-shaped deirids and from individual species also in other characters. Both findings represent the first records of species of Paragendria and Rhabdochona from the Australian zoogeographical region and the first records of the representatives of these genera from fishes of the families Apogonidae and Melanotaeniidae, respectively.

Terrestrial gastropods of the province of Madang in Papua - New Guinea. Part II. Two species of Cryptaustenia Cockerell, 1898 (Pulmonata: Helicarionidae) new to the science

A description of two species new to science, namely Cryptaustenia saltatoria n. sp. and Cryptaustenia mirabilis n. sp., both from the Ramu River valley in Papua, including figures and information on anatomical characters of the reproductive system and shell, as well as on the external appearance.

Grammatical Relations, Information Structure, and Constituency in Watam

This language of the north coast of Papua New Guinea is typologically unusual in its structuring of information. On the one hand, it belongs to a class of languages that has been termed discourse configurational, in that the constituent structure of its clause may be determined largely by information structure considerations, rather than grammatical relations. Intertwined with this system, however, is a more syntacticized system signalled by the presence of a particular verbal prefix. This amalgam bears careful study in the typological theory of text cohesion and reference tracking. 1. WATAM AND ITS RELATIVES. Watam is a Papuan or Non-Austronesian language spoken on the north coast of Papua New Guinea between the mouth of the Sepik and Ramu rivers. It is a language of the Lower Ramu family, the westernmost language of that family, the other four languages being spoken along the lower stretches of the Ramu River and the coastal region to its east. The Lower Ramu family in turn is related as a whole to the Lower Sepik family, whose languages are spoken to the west and southwest of Watam. The family relationships can be represented as in table I.

Changing shorelines and cultural orientations in the Sepik‐Ramu, Papua New Guinea: Implications for Pacific prehistory

Today the Sepik and Ramu rivers drain the north‐west mainland of Papua New Guinea. A joint archaeological and geomorphic research programme has revealed that their modern joint flood‐plains were once a brackish inland sea. During the period of the inland sea the north coast was much closer to the intermontane valleys of the Papua New Guinea highlands. Six to five thousand years ago, this former inland sea would have allowed an almost direct exchange of ideas and products between the people inhabiting its shoreline and the highlands. This was also a period of growing contact with Asia, as attested by the 5800 BP betel‐nut husk excavated from the Dongan marine midden and the pre‐Lapita pottery found in the north coast sites and in the highlands at Wanlek. Such finds challenge the assumption that Lepita pottery signals the entry of Austronesian speakers throughout Melanesia.

Contrasting Holocene sedimentary geologies of lower Daly River, northern Australia, and lower Sepik-Ramu, Papua New Guinea

The estuarine plain of the macrotidal Daly River, in monsoonal northern Australia, is underlain by extensive mid-Holocene mangrove swamp sediments which accumulated during the last stages of Post-glacial sea-level rise. Sediment yield from the catchment is too low to account for the volume which accumulated during sea-level rise, and onshore transport is invoked. This is supported by radiocarbon ages and facies analysis of the transgressive sediment tract beneath the maximum flooding surface (MFS), and of the tract of vertical sedimentation which extends from the MFS to the surface of estuarine/fluvial transition (the EFT). The EFT occurred about 5000 to 6000 BP throughout the estuarine plain. A contrasting situation exists in the lowland Holocene basin of the microtidal Sepik and Ramu rivers in Papua New Guinea, which derive sediment from highly tectonic catchments. A tectonic basin, which was a shallow brackish inland sea after Post-glacial transgression, is separated by a low divide from a deltaic plain. Progradation of the deltaic plain commenced about 3500 BP after regressive sedimentation eclipsed the inland sea in the tectonic basin. Contrasting organic facies, mangrove in the Daly and freshwater swamp deposits in the Sepik-Ramu, highlight differences between facies models of the two systems. Differences between fluvio-tidal regimes are reflected by the EFT, which is synchronous in the Daly and diachronous in the Sepik-Ramu, and possibly by the MFS which is diachronous in the Daly and may be synchronous in the Sepik-Ramu.

Natural diversion of the ramu river in Papua New Guinea

SUMMARY At present, the Ramu River in Papua New Guinea flows directly into the Bismarck Sea, while the adjacent Keram flows into the Sepik River. There is evidence to suggest that the Ramu previously occupied the existing Keram water course, and has been gradually diverting its discharge into its present channel, probably over the last 4,000 years. The diversion process is not complete yet, and during the wet season flood water still travels across these two rivers. The most direct evidence to support this proposal of river diversion is that there are much larger meander bends on which the existing Keram stream channel is superimposed. The diversion of the Ramu is believed to be a result of relative sea‐level rise in the late Quaternary which altered the gradients of the Keram and Ramu rivers, and may have been facilitated through neo‐tectonic movement of the floodplain.

