AHC/WI: Tiwi Empire

[Zachariah]

So lets say that, ITTL, the Tiwi people begin practicing agriculture around 2,000-3,000 years ago (either developing it independently, or through contact with SE Asia) and begin to cultivate all of the crops native to the Tiwi Islands which they already gathered to eat (and still do) IOTL. These include Kurlama (which has heavy significance in Tiwi culture even IOTL, with the traditional Kurlama ceremony at the end of the wet season, in which men ritually cook and eat the first yams of the season), Wupwarna, Purnarrika, Muranga, Jaliwaki, Yankumwani, Pinyama, and Kamuli. They also domesticate the Kawukawuni, and begin to practice mussel and turtle farming. What would be the best case scenario for TTL's Tiwi civilization, in your opinion? How powerful and wealthy could they become, how much territory could they expand to control at their height, and how much of a chance would their state (/states) stand of maintaining its (/their) sovereignty, if and when the Europeans start to colonize Australia?

 

[Vuu]

from satellite image the entire Top End and area even though having a decent rain pattern has a bad soil problem, and seems like the soil was eroded

they'd have to expand quite a lot, tropical areas aren't very conductive for independent agricultural inventions

 

[Zachariah]

from satellite image the entire Top End and area even though having a decent rain pattern has a bad soil problem, and seems like the soil was eroded

It really isn't that bad, when you compare it to elsewhere. And remember, all of these plants already grow there, in the Tiwi Islands, in relative abundance. Here's a satellite image of the Tiwi Islands, BTW:

Looks pretty fertile, doesn't it?

they'd have to expand quite a lot, tropical areas aren't very conductive for independent agricultural inventions

Eh? Aren't they? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuk_Swamp, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Indonesia#History

 

[Intransigent Southerner]

Why wouldn’t they turn out like New Guinea?

 

[Anson]

So lets say that, ITTL, the Tiwi people begin practicing agriculture around 2,000-3,000 years ago (either developing it independently, or through contact with SE Asia) and begin to cultivate all of the crops native to the Tiwi Islands which they already gathered to eat (and still do) IOTL. These include Kurlama (which has heavy significance in Tiwi culture even IOTL, with the traditional Kurlama ceremony at the end of the wet season, in which men ritually cook and eat the first yams of the season), Wupwarna, Purnarrika, Muranga, Jaliwaki, Yankumwani, Pinyama, and Kamuli. They also domesticate the Kawukawuni, and begin to practice mussel and turtle farming. What would be the best case scenario for TTL's Tiwi civilization, in your opinion? How powerful and wealthy could they become, how much territory could they expand to control at their height, and how much of a chance would their state (/states) stand of maintaining its (/their) sovereignty, if and when the Europeans start to colonize Australia?

I think this is a very cool idea. I've always been interested in the potential of Australian aboriginal crop domestications as well. If contact with Indonesia occurs, and maybe even south India around the 9th century, when Indian trafitr ships regularly came down to the archipelago, then Northern Australia could be pulled into the Indosphere and gain all the technology and advances. The Dutch would then probably be interested in cololinzation with the East Indies.

 

[Zachariah]

Why wouldn’t they turn out like New Guinea?

Because the Tiwi Islands are far smaller than New Guinea; combined, they have a similar land area to Crete (but with a tropical monsoon climate, bringing them more than twice as much rainfall, as well as average temperatures comparable to those on Crete in mid-summer all year round), and they form a gently sloping flat lateritic plateau, with few to no geographical features to separate different tribes from others- the highest point on the Tiwi Islands is only 200m above sea level. The Tiwi have been a cohesive tribal group since time immemorial; Tiwi's the most polysynthetic of all Australian languages, a language isolate with no apparent genetic link to the contiguous languages of Arnhem Land on the Australian mainland. It's believed that Australia's first inhabitants crossed the Timor Sea from Indonesia at a time when sea levels were lower, and the Tiwi Islands were the first part of Australia to be colonized. So the situation's not at all like that in New Guinea.

 

[WilliamOfOckham]

Wouldn't be recognizable as the Tiwi if this happened 3000-2000 years ago - that's when Proto-Germanic was being spoken, and compare that to English today.

 

[Zachariah]

Wouldn't be recognizable as the Tiwi if this happened 3000-2000 years ago - that's when Proto-Germanic was being spoken, and compare that to English today.

But the Tiwi are the oldest and most isolated group of Aboriginal Australians; like I said, Tiwi's the most polysynthetic of all Australian languages, a language isolate with no apparent genetic link to any other known languages, surviving or dead. Even if the language changes through a degree of creolisation, why would they be any more 'unrecognisable' as the Tiwi than the Koreans are recognizable as the Koreans?

 

[Arkenfolm]

Probably a "Tiwi Expansion" akin to other expansions of language groups. Some of those crops like pencil yam have a very wide distribution, so the expansion would probably stop around the coast of central New South Wales. The Pama-Nyungan languages would be marginalised, while "Tiwian" languages would replace all the non-Pama-Nyungan languages (excluding Tasmanian languages), although some might be driven into the central deserts and thus might survive.

