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Variability in body physique, ecology, and subsistence in the Fly River region of Papua New Guinea
Author(s) -
Hyndman David C.,
Ulijaszek Stanley J.,
Lourie John A.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.1330790110
Subject(s) - new guinea , rainforest , subsistence agriculture , indigenous , ecology , geography , biology , ethnology , agriculture , history
There are some 40,000 indigenous peoples of the Fly River drainage in Papua New Guinea. The 4,000‐mm rainfall contour ecologically demarcates hunter‐horticulturalist peoples living in the rainforests of the Upper Fly from hunter‐gatherer peoples living in the savanna‐swamplands of the Middle and Lower Fly. A complex of factors operate to create significant physical differences between Upper Fly peoples and those of the Middle and Lower Fly. The ecological division between rainforests and savanna‐swamplands demarcates a clear clinal separation by stature of Upper Fly peoples from those of the Middle and Lower Fly.