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Honey bee publish details |
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Globalising Knowledge-III |
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Learning from apes |
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Michael A Huffman In the course of his research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania, he provided the first scientifically reported evidence that animals ingest medicinal plants when suffering from illness and then recover. This was done by observations of chimpanzees chewing bitter pith of a plant, locally known as mjonso (Vernonia amygdalina Delile (Compositae)) by the WaTongwe people in western Tanzania. While ingesting the pith from the young shoots of mjonso, chimpanzees remove the outer bark and leaves to chew only on the inner pith, from which they extract the extremely bitter juice. It was later found that the bitter compounds in the leaves and bark contained very toxic substances that inhibit most insects and other animals from eating it. Mature chimpanzees in proximity to sick individuals chewing mjonso bitter pith show little or no interest in ingesting the pith, as they seem to know that it is used for medicine. Infants on the other hand try to taste the pith discarded by their ill mothers. In this way, the young get their first exposure to both the sick behaviour of their mothers and her ingestion of the extremely bitter tasting plant. Chimpanzees, and indeed most animals, do not directly teach their offspring what to eat, rather the young learn by watching and trying for themselves what their elders eat. The fact that humans share medicinal practices with animals is obvious from the following example V. amygdalina is used by many African ethnic groups across the continent as medicine. This plant is prescribed as a treatment for ailments such as malarial fever, schistosomiasis, amoebic dysentery, several other intestinal parasites, stomach aches and a variety of other diseases. The chimpanzees, who share the bounty of the forest with these ethnic human populations, too use this plant as a treatment for intestinal parasites, diarrhoea and stomach upset. Vol 19(2) April-June 2008 Bark Cloth in Uganda Dr. S C Downie Bark cloth is a traditional product dating back hundreds of years in Uganda. A field trip was made to the house of a local bark cloth maker, James Kadhumbula, in a forest. Farmers plant saplings from the copious stump of a fig tree into the local agro-forestry system to provide shade for coffee, banana crops and social purposes. Three to four-year old fig tree stems are used for making bark cloth. First of all, the outermost layer of the stems is scraped off and the main layer of bark is then peeled off. Removing the bark is like skinning a python, they say. Special care is to be taken to slice the bark from top to bottom along the line down which rainwater flows, because bark is thinnest there. So it ends up as the edges of the final cloth. The line is best recognised by the lack of lichens along it. As the freshly stripped bark is wet, it is spread out on dried banana leaves to keep the dirt off. Then the peeled bark is hammered on a peeled fig anvil with a wooden mallet called ‘nsaamo’. The mallet is prepared from a hard wood tree, the ‘kakomo’. Because of the hammering, the bark sheet becomes thin and about four times wider than its original size. A five to six-square metre size cloth sheet can be prepared from one tree. Finally, the cloth is laid out in the sun to mature. The striped stem of the tree is bandaged with banana fibers so that the new growth can become the raw material for the finer grade cloth. The fibrous, non-woven cloth is still widely used for bedding and shrouds but now rarely for clothing. It is also used for a variety of handicrafts. All types of fig tree are not suitable for cloth making, only Ficus natalensis Hochst yields cloth of suitable quality. Vol 4(4) Oct- Dec 1993 Traditional Pottery in Siberia, Russia Andrey Saltan came to Ahmedabad for the Sattvik Food Festival, 2013 during which he enthsiastically promoted the pottery work and techniques from Russia. He came to India empty handed except for some exciting clay whistles. The entire set of pottery he displayed at Sattvik was made at the place of Mansukhbhai Prajapati, the innovator of the Mitti Cool refrigerator, at Wankaner in Gujarat. Andrey Saltan tirelessly explained the pottery art of Russia to thousands of visitors as they took a keen interest in the displayed art. Andrey pointed out that the traditional clay water jugs were different for men and women because of the different grip sizes. The smaller size of a women’s hand means that her hand can go through a tinier mouth of the jug while cleaning. As men however, have bigger hands, so for them to clean the jugs, the mouths of the jugs have to larger for cleaning. He showed how in olden times, a vessel with openings on two sides and suspended from the ceiling was used to wash hands after dinner. One only had to press the mouth on one side and the vessel would tilt allowing water to flow to that side. After Sattvik, Andrey again visited Wankaner for a potters’ workshop organised by the Gujarat Grassroots Innovation and Augmentation Network (GIAN), Ahmedabad and Gujarati Matikam Kalakari (GMK) and the Rural Technology Institute (RTI), Gandhinagar. The workshop was supported by SRISTI and NIF. The objective of the workshop was to acquaint the potters of Gujarat with techniques and ideas from Russia. At the workshop he narrated his struggles as a potter and many Gujarati potters could relate to him. He urged potters to continue taking risks and trying new things to be successful. He explained to the potters techniques like the use of milk, double kilning process, use of self-made natural wax coating and showcased a few articles made by him. Andrey also made a few articles in front of the potters and explained the use of small tools to make designs in their clay articles, he even used a cut out from plastic bottle, waste paper, floor tiles to make various design and give different shapes to his articles. The potters from the Gujarat, in turn, showcased their talent which fostered cross learning. Andrey explained how he designed his products for the niche market and sold them at premium. He also acknowledged that products similar to his, were available in Russia, but his quality and precision fetched better returns. Andrey further explained how climatic conditions affect the nature of technology. The slack months in production were due to rains in India, and in Russia these were due to extreme winter. In India, it is necessary to retain the porosity of the clay articles as it enables cooling by evaporation while in Russia the porosity has to be minimum.Later, Andrey joined the 32nd Shodhyatra in Punjab to explore India’s creativity at the grassroots and share his message across. Vol 24(4) Oct-Dec 2013Dragonflies in Rice Fields: Pioneering Pak Oyo in West JavaPak Oyo, a farmer in Buah Dua, West Java, has developed an innovative way to improve his rice farming. He uses bamboo markers in his rice fields to attract dragonflies for protecting his crop from insects.In March 1996, while caring for a rice nursery, he noticed a large number of dragonflies hovering over the rice seedlings. Pak Oyo remembered from his participation at the Farmer Field School (FFS) and follow up training that dragonflies are predators. He decided to confirm this information. Indeed, he observed some dragonflies capturing plant hoppers as they flew from the nursery. He was excited by what he saw. Looking around, he noticed some dragonflies resting on bamboo markers next to the nursery. Pak Oyo thought hard and long about what he had seen in the nursery. It dawned upon him that if dragonflies could be encouraged to stay in the rice field, they would protect his crop from insects flying into the field. He was very concerned with the common practice of spraying insecticides to prevent brown plant hopper (BPH) outbreaks. He was convinced that spraying insecticides had led to several outbreaks of this insect in the village. Encouraging dragonflies in the field could possibly reduce the number of BPH coming into and flying out of the field. He planned a small experiment to see if dragonflies would be encouraged to stay in a field planted with markers. Initially he used only six bamboo markers (ajir) placed around the field for two weeks. Regular observations showed that dragonflies frequently rested on the markers and this encouraged Pak Oyo to extend his study. He placed bamboo markers all around the field. Throughout the season there was no buildup of BPH in his crop. Neighboring fields subjected to insecticide sprays had large populations of brown plant hopper. He talked to his friends in the village about the results of his experiment and his friends were encouraged to try it themselves. They decided to join him in the experiment and the topic was included in a FFS organised by Pak Oyo. In the next two seasons farmers who placed bamboo markers in their fields did not have any problem with would be no need to apply insecticides.Vol 9(3) Jul- Sep 1998 |
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Honey Bee 25(4) & 26(1) 81-82, 2014-2015 (25 years celebration) |
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