Methodology
This study combines Field Linguistics and Language Documentation methods. The team conducted field work, together with a local consultant, Mr Benediktus Delpada, to collect original and ‘first-hand’ data, documented plant species (English and Abui plant names and the scientific name). Besides looking at the medicinal properties and cultural relevance (from the perspective of the Abui people), the team also explored local myths and legends connected with the plants.
Thereafter, the team organised the data in a database which is reflected below.
| Please note that all Abui plant names, reported medical usages of plants and any associated legends or myths recorded below are the intellectual property of the Abui people. |
Collection
Cassava / Bataaqo
| English Plant Name: | Cassava |
| Abui Plant Name: | Bataaqo |
| Scientific Name: | Manihot esculenta |
| Etymological Reconstruction: | TBC |
Dry cassava, when heated and eaten, can be used to treat stomach aches.
Taweei Moti ‘lit. everybody’s ears skilled’ indicating ‘skilled trumpet’There lived three siblings – two men and one woman. The men’s activities were farming and hunting, while the woman’s activity was managing their household, including growing and maintaining crops like cassava and banana groves. The sister always went to their banana farm in the coast to clean the banana grove, where she met and fell in love with Tama Nera ‘a son of the sea’. Both the woman and Tama Nera met each other at the banana grove. The woman felt ill some days later because she was pregnant and faced a dilemma if she should tell her two brothers that she was pregnant. Eventually, her two brothers and family knew about her pregnancy and found out that Tama Nera was sleeping with their sister. They killed the ‘son of the sea’. Right after they killed Tama Nera, his body changed into the shape of a fish called paqwatang, but the original entity of the son of the sea went back to the sea. The sister eventually gave birth to a sea slug and put the sea slug to the blood of its dead father. The sea slug grew up as a man, albeit in the shape of slug, and was named Taweei Moti. During Taweei Mot’s growth, his two uncles (i.e. his mother’s brothers) treated him differently; while the oldest uncle disliked him, the youngest uncle liked him – interacting with Taweei Moti when he went away for hunting, bringing advantages for both.
| Remarks:
Tentative |