The Sweet Potato in Oceania A Reappraisal

"The goals, stated or implicit, included: a review of the status of knowledge about sweet potato in Oceania, covering advances in agronomic, botanical, archaelogical and ethnographic understanding; a regional overview, integrating advances in both Polynesia and Melanesia; an assessment of the significance of sweet potato in the region, relative to other crops, other introductions or innovations; and the identification of areas for future research. This volume is not intended as a comprehensive statement on the topic - one obvious deficiency in our coverage is the limited discussion of recent genetic work - but it should provide a useful statement of developments since 1974 in our understanding of sweet potato's history in Oceania and serve as a spur to further, more focused research."--P. v.