SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany test three ✿ ❦ ❀ Name:

25 March 2010

1. __________________________________ 11 February 2010: Are the plants in the Pwunso botanic garden at the Pohnpei visitors bureau primarily native, indigenous plants or are they primarily introduced, exotic plants from outside Pohnpei? ¹
2. 25 February 2010: Food presentations. Matching on a circle: connect the local name for a food dish with the English word for the plant used. English plant words can be used more than once. ²
   
3. 04 March 2010: Vegetative morphology matching. ³ Use the leaves in the laboratory to match each leaf to the most appropriate leaf shape name:
   • _____ awl
   • _____ cordate
   • _____ lanceolate
   • _____ lobed, pinnate
   • _____ obovate
   • _____ palmate
   • _____ peltate
4. 04 March 2010: Vegetative morphology. Use the a sheet of paper to sketch a leaf. To the best of your ability, label the parts of the leaf. Include the petiole, midrib, blade, and axillary bud in your sketch. Include whether the leaf you have drawn is most likely to be a dicot or monocot.
5. ____________________________ What does Haruki mean?
6. ____________________________ What happens on Ohigan?
7. 11 March 2010: Material culture. In the past the class has used the fronds of Metroxylon amicarum (oahs) for thatching. Obtaining the fronds requires cutting down the tree. Rather than destroy a whole tree for a class activity, this term the class used an alternate thatching material. ⁴
   1. _______________ What is the name of the palm used this term in your own language?
   2. __________ ____________ What is the latin name of the palm used this term?
   3. What features distinguished the thatching product of an experienced thatch weaver?
8. Essay: Are words and their meanings culturally important? What power, if any, is there in words and their proper cultural use? In this class, whether you are from Pohnpei or not, you should have been able to roughly follow my explanation of lehn kalangi, marekeiso, and kei. Today the first two words are used on commercial products. Even in the Pohnpeian traditional nahs there are times when the term marekeiso is used even though no Nahnmwarki (king) is present. Does this matter? ⁵
   
   Do words have to be used in their original culturally correct meaning and usage? Does incorrect usage degrade the language and the culture? More directly, what harm, if any, is done if I ask someone to apply marekeiso to me, a foreigner?
   
   All of the local languages have words that are not being used in their full traditional meaning and use. Are new uses, such as calling a commercial product by a traditional name reserved for kings only, an insult? Or is this acceptable cultural change and modernization? Can the change of meaning damage the culture? How powerful are words?
   
   Write an essay with an introduction, body, and conclusion that addresses whether words and their traditional meanings are culturally important along with the other questions asked above. Your essay will be marked for correct use of vocabulary, correct grammar, organization, coherence (how well the sentences and paragraphs transition from one to the next), as well as for content.