A Late Quaternary inland sea and early pottery in Papua New Guinea

Swadling et al. (1988) suggest that an inland sea, open to the north, was formed in the Sepik-Ramu lowlands by rising sea level in the late Pleistocene. This sea was infilled during the later Holocene. They also imply that these geographical changes would have significantly affected the human and ecologie prehistory of the region, although without documenting any detail. We report here evidence for existence of the inland sea and for its history of recession towards the current Sepik River mouth. We also report evidence of unusually early use of pottery at sites on former shorelines east of the lower Ramu River and of a 5000-year-old Tridacna shell adze found in alluvium about 300 km from the Sepik mouth.

Two New Species of Freshwater Halfbeaks (Pisces: Hemiramphidae) of the Genus Zenarchopterus from New Guinea

Zenarchopterus robertsi n. sp. is described from Ovi Creek, a high-gradient tributary of the Kumusi River which drains northeast into the Solomon Sea, Z. alleni n. sp. from a single male taken in the Mamberamo River in Irian Jaya. Both species differ from all other described species of Zenarchopterus in having the fifth and sixth anal rays of the male greatly elongate. Most other species have the sixth or the sixth and seventh rays variously modified. The other two freshwater species of Zenarchopterus known from New Guinea, Z. kampeni (found in the Sepik, Ramu and Mamberamo rivers which drain north) and Z. novaeguineae (found in at least three south-draining rivers, the Lorentz, Fly and Laloki) have the sixth anal ray of males expanded and paddle-shaped. The two new species have more predorsal scales (47-53 in Z. robertsi, 66 in Z. alleni) than do other species of the genus and the predorsal scales are not enlarged but about the same size as adjacent scales. Both new species have many vertebrae, usually 47 or 48 in Z. robertsi, 49 in Z. alleni. They differ in upper jaw length, the upper jaw being longer than wide in Z. alleni, length about equal to width in Z. robertsi. The pectoral fin is much longer than head length in Z. alleni, equal to or shorter than head length in all other species of the genus. There are at least 34 nominal species of Zenarchopterus of which about 17 appear to be valid. Biological notes are included on Z. robertsi. Geographic variation is discussed in Z. novaeguineae. The type-specimens of both Z. kampeni and Z. sepikensis came from the Sepik River and represent the same species, the former being the valid name.

A multivariate approach to fingerprint variation in Papua New Guinea: Implications for prehistory

AbstractFingerprint data from three Markham Valley populations of Papua New Guinea are presented. Initial comparisons with data from elsewhere in New Guinea by conventional bivariate methods suggest hypotheses regarding prehistory, but these methods are inconclusive. Because of this shortcoming, the application of discriminant analysis to dermatoglyphic data is justified and cautiously demonstrated. Discriminant analysis is a valid approach to the parsimonious study of fingerprint relationships among human populations. Significant discriminating variables are then used with the limited published data to display historical relationships. These marker traits include the separate frequencies of thumb, middle fingers, and little finger patterning, and the complexity of the thenar eminence.With regard to prehistory, it is concluded that fingerprint data support the hypothesis of separate origins and migrations for Papuan‐ and Melanesian‐speaking peoples. Furthermore, it is suggested that these data support the linguistic hypothesis of a second Papuan migration of Trans New Guinea Phylum speakers, up the Markham Valley into the New Guinea Highlands. Finally, gene flow is indicated from Melanesian speakers of the north coast into the interior through the Sepik and Ramu River valleys, affecting both the Trans New Guinea Phylum and other unrelated Papuan groups. Moreover, there are numerous suggestions of recent reciprocal genetic exchange between neighboring Melanesians and Papuans, without obliterating the older, separate origins of these peoples. These results suggest that fingerprints have greater phylogenetic stability than other biological parameters used in the past.

Engineering geology of the ramu 1 hydro-electric project in Papua New Guinea

The Ramu 1 Hydro-electric Scheme is located in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The scheme forms the first stage of a three-stage project to harness the Ramu River as it descends from the Highlands through the Ramu Gorge to the Ramu Valley, a drop of 760 m in 11 km. The Ramu 1 Scheme utilises the upper 225 m of head and has a maximum potential of 75 megawatts.

