ABSTRACT

Bernard Shaw once described the British and the Americans as two people divided by a common language. We feel much the same is true of academic views of Australia and Papua New Guinea, which have become divided through the use of a particular form of discourse, emphasizing subsistence and the differences in all other aspects of life which are seen to flow from the production of food. Central to the division of Australia from its northern neighbour is the notion that it is a continent of hunter-gatherers next to an island of farmers. This has long called for explanation. The need for explanation has been increased by the common history of the two landmasses, which were joined when people first entered the larger continent some 50,000 years ago and were only separated by rising sea levels around 8,000 years ago, by which time agricultural systems had already been established in the Highlands of New Guinea. The comparison of the two areas has not been open-ended, but has centred round one question: why did Aboriginal groups not adopt agriculture when they must have known about it through contacts with agriculturalists? (White 1971; Harris 1995; Yen 1995).