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Tim Bayliss-Smith, MA PhD

Reader in Pacific Geography, and Fellow of St. John's College

Tim's research interests range from biogeography to cultural geography and development studies, with a regional focus on islands in Melanesia and northern Scandinavia.

Biography

Career

• 2004: Reader in Pacific Geography, University of Cambridge
• 1999-2000: Visiting Professor of Cultural Geography, Luleå Technical University, Sweden
• 1990: Visiting Professor, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honololu
• 1980: Visiting Fellow, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra
• 1973-present: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

Qualifications

• BA University of Cambridge
• PhD University of Cambridge

Research

Tim Bayliss-Smith is a member of the Political Ecology Group. His current research projects include:

• Agricultural intensification in pre-colonial Melanesia, with field sites at Kuk in the New Guinea Highlands and Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands.
• Livelihoods in small islands vulnerable to globalisation and environmental change: Ontong Java atoll, Solomon Islands, 1970-present.
• Social institutions for common property resource management in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Solomon Islands).

Tim Bayliss-Smith also has links to the Historical and Cultural Geography research cluster, with ongoing work on:

• Sami reindeer societies of northern Sweden in the Viking Age and Medieval periods, including the transition from hunting to herding and the interpretation of the Badjelannda rock art site in Laponia.
• Historical demography of Melanesia, focusing on depopulation in Solomon Islands, the effects of epidemic mortality and fertility decline from sexually-transmitted diseases, and the validity of the 'psychological' depopulation model of W.H.R. Rivers ("colonialism as shell-shock").

PhD student research

Applications from potential Graduate students (M.Phil or Ph.D) are welcome for students wishing to study in areas of research that are connected to the following research themes:

• Agricultural intensification in pre-colonial Melanesia, with field sites at Kuk in the New Guinea Highlands, New Georgia, Western Solomons, and Ontong Java atoll, Solomon Islands.
• Social institutions for the management of forests and other communal resources in Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Solomon Islands).
• Agroforestry systems in Melanesia and Central America, in particular the sustainability of alley cropping.

• Sami reindeer societies of northern Sweden in the Viking Age and Medieval periods, including the transition from hunting to herding and cultural heritage in Laponia.
• Historical demography of Melanesia, focusing on depopulation in Solomon Islands, the effects on fertility of sexually-transmitted diseases, and the validity of the 'psychological' depopulation model of W.H.R. Rivers ("colonialism as shell-shock").

Publications

Books

• 2006: I.M. Mulk and T. Bayliss-Smith Rock Art and Sámi Sacred Geography in Badjelannda, Laponia, Sweden: Sailing Boats, Anthropomorphs and Reindeer. Archaeology and Environment 22, University of Umeå, 138 pp.
• 2000: E. Hviding and T. Bayliss-Smith Islands of Rainforest: Agroforestry, Logging and Eco-Tourism in Solomon Islands. Ashgate, Aldershot, 371 pp.
• 1990: T.P. Bayliss-Smith and S.E. Owens, eds. Britain's Changing Environment from the Air Cambridge University Press, 256 pp.
• 1988: T.P. Bayliss-Smith, H.C. Brookfield, R.D. Bedford and M. Latham Islands, Islanders and the World: the Colonial and Post-Colonial Experience of Eastern Fiji Cambridge University Press, 323 pp. (Reprinted 2006.)
• 1984: T.P. Bayliss-Smith and Sudhir Wanmali, eds. Understanding Green Revolutions: Agrarian Change and Development Planning in South Asia. Cambridge University Press, 383 pp.
• 1982: T.P. Bayliss-Smith The Ecology of Agricultural Systems. Cambridge University Press, 104 pp. (Reprinted 1987)
• 1977: T.P. Bayliss-Smith and R.G.A. Feachem, eds. Subsistence and Survival: Rural Ecology in the Pacific. Academic Press, London, 428 pp.

Other selected publications (since 1990)

