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Traditional Uses of Plants
Plants Sub-Menu
Four Main Plants
Food
Medicine
Perfume
Garlands
Psychoactive Plants
All Plants
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Plants have been a very important resource for people in the Marshall Islands ever since their arrival in these atolls and reef islands. Early settlers brought several plant species on their long-distance voyaging canoes. These useful, introduced plants have provided food, fiber, medicine, and other natural products. The early Marshallese also learned how to utilize the native species that they found growing wild in the islands. Over many centuries of experience, a large body of knowledge about these plants has been gathered and passed on from generation to generation. |
Some General Uses of Plant Materials
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Food and the Major Traditional Agricultural Seasons |
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In addition to food from the sea and some edible animals raised or gathered on land, it is plants that provide the core of the traditional Pacific Islanders' food supply. Until recent times in the Marshall Islands, this main source of food has been provided by only a few cultivated plant species, originally introduced by Pacific voyagers in the prehistoric period. Although the diets of modern Marshall Islanders have in many cases been profoundly affected by new sources of food, both from some newly introduced crop plants and by the importation of foreign foods, the traditional foods of the islands are still very important.
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Uses and Functions of Plants on pacific Islands |
shade
wind protection
erosion control
wild animal food
soil improvement
salt spray buffers
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temperature control
flood/runoff control
weed/disease control
animal/plant habitats
nutrients for animals
storm surge protection
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Cultural and Economic Uses |
timber
brooms
prop or nurse plants
tools
decoration
staple food
fuel
abrasive materials
supplementary food
weapons/hunting
insulation
snack/wild/emergency food
containers
cordage/lashing
packaging/wrapping
torches/lamps
floats
fishing gear
sails
caulking
boat/canoe-building
fiber/fabric
house thatch |
masticants
spices/seasonings
dyes
drugs
teas
glues/adhesives
plaited ware
body ornamentation
toys
hats
meat tenderizer
switches
baskets
preservatives
brush
magico-religious
medicines
aphrodisiacs
fertility control
musical instruments
abortifacient
mats |
baskets
tannin
scents/perfumes
commercial/export
cages/roosts
ritual exchange
products
poison
toilet paper
deodorant
insect repellant
recreation
embalming corpses
toothbrush
fire-making
religious images
totems
dancing grounds
secret meeting grounds
metaphors/symbols
boundary markers
subjects of mythology |
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Marshall Island Seasons |
The Marshallese language classifies the time of year by climatic conditions and the ripening of food crops. Rak is the slightly warmer summer period. Añōneañ is the slightly cooler winter period when it is also drier and windier. Rak is the time when Mā, breadfruit, one of the most important traditional staple food of the Marshall Islands matures. Rak generally lasts from April to August. It is the "time of plenty." In addition to Mā, many other food crops bear seasonal fruits or other useful products during Rak. Mā and Bōb(pandanus) seasons occur at different times of the year with some overlap. Generally, the Bōb season is during the Añōneañ months. Marshallese specify the breadfruit season by saying "Woton Ma" and the pandanus season as "Woton Bōb."
| Rak |
Woton Ma |
breadfruit season |
| Anonean |
Woton Bob |
pandanus season |
| Pal |
Woton Iertob |
arrowroot season |
Weather, time of year, and ripening of various food crops are the criteria for defining seasons. Thus it appears different terms might be used for the same time period, depending on which defining criteria is foremost in the speaker's mind.
Each year when they mature, pandanus fruit, processed arrowroot(mokmōk), breadfruit, and preserved breadfruit are presented to the irooj as tribute, ekkan. Also, when a pandanus, breadfruit, or coconut tree produces its first fruits these are presented as tribute, akeo. The tribute is beautified with a floral wreath, ut, put inside a breadfruit leaf and tied at both ends.
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Medicine |
Most traditional Marshallese medicines contain materials from one or more plant species. Some of these Marshallese medicines and their treatments are common knowledge. Other medicines and treatments are less well known. One who wishes to know more about these traditional medicines may be taught by a relative or inspired by a dream.
