ABSTRACT
This chapter examines an additional Melanesian example: the irrigated terraces of the New Georgia group in the western Solomon Islands. Lowland New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu are among the most hyperendemic malarial regions of the world. In the western Solomons, the incidence of malaria increases during the wet season, with serious cases peaking in June and falling in the period September January. Livingstone found that "although malaria can remain endemic in populations with the family homestead pattern, holoendemic malaria seems to be closely associated with large compact settlements". Malaria prevalence rates in inland areas may have been low, with most infections occurring in adolescents and adults. Residents of hilly regions, living rather isolated lives in small hamlets, might achieve protection from malaria infection in childhood, but this would become a disadvantage for individuals if they became infected later in life.