• T. Bayliss-Smith, Jack Golson and Philip Hughes (in preparation) Phase 4; Phase 5; Phase 6. Chapters in J. Golson et al (eds.) Archaeology of Kuk, New Guinea Highlands. Terra Australis monographs, Canberra.
• T. Bayliss-Smith and Judith Bennett (in preparation) An Otago Storeman in Solomon Islands: the Diary of William Crossan, Copra Trader, 1885-86. Australian National University, Canberra.
• T. Bayliss-Smith (in preparation) Colonialism as shell-shock: William Rivers's explanations for depopulation in Melanesia. In- Cato Berg & Edvard Hviding, eds. In- The Ethnographic Experiment: Rivers and Hocart in Solomon Islands, 1908. Berghahn, Oxford.
• T. Bayliss-Smith and Edvard Hviding (in press) Irrigated taro, malaria and the expansion of chiefdoms: ruta in New Georgia, Solomon Islands. In- M. Spriggs and P. Matthews, eds. Wet Taro in Oceania.
• T. Bayliss-Smith (in press) Taro, turmeric and gender. In- special issue, The Polynesian Outliers, ed. R. Feinberg and R. Scaglion. Ethnology Monographs.
• T. Bayliss-Smith (2011) Tahitians, Europeans and ecological exchange. Journal of Pacific History 56(2), 257-260.
• M. Kaonga and T. Bayliss-Smith (2010) Allometric models for estimation of aboveground carbon stocks in improved fallows in eastern Zambia. Agroforestry Systems 78: 217-232.
• T. Bayliss-Smith, Katherine V. Gough, Andreas Egelund Christensen and Soran Pilgaard Kristensen (2010) Managing Ontong Java: social institutions for production and governance of atoll resources in Solomon Islands. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 31: 55-69.
• Katherine V. Gough, T. Bayliss-Smith, J. Connell and Ole Mertz (2010) Small island sustainability in the Pacific: introduction to the special issue. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 31: 1-9.
• M. Kaonga and T. Bayliss-Smith (2009) Carbon pools in tree biomass and the soil in improved fallows in eastern Zambia. Agroforestry Systems 76: 37-51.
• T. Bayliss-Smith (2008) Comment on variable development of dryland agriculture in Hawai'i. Current Anthropology 49(5), 788-789.
• T. Bayliss-Smith and Christensen, A.E. (2008) Birds and people on Ontong Java atoll, Solomon Islands, 1910-2008: continuity and change. Atoll Research Bulletin 262, 1-36.
• I.M. Mulk and T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2007) Liminality, rock art and the Sami sacred landscape. Journal of Northern Studies 1-2: 95-122.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2007) The meaning of ditches: interpreting the archaeological record from New Guinea using insights from ethnography. In- Tim Denham, Jose Iriarte & Luc Vrydaghs (eds.) Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives, Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, California, pp.126-148.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2006) Fertility and depopulation: childlessness, abortion and introduced disease in Simbo and Ontong Java, Solomon Islands. Chapter 1 in S. Ulijaszek (ed.) Population, Reproduction and Fertility in Melanesia. Berghahn, Oxford, pp.13-52.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith, J. Golson, P. Hughes, R. Blong and W. Ambrose (2005) Archaeological evidence for the Ipomoean Revolution at Kuk swamp, Upper Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea. In- C. Ballard, P.Brown, R.M. Bourke and T. Harwood (eds.) The Sweet Potato in Oceania: a Reappraisal, Ethnology Monograph 19, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, and Oceania Monograph 56, University of Sydney, Sydney, pp.109-120.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2004) Hunting and gathering societies, energy flows in. In C.J. Cleveland (ed.) The Encyclopaedia of Energy, volume 3, 183-195. New York, Academic Press and Elsevier.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2003) Comment on the archaeology and ethnohistory of precolonial and colonial Roviana. Current Anthropology 44 (suppl.), S70-S71.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith, E. Hviding and T.C. Whitmore (2003) Rain forest composition and histories of disturbance in Solomon Islands. Ambio 32(5), 346-52.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2003) Goodbye to geographical reality? A retrospect on the New Geography. In- S. Trudgill and A. Roy (eds.) Contemporary Meanings in Physical Geography, 63-84. London, Hodder Arnold.
• T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2003) Livelihoods and sustainability at the agrarian frontier. Geografiska Annaler B, 85(1), 63-65.
• Mulk, I.M. and T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2001) Anthropomorphic images at the Padjelanta site, northern Sweden: rock engravings in the context of Sámi myth and ritual. Current Swedish Archaeology 9, 1-30.
• Hviding, E. and T.P. Bayliss-Smith (2000) Islands of Rainforest: Agroforestry, Logging and Ecotourism in Solomon Islands. Ashgate, Aldershot. pp. 1-371.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. and J. Golson (1999) The meaning of ditches: deconstructing the social landscapes of New Guinea, Kuk, Phase 4. In- C. Gosden and J. Hather (eds.) The Prehistory of Food. Appetites for Change. Routledge, London, 199-231.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1999) Comments on "Intensification in the Pacific" by Helen M. Leach. Current Anthropology 40: 323-324.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. and I.M. Mulk (1999) Sailing boats in Padjelanta. Sámi rock engravings from the mountains in Laponia, northern Sweden. Acta Borealia 16: 3-41.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P and I.M. Mulk (1999) Sami rock engravings from the mountains in Laponia, northern Sweden'. Folklore (Institute of Estonian Language, Tartu) 11: 70-112.
