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Article Excerpt
Abstract
It is argued, following Francois Sigaut, that the way elements of technology are invented, borrowed and re-combined challenges the notion of 'technical lineage', with its implication of 'successive orderly accretions'. The contention is examined in relation to pith removal equipment used in palm starch extraction in island southeast Asia and Melanesia, which is considered additionally instructive because it yields some potential archaeological traces. The key archaeotypes--pounding and rasping tools--reflect convergent and secondary technologies that most likely were adapted to sago processing from other cultural domains. Pounders are found mainly in the eastern part of the geographic range, and rasps in the west. There is much variability in the distribution of types, even within a small area. Inferences are drawn relating to recent changes (for example, from stone to metal working edges, and from pounders to rasps), and concerning what we can learn from the distribution of different kinds of tool, including the likelihood of versions of the same tool co-existing in the same place, or being independently invented at opposite ends of the archipelago.
Keywords: sago, island southeast Asia, extraction tools, innovation
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As Francois Sigaut (1994: 435) has warned, we need to be sceptical when it comes to the notion of 'technical lineage' in studies of the history, prehistory and archaeology of food procurement strategies. Aware that such an approach is often accompanied by a misleading implication of 'successive orderly accretions' of stylistic and functional elements, this article will attempt to demonstrate the point in relation to an aspect of palm starch processing. The distribution of this technology in southeast Asia displays a concurrent diversity of techniques in particular locations, the simultaneous development of similar technologies in widely separated places, and the interchange and hybridization of knowledge practices developed in relation to different genera of starch palms, all of which resonates with Sigaut's critique. I shall argue that the data suggest a need for a much more dynamic and nuanced view of the evolution of palm starch processing technology. Although some attention has been paid to the distribution of sago processing equipment in relation to issues in the archaeology and prehistory of Melanesia, the present article is original in its attempt to look at parallels and variations in an area delineated by the occurrence of sago-producing palms in island southeast Asia more generally. Within this general context it focuses more on the Moluccas, the material culture of which is less studied, but which in terms of the history and distribution of sago extraction and its technology is arguably transitional.
The extraction of palm starch for food is an ancient and widespread subsistence technique in large parts of southeast Asia and the western Pacific (Ruddle et al. 1978). In terms of the history of technology, it presents a paradoxical picture because while the methods are perceived as complex and its archaeology poorly understood, it is often hypothesized as a likely resource base for a pre-agricultural (certainly pre-cereal) phase of southeast Asian prehistory. In another paper (Ellen 2004a) I have examined this paradox in relation to that part of the technical process which involves converting stipe (stem or trunk) pith into raw flour. I show how the equipment employed displays a distribution which suggests that hand pressing technology is associated with Metroxylon sagu and foot pressing with other starch palms that are largely of importance west of Wallacea. As Metroxylon sagu spread westwards, so pre-existing local technologies were adapted to effect its processing. Unfortunately, this is an argument that is unlikely to be ever supported by extensive archaeological evidence, given the susceptibility of the equipment to rapid dispersal and decomposition, though there is some emerging evidence from Niah Cave in Sarawak for the presence of Caryota mitis and Eugeissona utilis starch, but not Metroxylon, in contexts suggesting its human use (Barton 2005). It is, therefore, an argument rooted for the most part in comparative palaeobotany, biogeography, ethnobotany and technology studies.
In parallel, this paper addresses the problem of 'technical lineage' identified by Sigaut, by examining an aspect of starch extraction technology (pith removal) that is significant because, of the various stages in the processing, it is one of only two stages (the second being cooking) that might eventually provide reliable archaeological traces. The key archaeotypes involved--a term I define below--are pounding and rasping tools. The technologies that rely upon these different tools are secondary in the sense that they are most plausibly adaptations to sago-processing from functions performed in other cultural domains. We can reasonably claim this to be so because in cognitive terms the extraction and processing of sago pith as food from inside a hard protective covering of spines is not immediately intuitive, involving complex problem-solving skills (Ellen 2004a: 89-91); and because pounding (or adzing) and rasping sago appear to be more specialized transformations of other more basic technical skills: on the one hand, hammering and cutting with respect to more tractable and obviously useful materials than sago pith; and on the other, rubbing abrasive objects on to less hard ones in order to reduce them to smaller pieces. The evolution of these processes is convergent in the sense of evolutionary biology: having evolved in separate contexts (such as working wood or stone) and involving different kinds of physical action they now produce the same basic end result, namely shredded pith.
The distribution and spread of palm starch extraction in the Indo-Pacific region
Following Dransfield (1981), we may distinguish five palm genera that have been part of the flora of adjacent parts of Sunda and Sahul since the Cretaceous, and that yield pith (or sago) which has been historically harvested by human populations: Metroxylon, Arenga, Corypha, Caryota and Eugeissona. These genera appear to have originated in the swamps and waterways on either side of the Banda Sea, subsequently extending their range through adaptation to marginal environments, colonizing habitats on new land forms. The most important of these genera in terms of human subsistence, Metroxylon, displays evidence of having an 'Austral' or Gondwanic origin. Metroxylon sagu, in particular, was probably domesticated quite early in New Guinea, and phytogeographical data suggest its much more recent westward diffusion, across Wallacea, from a likely centre of dispersal in New Guinea and the Moluccas, almost certainly assisted by human agents (Dransfield 1981, Rhoads 1982, Yen 1995). Data on the local genetic diversity of M. sagu provides further evidence for the hypothesis of westward human-assisted dispersal (Ellen 2004a, 2006). Indeed, for some thousands of years starch-yielding palms in the humid tropics have co-evolved with Post-Pleistocene human...
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