The non-native crops grown (and animals raised) would be similar to Savu and Sumba, which have similar climates. Since the area is prone to drought, this would presumably be a catalyst for Tiwians to move and start settling in other people's land.

The most interesting potential would be when their agriculture filtered into the eastern coast of Australia, where these Tiwian descendents (assuming another group didn't adopt to Tiwian agriculture practices without adopting their language) might eventually export Australia's native peppers (genus Tasmannia) as part of the spice trade. Since this would be on the extreme edge of the spice trade, some of these peppers might end up famed for their rarity and price. These "Tiwians" could end up in a position like Ternate or Tidore--powerful local states, probably centered around the best harbours in the area. The Tiwi Islands themselves would end up a backwater, since they'd be pretty much akin to Sumba or Savu. There's probably a better location in the Top End for the local kingdom to rule from, maybe the Darwin area, but any place where a major river meets the sea which has a decent harbour would be good. It would be on the fringe of Indonesian civilisation, so would likely pay tribute to Majapahit or another major Indonesian empire. It could subjugate local states on Timor, or could in turn be subjugated by states in that area. Expansion of agricultural civilisations further south, to the Riverina and Victoria, probably won't happen until they get some crops suitable for the temperate climate.

The arrival of the Maori might be interesting (assuming they ever reach Australia), since potentially kumara might get spread in the region. It grows well in the region, and what few Maori arrive would probably be assimilated. Due to the export of the rare (at least in Europe) native peppers, the area will likely see more European attention early on. The Spanish or Portuguese will probably visit the region, and interact with the states on the eastern coast of Australia. Some might conquered (and Europeans will build trading posts there), but others will follow the history of states like Ternate and Tidore.

 

[WilliamOfOckham]

But the Tiwi are the oldest and most isolated group of Aboriginal Australians; like I said, Tiwi's the most polysynthetic of all Australian languages, a language isolate with no apparent genetic link to any other known languages, surviving or dead. Even if the language changes through a degree of creolisation, why would they be any more 'unrecognisable' as the Tiwi than the Koreans are recognizable as the Koreans?

Isolation doesn't imply preservation. Linguistically isolated populations are more likely to be remnants, sure, but that's just by definition. Japonic, for example, was probably part of a much larger language family in southern China or Korea, which came to rather than stayed in Japan and Ryukyu. With the 40-60,000-year-long prehistory of Australia, there is absolutely no way to say that the Tiwi are a remnant population of any sort. Maybe they stayed, but maybe they came in 1000 BC and displaced the original population there. Maybe they came in 1000 AD! There is simply no evidence to say, because neither archaeology nor historical linguistics (obviously, since it's an isolate) can help.

In fact, in some cases it's even the opposite. Malagasy is an incredible distance away from other Austronesian languages, but it's actually quite closely related to a specific branch (East Barito). That would seem counterintuitive given the distance, but it makes sense when you consider that the material culture required to get to Madagascar only came about late in the history of Austronesian.

Anyway, the presence of agriculture would be such a massive material difference that even if they were speakers of pre-Tiwi you wouldn't get anything like Tiwi today. It's like giving Proto-Germanic speakers guns and expecting to find them speaking Low German two thousand years later.

 

[Zachariah]

Isolation doesn't imply preservation. Linguistically isolated populations are more likely to be remnants, sure, but that's just by definition. Japonic, for example, was probably part of a much larger language family in southern China or Korea, which came to rather than stayed in Japan and Ryukyu. With the 40-60,000-year-long prehistory of Australia, there is absolutely no way to say that the Tiwi are a remnant population of any sort. Maybe they stayed, but maybe they came in 1000 BC and displaced the original population there. Maybe they came in 1000 AD! There is simply no evidence to say, because neither archaeology nor historical linguistics (obviously, since it's an isolate) can help.

In fact, in some cases it's even the opposite. Malagasy is an incredible distance away from other Austronesian languages, but it's actually quite closely related to a specific branch (East Barito). That would seem counterintuitive given the distance, but it makes sense when you consider that the material culture required to get to Madagascar only came about late in the history of Austronesian.

Anyway, the presence of agriculture would be such a massive material difference that even if they were speakers of pre-Tiwi you wouldn't get anything like Tiwi today. It's like giving Proto-Germanic speakers guns and expecting to find them speaking Low German two thousand years later.

My point was that this thread is an AHC/WI, asking what you think the best case scenario for TTL's Tiwi civilization would be, in this scenario. Your argument's akin to answering a AHC/WI question about the best case scenario for an Irish civilization, with the same POD, with the assertion that "Oh, it's impossible; the presence of agriculture that long ago would be such a massive material difference that they wouldn't be recognizable as the Irish anyway". I don't care if they're recognizable as OTL's Tiwi or not; I'm simply asking what you feel the best case scenario for the said civilization would be, and keeping the name because it's also the name of the island archipelago. Fair enough?

 

[Zachariah]

Anyone else?