ABO AND Rh BLOOD GROUP FREQUENCIES OF THE RAO AND BRERI, MADANG DISTRICT OF NEW GUINEA

HPHIS paper presents the results of a blood group survey carried out among people ■*■ of the Rao and Breri language groups of the Ramu-Keram plain north of Aiome, Madang District of New Guinea. No previous blood group studies of these communities have been published, except io inhabitants of a Rao village, Litibu, were included by Booth and Vines (1968) in a Madang District series. The nearest populations for whom such data have been published are those of the Schrader Range (Asai, Simbai and Kaironk), south-west of the Rao and Breri (Champness, Kooptzoff and Walsh, i960). There are about 4,000 Rao speakers, most of them in the Rao-Breri census division. A few isolated villages are in the Banaro census division (East Sepik District). The people inhabit a region traversed by the Keram River (a Sepik tributary) and the Ramu River, round the arbitrary meeting place of the middle and lower Ramu areas. The Breri number about 1,200 and live downstream from the Ramu Rao on the Ramu and its tributary the Guam. They share a common south-west/north-east border with the Rao. Some of the recent history and beliefs of these two peoples have been described (Stanhope, 1969). The Breri had traditional alliances with villages further to the north (Zukin) and east (Alaginam). Their relations with the Rao were generally hostile, but intermarriage occurred at the upstream end, though the downstream (northern) villages of Misinki and Romkun avoided intermarriage on the grounds that quarrels would disrupt peaceful trading activities. Rao-Breri trade was and still is brisk, Rao sago being exchanged for Breri yam and taro, for the Breri do not cultivate sago. Traditional trade used also to involve stone axe-heads from the mountains, the Schrader Range people being known as Wrawru to the Rao, pots manufactured in central Rao and bows and arrows from the upper Guam.

EXPLORATION IN THE AUSTRALIAN TRUST TERRITORY OF NEW GUINEA

Petroleum exploration in the Australian Trust Territory began in 1921 as an extension of thé surveys being conducted in Papua by Anglo Persian for the Australian and British Governments. Following an interruption during and after the Second World War. the present phase of petroleum exploration began when Permit 41, New Guinea. was issued on 10th January, 1965. Recent geologic explorations on Permit 41. New Guinea and on Permit 48, New Ireland and New Britain, has added new geologic data that has led to the use of more sophisticated geophysical tools in the Ramu River and Sepik River areas and has moved the exploration activities toward a more mature stage of development.

The Melanesian dwarf tribe of Aiome, New Guinea.

SummaryThe Aiome dwarf tribe in the mountains near the Ramu river and its southern tributaries was studied. Observations, measurements and photographs were made of 15 men and five women who came in a party to the Aiome airstrip. The measurements are embodied in Table 1 (p. 280). They include eye and skin colour; head length and breadth; ear length and breadth and the presence of a lobe; stature; development of brow ridges and relative depression of the nasal root. Other observations are in the text. The mean male stature was 147.9 cm which is roughly the same as that of the Congo Pygmies. The shortest woman was only 125.5 cm. high. The C.I. of the men was 78.51 and the ears are smaller than in most races.The head-dress, decorations and “dances” are illustrated in Figs. 1-18.The skin colour of Papuans is a shade lighter than in the Australian aborigines. In a study of skin colour of Papuans, Macintosh (1960) finds that the natives recognize and have names for three shades of colour. These appear to be due to (1) the homozygous (2) the heterozygous condition, and (3) the absence, of a minor gene for skin colour.The fact that the blood group genes A, B, M, S, R1 and R2 of the Aiome dwarfs are closely similar to those of the tails in the Mount Hagen area justifies the conclusion that a single gene dwarf mutation is involved. The Aiome and Wissel Lake dwarfs (400 miles apart) differ greatly in the frequency of the A, M, S and R2 (cDE) genes, but agree in the B and R1 (CDe) frequencies. The blood groups of the Congo Pygmies similarly agree with those of the Bantu, from whose ancestors they may have been derived.The early literature regarding dwarf races is reviewed and the question of a Negrito race in southeast Asia is discussed. It is concluded that the term Negrito should probably be confined to the dwarf race in the Philippines. They perhaps reached the Philippines from Borneo when the sea-level was down during the last ice age.On the basis particularly of skull form, the Andamanese were probably derived from the tall population of adjacent Malaya or Burma. The significance of their steatopygy and peppercorn hair is not clear, as these characters are found in the South African Bushmen.The Semang of Malaya are mixed and of doubtful origin. The dwarf nature and relationships of the Kadar in South India remains uncertain. The incised designs on their wooden combs suggests a possible very ancient cultural connection with the Malayan dwarfs and the Philippine Negritos. A Negrito-like remnant in Queensland may represent in part the source from which the Tasmanian aborigines developed. The Veddas are outside the Negrito grouping. They are probably Australoids of reduced dimensions who migrated to Ceylon during the last ice age.The various dwarf groups in New Guinea are of local (and probably relatively recent) origin, having no connection with Negritos, who appear to be of much earlier origin, probably before the last ice age. Various localities with populations of different mean stature are listed in Table 3, and others are mentioned in the text.A statistical treatment of Bijlmer's measurements of stature, nasal and cephalic index, with the aid of Dr. Fraser Roberts, shows that many of the groups in Dutch New Guinea are significantly different. A fuller statistical investigation dealing with both stature and blood groups, is required to elucidate this situation. A tentative hypothesis is put forward, involving the fractionation of the original dwarf gene in the process of back-crossing between tails and dwarfs.In New Guinea the coastal people are the tallest, those in the higher mountain areas are conspicous dwarfs, populations in intermediate areas being shorter in different degrees than the coastal tribes. That crossing takes place is shown by the occurrence of occasional men who are much taller than the rest of their group or tribe. Further studies of Papuan statures should also throw light on the origin of multiple genes for stature.

