ABSTRACT Climatic anomalies associated with El Niño bring prolonged droughts and night-time frosts that devastate subsistence gardens in the Papua New Guinea highlands. As a customary process of adaptation to the subsequent food insecurity caused by crop-destroying frosts, people migrate to lower altitude areas where kin and friends provide sustenance and social support. However, with increasing economic development and the demise of collective kin endeavours in the region, long-distance migration networks no longer appear to offer people respite from food insecurity. In this paper, I examine the changes in social responses to El Niño-caused food shortages at varying scales – from subsistence farmers to international aid agencies – over the past several El Niño events. The paper explores the production of vulnerability when customary social-ecological systems of adaptation intersect with regional and national politics, development efforts, and humanitarian aid agencies.

中文翻译：

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霜冻时期：厄尔尼诺现象与巴布亚新几内亚脆弱性的政治生态

摘要 与厄尔尼诺现象相关的气候异常带来了长时间的干旱和夜间霜冻，摧毁了巴布亚新几内亚高地的自给自足的花园。作为适应随后由破坏作物的霜冻造成的粮食不安全的习惯过程，人们迁移到低海拔地区，在那里亲戚和朋友提供食物和社会支持。然而，随着该地区经济的不断发展和集体亲属努力的消亡，长途迁徙网络似乎不再为人们提供粮食不安全的喘息之机。在本文中，我研究了在过去的几次厄尔尼诺事件中，社会对厄尔尼诺造成的不同规模粮食短缺的反应——从自给农民到国际援助机构——的变化。