Wet cultivation of Colocasia esculenta

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Comment by Peter Matthews on July 13, 2009 at 10:31pm

Abstract

Wet cultivation of taro (Colocasia esculenta) is among the most productive traditional agricultural techniques in the world, rivaled only by the homologous systems based on rice (Oryza sativa). Some of the largest stone constructions in the Pacific relate to wet taro cultivation. Research on wet taro in Oceania has focused on: the role of agricultural intensification in development of political and social complexity; aggression and territoriality; risk management; and initial island colonization. This session seeks to bring together researchers from across the Indo-Pacific region to discuss the wet cultivation of Colocasia esculenta from diverse perspectives. Participants will be asked to have papers ready for posting to a website by 1 October 2009. This will give everyone a chance to read each other's ideas in detail. The IPPA session will then consist of short presentations and ample time for discussion. Selected participants will be asked to revise their papers immediately after the conference for publication in an edited volume scheduled for early 2010.

Speakers

Dana Lepofsky, (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) and Jennifer G. Kahn (Bishop Museum, Honolulu): Social and ecological interactions of ancient Ma‘Ohi production systems

David J. Addison (Samoan Studies Institute, American Samoa Community College): Risk management and surplus production in Polynesia: the contrastive wet taro (Colocasia esculenta) systems of Samoa and the Marquesas Islands

Jean-Michel Chazine (Cnrs/Credo Marseille): Wet taro cultivation on atolls: a technico-cultural paradox?

Matthew Spriggs (The Australian National University): From Mendana to Riesenfeld: early accounts and speculation on taro irrigation in the Asia-Pacific area

Michael W. Graves (University Of New Mexico) and Mark D. McCoy (Otago University): The expansion of irrigated agriculture into Kohala, Hawai‘I Island

Nancy J. Pollock (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand): The bio-diversity of Colocasia taro as the basis of household food security in the Pacific over time: links between China, SE Asia and Oceania

Peter J. Matthews (National Museum Of Ethnology, Japan), E. M. G. Agoo (De La Salle University, Manila), D. N. Tandang (Philippines National Museum, Manila) and D. A. Madulid (Philippine National Museum, Manila): Ethnobotany and ecology of wild taros (Colocasia esculenta) in the Philippines: implications for domestication and dispersal in the past and present

Sophie Caillon (CNRS, Montpellier): Why so much taro? production and consumption of Colocasia esculenta in a Melanesian village (Vanuatu)

Stephen Acabado (University of Hawai’i, Manoa): Taro before rice terraces: implications of radiocarbon dates, ethnohistoric reconstructions, and ethnography in dating the Ifugao terraces

Tim Bayliss-Smith (University of Cambridge, England) and Edvard Hviding (University of Bergen, Norway): Terraced taro and the intensification of social relations in Solomon Islands: insights from ruta cultivation, past and present, in Marovo, New Georgia

Timothy Earle (Northwestern University, USA): Irrigated taro agriculture and primary state formation: the Hawaiian Islands

Trevor King (Vitokoni Ni Vuci-Friends of Vuci, Fiji; and International Pacific College, NZ): Fluctuation in Colocasia cultivation and landesque capital in Navosa, Fiji

Windy K. Mcelroy (Garcia And Associates, Hawai’i): Approaches to dating wetland agricultural features: an example from Wailau Valley, Moloka‘I Island, Hawai‘i