Some complex medicinal formulae (recipes) appear in this book, including ingredients, method of preparation, and application. Since some knowledge is private, not all is revealed here. For example, the contents and method of preparation may be told, but not the time for picking fruit or leaves.
The plant-by-plant listing below contains examples of medicinal uses, but it is common for medicinal formulae to utilize several plant species (and sometimes earth, coral, or other non-plant materials). Thus the reader should not be misled by the statement that a plant is "used for" a particular illness. The plant is likely to be one of a number of ingredients and the medicine in which it is used may be only part of a complex regimen of treatment.
Much of Marshallese medicinal practice focuses on the treatment of mothers and their babies. The following formulae illustrate this focus on motherhood and the multi-plant nature of Marshallese medicines:
"To relieve stomach cramps and eliminate discharge of fluids associated with childbirth: pound the husk from one of a cluster of three coconuts; mix with six red Kiden leaves, six young Kiden leaves, six green Kaar leaves, and six green Kōño leaves; squeeze into a bowl with water. The patient drinks this preparation once only. To relieve constant hunger associated with pregnancy and childbirth and to smooth the skin and restore strength to the body: steep green and healthy Kōņņat leaves in a gallon of water and drink a little at a time until it is finished. Also in connection with childbirth: pick one dozen young Markūbwebwe leaves, one dozen young Kiden leaves, one dozen Utilomar blossoms, one dozen young Markinenjojo leaves, six young Kōņņat leaves, and the fruit of a Wōp; crack open the Wōp fruit and pound the seed; mix the ingredients and wrap in cloth sachets suitable in size for vaginal insertion; lubricate a sachet and insert; change three times a day. |
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Perfume |
Blossoms picked from uncultivated pandanus, Edwaan tūar, and the flowers of Utilomar, Wūlej, and Kōņņat, are used alone or in combination to perfume coconut oil. Male pandanus flowers, tūar, are "thought to be aphrodisiac in effect" (Stone 1963). Blossoms from Meria, an introduced ornamental tree (plumeria), have more recently become the flower of choice for perfuming coconut oil. Nowadays the oil is boiled with these blossoms and a light green fungus from the trunk of a coconut or breadfruit tree is then added to preserve the sweet smell in the oil. Aik, drift cedar or other aromatic wood, is collected, saved, and used in perfume. If the oil spoils, shoots of the Kāmeñ tree (Dodonaea viscosa) counteract the odor.
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Garlands |
Flower garlands and chaplets adorn persons at important occasions, and anyone wishing to show affection or respect may present a lei. To make a wreath for the head (ut), one winds one or more species of flower and Kino or other leaves around a strand of pandanus leaf, idin ļōļō. Lei makers use a variety of flowers, with choice depending in part on availability; even the tiny lavender blossoms of Utkōņamņam (Vitex trifolia) sometimes appear in a chaplet. Residents of crowded Ebeye give knit yarn wreaths for the head and silk leis more often than flower and leaf garlands, perhaps owing to the scarcity of flowers on that heavily populated island. Residents of atolls with rich plant life may also present knit yarn ut, however, as occurred on Epoon recently.
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Psychoactive plants |
In most of the world, certain plants are used for psychoactive (mind-altering) purposes. Tobacco(legal) and marijuana(illegal) are two examples of plants that produce an altered state of consciousness. Some of these psychoactive plants or the mind-altering substances made from them, are referred to as "intoxicants." A true intoxicant is a substance which is toxic to the human body, especially in a large dose. Alcoholic beverages can be extremely intoxicating when large amounts are consumed.
The beverage jimañūñ, fermented from coconut sap (jekaro), can be psychoactive because of its alcohol content, and if a sufficient amount (depending on many factors) is consumed, he or she can become intoxicated. Records of early European visitors indicate that the Marshallese did not ferment alcohol from coconut sap before the arrival of these outsiders. It thus appears that prior to contact, the Marshall Islands was one of the few places in the world where no psychoactive substances were consumed, either because the necessary plants were not present (e.g., tobacco or marijuana) or because the process of obtaining an intoxicating drink from an existing plant was not part of the cultural inventory (e.g., the fermentation of jekaro).
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