ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews several key characteristics of cultivation practices, in so far as they are relevant to the investigation of agricultural practices. Traditional agricultural practices in the highlands have been extensively documented by agronomists, anthropologists and geographers. A vegetative disposition, or the use of plants through an awareness of their vegetative reproductive capacity, is a fundamental characteristic of plant exploitation practices, especially cultivation, on New Guinea. Plant exploitation practices in the highlands and lowlands of New Guinea are often characterised as vegeculture in the highlands and arboriculture in the lowlands. Different practices are associated with plot clearance, planting and harvesting, ground preparation and earthworks, and fallowing and nutrient cycling. The archaeological and palaeoecological visibility of different plant exploitation strategies varies greatly across space and through time. Early agriculture can be identified from archaeological remains of soil preparation within former plots, cultivation and planting features, drainage features, agricultural and plant-processing artefacts and associated plant remains.
