SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany Review of Learning

During a traditional sakau ceremony in Pohnpei...

  1. Do you enter the front or back of a nahs when you walk in?
  2. Can you "hang" your legs over the edge of the nahs during a formal sakau ceremony?
  3. Who sits down by the sakau stone?
  4. Who sits up on the platforms?
  5. What shape are the platforms? Always?
  6. When sakau (Piper methysticum) is brought into the nahs
    1. Only the roots are brought in
    2. The roots and two to four stalks are brought in
    3. The whole plant with all of its stalks are brought in
  7. The sakau is prepared by
    1. Boiling the root stock
    2. Chewing the root stock
    3. Pounding the root stock
    4. Uhming the root stock
  8. One the sakau is prepared, the preparers play a "tune" (on the sakau stone in order to:
    1. Call the guests to the ceremony
    2. Call the king (nahnmwarki)
    3. Call the sakau wrap to the stone
    4. No reason, just a happy thing to do
  9. The squeezing is done using
    1. coconut fibers
    2. the inner bark of the hibiscus tree
    3. the outer bark of the hibiscus tree
  10. Sakau is used in which of the following ceremonies?
    1. Apology
    2. Asking a father for his daughter
    3. Festival (komadipw)
    4. Presentation of first fruits to the king (nahnmwarki)
    5. First year birthday party for a baby
    6. Funeral
  11. The people in front of nahnmwarki and nahnken serve the nahnmwarki and nahnken. Which of the following are their roles in the ceremony?
    1. defense of the leader
    2. drinking sakau
    3. master of ceremonies
    4. pounding sakau
    5. Protection against magic in the sakau
    6. squeezing sakau
  12. Under what conditions would the server drink the sakau?
  13. At what point can the "business" of the gathering be announced and the agenda begun?
  14. In Sokehs, how many cups must be served before anyone can speak?
  15. Who gets the first cup?
  16. Who gets the second cup?
  17. The third cup went to a woman from Kosrae because...
    1. The third cup always goes to a woman of Kosraen descent
    2. The man who sat in the position of the highest title is married to a Kosraen
    3. Pohnpeian legend is that sakau comes from Kosrae
    4. In a hypothetical sakau ceremony including the king of Kosrae (togusrai) and the kings of Pohnpei (nahnmwarkis), the togusrai would get the first cup.
  18. Who gets the third cup in Sokeh's?
  19. Who gets the fourth cup?
  20. Do all of the municipalities use the same number of special "cups"?
  21. After the "special" cups...
    1. Everyone goes home
    2. Everyone goes to eat
    3. Everyone goes to sleep
    4. The purpose of the ceremony is announced
  22. Sakau makes most people sleepy, but maybe one in fifty become __________________.
  23. After the special cups, does the cup come to you or do you go to the cup to drink?
  24. On Pohnpei, Piper methysticum is a...
    1. food plant
    2. house plant
    3. mystical plant
    4. power plant
    5. sacred plant
    6. weed plant

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  25. What was your reaction to the sakau ceremony?
  26. Should ethnobotany classes in future terms attend a sakau ceremony?

    Why?