Charles Lane-Poole and early forest surveys of Papua New Guinea

Wood, Michael (2005) Charles Lane-Poole and early forest surveys of Papua New Guinea. Journal of Pacific History, 40 (3). pp. 289-309.

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Abstract

Early forestry surveys of Papua and New Guinea can be understood as records of cross-cultural encounters. I argue these records are very much concerned with the social context of data production and as such provide interesting insights into the history of colonial forestry. Relying largely on the work of Lane-Poole, this essay examines his accounts of colonial intercultural communication, his own changing, at times inconsistent, understandings of such processes and his limited capacity to represent them. His innovative, yet also anachronistic, work combines elements of the travel writing of the 19th century naturalist with the more austere data requirements of the kind of scientific forestry that he was attempting to create in Australia, Papua and New Guinea. I use his surveys, and those of his predecessor, Burnett, to outline the difficulties they encountered as co-ordinators of communicative transactions between an array of people with often strongly divergent linguistic, cultural and political commitments.

Item ID: 884
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1469-9605
Keywords: PNG, forestry, history, Lane Poole
Date Deposited: 19 Oct 2006
FoR Codes: 21 HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 2103 Historical Studies > 210399 Historical Studies not elsewhere classified @ 100%
SEO Codes: 95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9505 Understanding Past Societies > 950599 Understanding Past Societies not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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