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
Bamboo / Maai
| English Plant Name: | Bamboo |
| Abui Plant Name: | Maai |
| Scientific Name: | Bambusoideae |
| Etymological Reconstruction: | TBC |
Used by the Abui people to make houses, platforms, ladders (specifically its two poles), baskets, cages (for pigs, chickens and birds), fences and bridges.Used by the Abui people to make fire in the past.Used in the past to prevent alowai ‘disease’ which may attack rice plants. The owner of a rice field could bring a stump of bamboo, set fire to it, lift it up, and blast.Bamboo sprinkles or a piece of bamboo stump might be used to make a torch.Used to make rakit ‘raft’.Young boys could take a piece of bamboo and make it into a bamboo cannon to blast it in celebration of Christmas.Tifool, a type of bamboo plant is used in an annual ceremony, usually celebrated every June 15th to 17th. This ceremony is known as tifool tol ‘cut tifool bamboo’.In a hut in a field of corn or rice or cassava, the owner could sound bamboo to protect the crops from wild pig and deer.Peesing, a big type of bamboo may be used to make bow.Used to name villages, e.g. maai kaang ‘good bamboo’ village, maai huwor ‘play/sound bamboo’ village.Used as a remedy to to have big corn or rice harvests. A field owner might burn dry bamboo in the field to produce great sounds. If the burnt bamboo sounds nice, it could be predicted that he/ she can have nice harvests.
| Remarks:
Tentative |