ABSTRACT
This chapter takes on the complexities in understanding the Indigenous Knowledge about soils, ‘ethnopedology’. This is a type of Indigenous Knowledge that has received relatively little attention, unlike ethnobotany or ethnozoology. The author’s research focuses on the Wola speakers of the Southern Highlands Province in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. The most widely cultivated soil types in Wolaland are Inceptisols and Andisols (derived from the sedimentary rock), dominated by volcanic ash, with some alluvial re-deposition. Elaborating on the Wola soil classification system, the chapter warns about the danger of uncritically imposing a scientific model of soil science on what we think we understand of others’ knowledge and distorting it. It examines the contrasts between the ‘scientific’ soil management and the management of soils according to the Wola farmers. It is argued that the Wola soil management keeps cultivation in sustainable equilibrium with soil resources, so long as the appropriate fallow time is observed.
