The pioneers who colonised the western Pacific found immense forests and rivers fed by copious rain. The distinction between 'hunting and gathering' and 'agriculture' is a matter of emphasis. The pioneers developed systematic agriculture first in coastal New Guinea, then in the Highlands and later on smaller islands where natural resources would not sustain hunters and gatherers. Technical ingenuity, religious awe and social relations were so intertwined that it is misleading to isolate the 'economic' meaning of multidimensional experience. Land tenure arrangements are often described as 'traditional' or 'customary', but tenure practices on 'customary' land often differ greatly from practices described by early observers, land commissions, or in recorded oral history. Complementing most people's attachment to particular pieces of land was an equally profound commitment to social relations which rested on (and reinforced) trade and exchange. Underpinning all other relations were a host of relationships between women and men, in production, consumption and exchanges.