• Adomako, E.E., J.K. Adomako and T.P. Bayliss-Smith (1998) Conservation by tradition: the case of the Guako sacred grove'. In- D.S. Amlalo, L.D. Atsiatorme and C. Fiati (eds.) Biodiversity conservation: traditional knowledge and modern concepts. Proceedings of the Third UNESCO MAB Regional Seminar, Cape Coast, 9-12 March 1997. Environmental Protection Agency, Accra, Ghana, 7-15.
• Smith, J.M.B. and T. Bayliss-Smith (1998) Kelp-plucking: coastal erosion facilitated by bull-kelp Durvillaea antarctica at subantarctic Macquarie Island. Antarctic Science 10: 431-8.
• Mulk, I.M. and T.P. Bayliss-Smith (1998) The representatation of Sámi cultural identity in the cultural landscapes of northern Sweden: the use and misuse of archaeological knowledge. In- Peter J. Ucko and R. Layton (eds.) The Archaeology and Anthropology of Landscape: Shaping your Landscape, Routledge, London, 358-396.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. and I.M. Mulk (1998) Segelbåtar i Padjelanta - Samiska hällristningar från järnålder och medeltid i Laponia, Lappland. In - Sjöhistortoriska Museet, Människor och båtar i Norden. Rapport från seminarium vid Sjöhistorika museet, 29-31 maj 1998. Maritime History Museum, Stockholm, Report 29, 39-51.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1997) From taro garden to golf course? Alternative futures for agricultural capital in the Pacific islands. In- Ben Burt and C. Clerk (eds.) Environment and Development in the Pacific Islands, Australian National University, and University of Papua New Guinea Press, Port Moresby, 143-170.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1996) People-plant interactions in the New Guinea Highlands: agricultural hearthland or horticultural backwater?' In- D.R. Harris (ed.) The Origins and Spread of Agriculture and Pastoralism in Eurasia. UCL Press, London, 499-523.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1996) 'La adopción del "cultivo en callejones" por cultivadores en el bosque húmedo tropical: Entre el entusiasmo desaforado y la prudente cautela? Opción Amazónica. Ciencia, Technologia y Cultura 1 (1): 9-21.
• Hands, M.R., A.F. Harrison and T.P. Bayliss-Smith (1995) Phosphorus dynamics in slash-and-burn and alley-cropping systems of the humid tropics. In- H.Tiessen (ed.) Phosphorus in the Global Environment: Transfers, Cycles and Management. SCOPE Report 54, J.Wiley, Chichester, 155-170.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. and S.E. Owens (1994) The environmental challenge. In- D.J. Gregory, R.L. Martin and G.E.Smith (eds.) Human Geography: Society, Space and Social Science. Macmillan, London, 113-145.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1994) Melanesian interaction at regional scale: spatial relationships in a fluid landscape. In- A.J. Strathern and G. Stürzenhofecker (eds.) Migration and Transformations: Regional Perspectives on New Guinea. ASAO Monograph 15, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh and London, 295-311.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1993) Time, Food and Money in the Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands: Village Surveys in a Proposed World Heritage Site. Commonwealth Science Council, London, 1-25.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. and J. Golson (1992) A Colocasian Revolution in the New Guinea highlands: Insights from Phase 4 at Kuk. Archaeology in Oceania 17, 1-21.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. and J. Golson (1992) Wetland agriculture in New Guinea highlands prehistory. In- B. Coles (ed.) The Wetland Revolution in Prehistory, The Prehistoric Society and WARP, University of Exeter, 15-27.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1992) Papuan exploration, colonial expansion and the Royal Geographical Society: questions of power/knowledge relations. Journal of Historical Geography 18, 319-329.
• Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1991) Food security and agricultural sustainability in the New Guinea Highlands: vulnerable people, vulnerable places. IDS Bulletin 23: 5-11.

Teaching

• Geographical Tripos, Part IB. Ideas and methods: Linnaeus, Darwin, Malthus, Gourou.
• Geographical Tripos, Part IB. Residential field trips to Mallorca, Spain and to Marrakech and the High Atlas mountains, Morocco.
• Geographical Tripos, Part II, The Social Engagement with Nature. Paradise gained, paradise lost - constructing nature in the South Seas.
• Geographical Tripos, Part II, The Human Geography of the Arctic. Sámi cultural landscapes, past, present and future.
• M.Phil in Environment, Society & Development, Population, institutions, the privatisation of the commons, and sustainabity.

External activities

• Affiliated researcher, Ajtte Swedish Mountain and Sami Museum, Jokkmokk, Sweden.
• Visiting Fellow, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra.
• De Carle Distinguished Lecturer 2010, Department of History, University of Otago, Dunedin.
• Editorial Board, Asia Pacific Viewpoint.
• Trustee, The Inga Foundation.