sweet potato taro Papua New Guinea highlands

Sweet potatoes largely replaced taro in Papua New Guinea’s highlands

The South American crop likely reached Papua New Guinea from the Moluccas in the 17th or 18th century. It spread from the southern coast into the highlands, where it largely replaced taro as the staple food and led to significant population growth.

Antarctica was not always ice-bound

For most of the last 400 million years, Antarctica has been at high latitudes. Yet for a large part of Earth's history, it had a relatively temperate climate and forests. Its present ice-covered state is not permanent.

A gift is not always as free as it seems

Giving someone a gift can create an obligation that nobody says aloud. Anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski described societies where receiving a gift carried an expectation of giving something back later, sometimes of equal or greater value. What looks like generosity can also be part of a system of social exchange.

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sweet potato taro Papua New Guinea highlands

Sweet potatoes largely replaced taro in Papua New Guinea’s highlands

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