Methods work sheet 1: Ethnobotanical checklist

by Christin Kocher Schmid and David Ellis

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DO NOT FORGET: Your basic point of reference is the local plant name.

A. Cultural information

1. Local classification

• local name
• superordinate local category (eg tree, vine etc, use local designation not pidgin), pidgin ìbignemî
• local subordinate category (categories), which are included in the local name, e.g. white xy and red xy (will be mainly two membered sets with wild plants, with cultivated plants many more subordinate categories included) pidgin ìliklik nemî
• to what other plants is it considered to be related, pidgin ìporman bilong enî, and what are the criteria for the relation, e.g. same sort of leaves, similar fruit....
• pigin (or Motu and ev. English) name if also used by the people.

2. Degree of human interference with the plant

• only cultivated (in gardens, forest, swamp)
• is cultivated but also grows wild
• grows wild but is especially fostered by people (e.g. by weeding around young plants/seedlings)
• grows wild but is encouraged by peopleís behaviour (e.g. garden weeds: people do not deliberately grow them but gardening practices do encourage them)
• grows wild without human interference
• (There are also plants, where people hold certain animals responsible for their growth.)

3. Use

• Note which parts (e.g. leaves, bark, fruit, flowers, timber, sap...) of the plant are used for which purpose (e.g. food, medicinal purposes, implements, ornaments, construction, dress, body decoration,...... ),
• Do not forget use in ritual and sorcery.
• And: there are often ìmultipurpose plantsî with many different uses for people.

4. Other cultural information

• does the plant appear in myths or other stories?
• are there taboos or other concepts linked to the plant?
• does it have symbolic value to people?

B. Botanical information via anthropological methods

5. Localisation/distribution

• occurrence, in which vegetation type does it grow, with which other plants together, is it restricted to certain areas/places (in mountain areas: does the plant only grow at certain altitude)?
• abundance, is the plant rare, common, or abundant

6. Origin

• wild and has always been there
• wild and has not always been there (when did it appear?)
• cultivated and has always been there
• cultivated and has not always been there (when, and by whom, was it introduced?)
• formerly cultivated plants which are now growing wild

7. Ecology

• is it a food plant for animals and birds and which parts are consumed (leaves, fruit, flowers, bark, sap...), list the animals and birds by their local names with the plant parts they feed on.
• Is the plant ëinhabitedí by animals (e.g. ant-plants) or are parts of the plant used for animalsí ëhousesí (e.g. mosses for birdsí nests)?
• is the plant an indicator, for e.g. soil quality, or time (e.g. flowering tells people that certain crops are ready to be harvested), or other...

C. Botanical information (via non-anthropological methods)

8. Identification (to be made by a specialist)

• Family
• Genus
• Species

9. Description of observed characteristics:

• colour and texture of bark, of sap/latex; shape and colour of leaves; is the plant deciduous, i.e. does it shed its leaves (and when); position of petioles, colour of inflorescence/infructescence, colour of young regrowth (often red in forest trees)
• where did you observe the plant (give local place name)
• also include other characteristics pointed out by local people.

D. Record details

• Place
• Date
• Informant
• Photo reference
• Sample reference, if taken
• Cross reference to field notes

Examples of local classifications (A1 of the checklist) from Nokopo

The local plant name is your basic point of reference, from there you begin your enquiries into the local classification. By asking for superordinate categories (big nem) and subordinate categories (liklik nem), you place your basic point of reference into the local classification system. These systems are always hierarchical, look at the example:

1. The position of orang (Ficus copiosa) in the Nokopo classification

kandap (tree)	local superordinate category
orang (F. copiosa)	local name
orang (normal orang)	local subordinate category
orang gaman (red orang)	local subordinate category

all orang are also trees but not all trees are orang
all orang gaman are also orang but not all orang are orang gaman
That means a hierarchical taxonomy with three levels

This example is characteristic of the type of taxonomy you will most often find, it includes three levels. kandap - tree; orang - a distinct fig tree - orang and orang gaman - two kinds of the fig tree orang.
It is also characteristic that on the lowest level, in the subordinate category, you find two kinds of fig trees: this is called a two-membered set. Such sets are most often distinguished by contrasts in size or colour: white and red xy, small and large xy. If you find larger sets, that is sets with three, four, five and more members, this is an indication that the plant in question may be culturally more important than others.
If you find more levels, that is when there is a further subdivision of the local subordinate category - in the example if there was a ësmall red orangí and a ëbig red orangí - this also indicates certain cultural importance.
Conclusion: If you find plants which have a complex local taxonomy or which are subdivided in many different kinds: you may have found a culturally important plant which deserves further and more detailed enquiries and your special attention.

Beginning with the local plant name, you not only ask for its position in the local taxonomy, but you also ask for other relations, in pidgin this is often called ëporman bilong ení. This is not asking for inclusive categories like before (all orang are trees) but for relations between plants.
In the example from Nokopo this produced the following lists

2. orang: related plants

gep (Ficus calopilina)
kildsik (F. gul)
kotengat (F.wassa)
kwadat (F. itoana)
noon (F. sublimata)

All these fig trees are considered closely related, they are mutually interlinked, that is orang is considered to be related to all the other figs listed above, and these in turn are all considered to be related to orang. The same applies to all these other figs. Such a group of mutually interlinked plants may be called a core of a cluster.There is also a fringe, other trees which are considered only related to one of the trees forming the core:

3. The fig cluster at Nokopo

Core	Fringe
orang (Ficus. copiosa)
gep (F, calopilina) ----------	dsigek ------------------------ mangpak (F.sterrocarpa (Cerbera floribunda)
kildsik (F. gul)
kotengat (F.wassa)
kwadat (F. itoana)-----------	upap (F. sp)

Note:

• often a fringe of a cluster may include members of (botanically) different genera and families, see the example of dsigek, which not only belongs to another genus than Ficus, but also to another plant familiy, Apocynaceae and not Moraceae. (in western taxonomy plants are labelled by double names: Ficus copiosa, the first name is the genus, the second the species, related genera are subsumed in families, for Ficus this is the Moraceae family, and for Cerbera the Apocynaceae family - this kind of information you will get from a botanist)
• mangpak is not directly related to gep but via dsigek: this may be called chaining: plants are linked together using single criteria, e.g. dsigek and mangpak are considered related because of their milky latex.
• Such a chain may also lead to another cluster: thus gep is not only considered related to dsigek but also to gasu (unident), gasu in turn belongs to the core of another cluster of trees.
• There are also longer chains. at Nokopo oil pandan (marita) is considered related to brambles on the notion that the fruit are similar (both are red syncarps), brambles in turn are considered related to the introduced European elder, as both these plants vigourously form stolons. The links between members of a chain may be created according to different criteria.

marita	bramble	European elder
fruit a red syncarp	fruit a red syncarp and plant forms stolons	plant forms stolons

• Such chains not only operate within one local superordinate category such as ëtreesí. At Nokopo violets are considered related to nut pandans (karuka) on the notion that the fruit of both these plants are tripartite. Chains thus may cut across superordinate categories.

Christin Kocher Schmid may 98

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