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
Small bamboo / Keela
| English Plant Name: | Small bamboo |
| Abui Plant Name: | Keela |
| Scientific Name: | Bambusoideae |
| Etymological Reconstruction: | TBC |
Small bamboo can be used to make house walls, the support of the thatched roof of a local house, and a local fish trap.Anyone, especially people in the past, might use small bamboo to make a spelled called akiingtuku ‘lit. breath stump’, and then put it on, e.g., crops like coconut tree, mango, candlenut to prohibit theft. As such, anybody who steals the crop might feel that it is hard to breathe or suffer from asthma. Besides akiingtuku, people could also make another spell called lahatang ‘bamboo basket’. Somebody who steals from the spell would have imperfect nose, eye or mouth or local people call “bamboo basket snatches that person’s nose and eyes on the face”.
| Remarks:
Tentative |