Archaeolinguistics of Papuan languages

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the combined linguistic, genetic, and archaeological evidence on the history of the peoples of the island of New Guinea and surrounds. Discussion concentrates on groups known or inferred to have spoken Papuan languages—that is, languages not belonging to the Austronesian or Australian language families—in the period before the Neolithic in Island Southeast Asia and associated expansion of Austronesian languages. The chapter deals with the relationship between the indigenous Papuans and Australians, the histories of peoples to the west and east of New Guinea, and the possibility of a large Trans-New Guinea language family whose putative members extend along the full length of New Guinea. The chapter grapples with the problems associated with synthesizing data from languages, genetics, and archaeology. For each discipline, there is only extremely fragmentary data and do not necessarily align well in terms of time depth. The high-level comparisons that are possible at the present time lack granularity and cannot represent the many local processes of change and interaction that have undoubtedly characterized Papuan pasts.

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