Colonial Development in Central New Guinea

THE HEART OF THE island of New Guinea was long supposed to be wholly mountainous and uninhabited, but in the early i930's, shut off from the coast by high mountain ranges, great grass valleys were discovered. Drained by the headwaters of some of the major rivers of Papua-New Guinea and all lying between heights of four to seven thousand feet above sea level, these valleys, green, temperate, and fertile, supported a greater concentration of native people than existed anywhere else in the island. The effect of their discovery was tonic. For Westerners, Papua-New Guinea was not a pleasant country to work in, but a hard land from which a living was scratched with difficulty by the relatively few white men who ventured there. European capital had never, with the exception of a gold strike, been invested on any significant scale. But suddenly, in the midst of this unattractive land, a wonderland was found-an area so obviously suitable for white settlement and the maintenance of normal European life that the enthusiasm of the early explorers spilled over in phrases about a new white highlands which would be, in time, the most important part of the country. The attraction which the central highland valleys have had upon the minds of European settlers had not been constant but has always been present. The realisation of the idea of a new white highlands has met with difficulties in which frustration over the slow pace of European settlement has been mixed with the charms of contrast between the temperate highlands and the hot, humid coastal areas. The material attractions which the central highlands hold out to European settlers are considerable. The lure which drew the early explorers was gold: gold miners first penetrated into the highlands, confident that they would strike it rich. In this they were disappointed. There is probably no gold in commercial quantities but individual miners have worked payable claims and in the Upper Ramu river area of the eastern highlands natives who interested themselves in mining produced over /I2,00 (Australian currency) worth of gold during the year I953-54 and more than /i i,ooo in the previous year. But the most perceptive of the early entrants into the highlands did not look to gold as the basis of future development but thought rather of agriculture and stock-raising. The highland valleys, especially the eastern ones which seemed most suitable for European settlement, are best suited to such plantation crops as coffee and tea, and certain other crops such as peanuts,

Anthropological Observations in New Guinea

INFORMATION relating to the work of an expedition of anthropological, ethnographical and linguistic investigation in the little-known north-eastern region of New Guinea under the leadership of Dr. Geofg Holtker is given by Dr. Otto Schlaginhaufen in the current issue of the bulletin of the Swiss Anthropological and Ethnographical Society (Bull. Schw. Gesell.f. Anthrop. u. Ethnol., 16, 1940). The expedition, which had recently returned at the time of writing, was in the field for the three years 1936-39. Its operations covered the coastal region south-eastwards from the mouth of the Sepik River, and the coastal and inland territory on the east side of the lower waters of the Ramu River, and country in the basin of the Mbur, a tributary of the Ramu, as well as islands of the coast including Manam and Dampier. Of the peoples under investigation by the expedition a proportion were classifiable linguistically as belonging to the Melanesian stock, but the greater number were Papuan. Anthropological observations were made by Dr. Holtker on members of the former group on the mainland-Sepa and Wanami living to the south of the coastal peoples of Monumbo (Pots-damhaven) and on the islands. The Papuan group examined included the Bosgung on the Mbur, Watum to the south of the Sepik and among inland peoples, Tanggum, Ariaw, Mikarew, Dinam and Akekom. Observations were made on 1,685 individuals, both adults and children.