John Tyman's
Cultures in Context Series
Torembi and the Sepik
A Study of Village Life in New Guinea
PART TWO:  FOOD PRODUCTION
Topic No. 7: Shifting Cultivation
www.johntyman/sawos
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087. Differences within New Guinea, in climate and soil type, are reflected in regional variations both in farming methods and in farm products.  However, for the majority of the island’s population, shifting cultivation is still the only means of producing food crops. (Garden in Torembi 3)
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088. In the highlands you’ll see large areas covered with gardens, but on the Sepik plains, around Torembi, you’ll find only small, temporary clearings carved from flood-free sections of the forest. This garden lay on the edge of a swamp, between sago palms and wooded land. 
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089. The work involved in clearing the forest is shared between men and women.  They remove small trees and bushes, using an axe and a bush knife.  Large trees may be cut down or their branches chopped off.
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090. The trash is piled up and left to dry for a few weeks, before it is burnt. In this case the fire spread to grassland.
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091. Later a second burning, of restacked rubbish, is usually necessary: but the surface is by no means clear even then.  The ground is littered with stumps and the remains of trunks and branches blackened by the fire. 
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092. The soil here is not very fertile, but after a fire it is enriched by a covering of ash.  Unfortunately, it may be left bare for several weeks, till they are ready to plant; and, in the meantime, weeds grow quickly. Clearing is done during the drier part of the year and planting is delayed till there’s enough moisture.
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093. There is, however, little point in planting anything till the garden has been fenced.  Pigs, both wild and domestic, are a menace and will tear apart any unfenced garden in their search for food. 
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094. People here sometimes improvise and simply pile up the branches that remain after the fire, but they usually build fences from smaller pieces of wood, bound together by strips of cane.
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095. Since they grow food to feed themselves, rather than for sale, the Sawos do not specialise in one type of crop. Instead they produce a variety of foodstuffs, in this case 20 different types of plants growing in one small garden.
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096. The common ones here are bananas, paw paws, pineapples, sugar cane, corn, onions, cabbages, green beans, peanuts, taro, tobacco, water melons, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and, of course, yams.
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097. Everything is done by hand, using the simplest of tools, most of them home-made.  For example, instead of a fork, they use a wooden digging stick pointed at one end.
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098. Men help with the heavy work, including the digging of newly cleared land, and the planting of yams.  They also help with the yam harvest.
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099. Women plant the other crops and also do all the weeding … which is a big job in a hot wet climate. 
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100. Yams are the most important foodstuff at Torembi during the drier part of the year. Sago dominates during the wet. Yams are planted by men because they are believed to be male, whereas taro is female.
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101. After the soil has been loosened, men heap up lumps of earth to form a small mound. These concentrate plant nutrients and improve soil drainage.
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102. Seed yams saved from last years’ crop are placed on top, a hoe is used to rake up the soil, and the mounds are smoothed off by hand.
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103. Later they’ll knock pegs into the ground beside each mound, to support the yam vines, using lines of split cane to connect each peg to a post nearby, or to one of the remaining tree trunks. 
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104. Greens, meanwhile, are planted on the mounds … to make the most of the space available.
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105. The soils look good when the crops are first planted, but like most soils in the humid tropics their limited fertility is soon exhausted.  In hot wet conditions organic matter decomposes quickly, and the heavy rains soon leach away this material, together with the plant foods contained in the ash left by the fires.
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106. Since the land is almost level, erosion is not a problem here, as it is in the highlands; but by the end of the year the soil will nevertheless be worn out.
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107. Weeds are another problem.  In this picture you can compare a garden on the left planted nine months ago, with an area on the right cleared just recently.
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108. This area was used 12 years ago.  Eventually, as you can see, the bush takes over once more and the land rests until it is again cleared for cultivation … in maybe 15 or 20 years.
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109. This explains the term ‘shifting cultivation’ … since the people shift their gardens annually.  It’s really a form of rotation: but unlike practices in the Western World, where crops are rotated, farmers here rotate their fields!
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110. This means that at any point in time something like 95% of the ‘farm land’ lies fallow like this, since each family must have access to 15 or 20 times as much cultivable land as it uses in any one year.
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111. This helps explain the low population density of much of New Guinea; and also why there are 3 small Torembi’s instead of one big one … and why, since many scattered gardens are located an hours’ walk from home, they are provided with bush shelters like this, where they store tools and seed yams also. (Also see video extract number 09)


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Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University, 2010.
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