Transcript Powerpoint for May 6.

Food Plants
New Food From Old
Aztec threshing Amaranth – Florentine Codex – 16th Century
Amaranthus hypocondriacus
Amaranthaceae
Amaranth harvest in
Sierra Madre, Mexico
Amaranth seed balls for sale in
market, Sierra Madre
Aztec God Huitzilopochtli
Amaranth culture in US today
More Amaranth Species
A. cruentus
A. caudatus
Triticale
On left – wheat, triticale, rye
The Trouble with Tribbles
Star fruit – Averrhoa carambola
Pinyon Pine – Pinus edulis
Stone Pine – Pinus pinea
Pine nuts or pignoli
– from Pinus edulis
Kiwi Fruit – Actinidia chinensis
Kiwi fruit cultivation
Taro – Colocasia esculenta
Taro harvest - Hawaii
Taro corms
Tamarind – Tamarindus indica
Tamarind Fruits
Tamarind based sauces
Tamarinido Drinks
Ethnobotany and Geography
Ethnobotany and Geography
• Ethnobotanical studies often focus on limited
geographic areas: regions, countries, provinces,
states, and even smaller areas.
• This may seem to be a limited arrangement
because it prevents making large scale
comparisons between areas or plant uses, but it
makes sense because the relationships of plants
and people in a particular area are often incredibly
intimate
Why study plants of Polynesia?
• In all traditional cultures the relationships of
plants and people are reciprocal and dynamic
• In traditional societies, most plant products are
collected, produced and consumed locally
• Michael Balick and Paul Cox feel that nowhere
has the effect of the use of plants on human
culture been more dramatic than in their use to
manufacture sea craft that transport people and
their crops across vast stretches of the ocean
Long Ocean Voyages by Humans
• Erik the Red journeyed 800 miles from Iceland to
discover Greenland; his son Leif Eriksson went
farther sailing nearly 2000 miles from Greenland
to an area he called Vinland, which we know as a
part of Newfoundland in Canada
• Polynesians would commonly travel the 422 miles
from Fiji to Tonga or 769 miles from Fiji to
Samoa; Samoa to Tahiti (1059 miles) was not
unheard of; the longest trips were from Tahiti to
Hawaii (2700 miles) such trips did not occur
often, but occurred often enough to populate
almost all habitable islands in the Pacific and to
allow trade and exchange of culture across the
Pacific
Viking voyages
Polynesian Islands
Tahiti with sailing canoes and other
ships – painted in 1773 by William
Hodges with Capt. Cook’s expedition
Boats on Island of Kabara
• The Camakau (thah-mah-cow) which is a singlehulled canoe of up to 15 meters in length and used
in inter-island transport and warfare
• The Drua (ndrro-ah) which has two hulls and
requires up to 50 men to sail it
• The Tabetebete (tahm-bay-tay-bay-tay) which is
the largest of all Fijian sea craft with an intricate
hull of fitted planks that could be up to 36 m long
and 7.3 m wide - these vessels could transport up
to 200 men, sail at 20 knots
A Drua built about 1900 on Fiji
Design of
a camakau,
traditional
Fijian oceangoing craft
Josafata Cama, traditional
shipwright of Kabara Island
Vesi tree – Intsia bijuga
Selecting Vesi trees for ship building
– Kabara Island
Hollowing out a Vesi tree trunk for a
canoe hull – Kabara Island
Vika Usu weaving a sail from
Pandanus leaves – Kabara Island
Pandanus odoratissimus
Young Pandanus
leaves
Canarium harveyi sap used for caulk
Kabara Islanders and Sandra
Bannock on first voyage of camakau
Where did Polynesians come from?
• Based on many characteristics such as
blood types, linguistics, indigenous
agriculture, and archaeological evidence it
is generally thought the Polynesians came
from the Lapita, an agricultural people who
left Indo-Malaysia and journeyed west
Polynesian Islands
Polynesian Migrations
Maori Migration to New Zealand
Sweet potato tubers
Sweet Potato Names
• In most parts of the South Pacific, sweet
potatoes are called kumara, very similar to
the Peruvian word of cumara
• However, in Hawaii, the sweet potato is
called ‘uala, more similar to the Columbian
word kuala - perhaps a couple of groups
were in contact with South America
Plans for a balsa
wood raft – used
along coast of
South America
-drawn by F.E.
Paris in 1841
Thor Heyerdahl’s balsa wood raft –
1947 in action and model
Possible Inca route to Pacific Islands
and Kon-Tiki route
Hemp – Cannabis sativa
Hemp Fibers
• Hemp has long been a traditional source for fiber
for rope and clothing and even for paper
• Hemp fibers were used to make fabric as long ago
as 8000 BCE - the fibers are so strong that hemp
was woven to make ship’s sales from the 5th
century BCE until the mid-19th century
• Hemp was the major source of fiber for paper until
1883, when wood pulp replaced it
Hemp Fabric
Chinese guide to making hemp fabric 1872
Hemp traditionally used in sailing
Hemp Paper
Hemp Declaration of Independence
Abaca or Manila hemp
– Musa textilis
Manila hemp
Manila hemp rope
Modern Uses of Cannabis Hemp
Hemp Cultivation
Modern Hemp Paper
Hemp clothes and fabric
Hemp Cordage
Hemp Seed – Food and Oil
Hemp Cosmetics