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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:

• Social institutions for common property resource management in Melanesia (Fiji and Solomon Islands).
• Sustainable butterfly farming and trading in Papua New Guinea, focussing on the institutions that act as middle-men between village producers and international insect collectors.
• 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, 1970-2008.

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

• Historical geography of Sami hunting and reindeer herding society in northern Sweden, including the documentation and interpretation of the Badjelannda rock art site in Laponia.
• Historical demography of Melanesia, focusing on depopulation in Solomon Islands in the 19th century and a re-evaluation of the work of W.H.R. Rivers.

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):

• I.M. Mulk and T.P. Bayliss-Smith (in press) Coins in Sami sacrificial sites: religious ritual, social organisation and the fur trade in northern Sweden, c. 800-1350. In- Patricia Poussa and Per Ambrosiani (eds.) The Futhark and the Fur Trade, Umeå University, pp.71-99.
• 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 Eco-Tourism 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 trip 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, Paper O3 Rural Resources and Society - 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.