Plumes from paradise : trade cycles in outer Southeast Asia and their impact on New Guinea and nearby islands until 1920 /

Plumes from paradise : trade cycles in outer Southeast Asia and their impact on New Guinea and nearby islands until 1920 /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Swadling, Pamela, author.
Imprint:The University Of Sydney, N.S.W. : Sydney University Press, 2019.
©2019
Description:1 online resource (353 pages) : illustrations, maps
Language:English
Subject:
Feather industry -- New Guinea.
Feather industry -- New Guinea -- History.
Birds -- Conservation -- New Guinea.
Birds -- Conservation.
Feather industry.
New Guinea.
History.
Format: E-Resource Map Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12483151
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Other authors / contributors:Wagner, Roy, 1938- author.
Laba, Billai, author.
ISBN:9781743325469
1743325460
9781743325452
1743325452
9781743325476
1743325479
9781743325445
1743325444
9781743325445
Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Pamela Swadling is visiting research fellow at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. She carried out archaeological fieldwork in the Solomon Islands before coming to Papua New Guinea in late 1972. Her study of the former plume trade on the Sepik coast and subsequently along the Ok Tedi led to the writing of this book.
Print version record.
Summary:"The 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 island's 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."--
Other form:Print version: Swadling, Pamela. Plumes from paradise. The University Of Sydney, N.S.W. : Sydney University Press, 2019 9781743325445
Table of Contents:
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The rise and decline of the Spice Islands
  • 3. The plume trade: the demands of Asian traders and the first birds of paradise to reach Europe
  • 4. The plume trade: the demands of natural historians
  • 5. The plume trade: The demands of fashion-conscious European women and the growth of the conservation movement
  • 6. Sultans, suzerains and the colonial division of New Guinea
  • 7. Collecting and trading in the Raja Empat Islands, the Bird's Head and Cendrawasih Bay
  • 8. The massoy, trepang and plume trade of Onin, Kowiai and Mimika (Southwest New Guinea)
  • 9. Trade with the Aru Islands and Trans Fly Coast of New Guinea
  • 10. Copra, birds and profits in the Merauke region
  • 11. Bronzes and plume hunting in the Jayapura (Hollandia) region
  • 12. Plumes fund economic development in Kaiser Wilhelmsland
  • 13. Conservationists protect Papua's birds
  • 14. Trade cycles in outer Southeast Asia and their impact on New Guinea and nearby islands until 1920
  • Contribution 1: Roy Wagner / Mysteries of origin: early traders and heroes in the Trans-Fly
  • Contribution 2: Billai Laba / Oral traditions about early trade by Indonesians in southwest Papua New Guinea.

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