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Jodi horticultural belief, knowledge and practice: incipient or integral cultivation?

Author:
Stanford Zent, Egleé Zent
Published by:
llandaburo
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Zent, E., Zent, S. (2012) Jodi horticultural belief, knowledge and practice: incipient or integral cultivation?. Recuperado de: http://www.academia.edu/1933445/Jodi_horticultural_belief_knowledge_and_practice_incipient_or_integral_cultivation
Summary:
This paper describes the Jodi horticultural system, including belief, knowledge and practice aspects. The horticultural practices of the Jodi were previously characterized as incipient cultivation but such practices were poorly described and documented. The antiquity of cultivation among this group is suggested by the prominence and significance of horticultural products and techniques in myth and ritual. Our field observations uncovered a fairly sophisticated system of plant management in swiddens, house gardens, trail gardens and natural forest gaps. An inventory of 67 cultivated plant species was documented, of which 36 are utilized for food, 20 for magical or medicinal purposes, and 11 for technology. The Jodi prolong the productive phase of their gardens for five years or more through successive planting-harvesting-replanting operations. Jodi swiddens display an elaborate polycultivated appearance and they possess at least five principal crops: plantain/banana, maize, yams, sweet potato, and sweet manioc. Another distinctive feature is the extensive use of natural gaps in the forest canopy as cultivation zones. The results of this study suggest that while Jodi horticultural practice is well integrated with a nomadic, foraging-dependent lifestyle, nevertheless this system does not deserve to be labeled as incipient and instead is more integral than was recognized previously.