Description
Book SynopsisThe natural resources of New Guinea and nearby islands have attracted outsiders for at least 5000 years: spices, aromatic woods and barks, resins, plumes, sea slugs, shells and pearls all brought traders from distant markets. Among the most sought-after was the bird of paradise. Their magnificent plumes bedecked the hats of fashion-conscious women in Europe and America, provided regalia for the Kings of Nepal, and decorated the headdresses of Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire. Plumes from Paradise tells the story of this interaction, and of the economic, political, social and cultural consequence for the island's inhabitants. It traces 400 years of economic and political history, culminating in the plume boom of the early part of the 20th century, when an unprecedented number of outsiders flocked to the islands coasts and hinterlands. The story teems with the variety of people involved: New Guineans, Indonesians, Chinese, Europeans, hunters, traders, natural historians and their collectors, officials, missionaries, planters, miners, adventurers of every kind. In the wings were the conservationists, whose efforts brought the slaughter of the plume boom to an end and ushered in an era of comparative isolation for the island that lasted until World War II.
Table of ContentsConventions followed
Acknowledgements
Figures, Plates, Tables
- Introduction
- The rise and decline of the Spice Islands
- The plume trade: Asian traders and the first birds of paradise to reach Europe
- The plume trade: the demands of natural historians
- The plume trade: the demands of fashion-conscious European women and the growth of the conservation movement
- Sultans, suzerains and the colonial division of New Guinea
- Collecting and trading in the Raja Empat Islands, the Bird’s Head and Cendrawasih Bay
- The massoy, trepang and plume trade of Onin, Kowiai and Mimika (southwest New Guinea)
- Trade with the Aru Islands and Trans Fly Coast of New Guinea
- Copra, birds and profits in the Merauke region
- Bronzes and plume hunting in the Jayapura (Hollandia) region
- Plumes fund economic development in Kaiser Wilhelmsland
- Conservationists protect Papua’s birds
- Trade cycles in outer Southeast Asia and their impact on New Guinea and nearby islands until 1920
Contribution 1: Mysteries of origin – early traders and heroes in the Trans-Fly
Roy Wagner
Contribution 2: Oral traditions about early trade by Indonesians in southwest Papua New Guinea
Billai Laba
Bibliography
Index
