Botanical Source-Areas for some Oriental Spices
By Robert M. Newcomb, for Economic Botany (1963)
This article is of only tangential interest to me in my research. It contains notes on the origins of a selection of spices, some of which are present in Mandeville’s travel narrative.
Newcomb speaks to a vagueness on the origin of many spices, which he argues is intentional, mostly to protect trade interests in the East. This leads to an interesting point on how merchants contributed to the obscurity around source areas:
“Tall tales and legends were promulgated as part of the camouflaging effort. Fire-breathing monsters, great carnivorous birds, perils and hardships of the sea, as well as strange and cruel tribes were supposed to isolate and guard the spice groves. Protection from the searching newcomer was thereby assured, assuming that he were not possessed of particular charms, incantations, route maps or commercial knowledge so vital for surmounting such obstacles” (127).
So, the invention (or popularization) or marvels was, served, among other things, to protect the interests of merchants in the East. This might bear in interesting ways on Mandeville’s discussion of pepper, the beasts that beset visitors to the pepper groves, and the charms (such as lemons) that will protect people who wish to harvest.
Beyond this, Newcomb maps three botanical regions as source areas for spices in Asia: India, Malaysia and South China (128). He also makes note of sources for the following spices, some of which occur in the Travels:
Anise (131)
Betel (130)
Cardamom (130)
Cassia (130)
Cinnamon (130)
Clove (130)
Cubeb (130)
Curryleaf tree (130)
Ginger (131)
Nutmeg (130)
Pepper, black (130)
Pepper, long (130)
Turmeric (131)
Zedoary (130)
Showing posts with label botanical indices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label botanical indices. Show all posts
Friday, December 3, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Plant Folk Medicines (article)
Plant Folk Medicines among the Nicobarese of Katchal Island, India
By H. S. Dagar and J. C. Dagar, for Economic Botany (1991)
First, I am kind of offended by the idiotic point of view that one can stay with an indigenous community for “several days” (115) and in doing so “create confidence in them to reveal” (115) their ancient sacred practices.
That aside, this article details the folk medicinal use of plants naturally occurring on Katchal Island, India, by an indigenous group “living in complete geographical isolation” (115) with an unbroken history of interactions with local plants that date to time before memory.
For information on local use of plants encountered by Mandeville in India, I might refer to the significant list of plant species and usage summaries provided in the article. Given that the article only cites scientific names and I haven’t memorized the Latin for the plants Mandeville encounters, I probably won’t go ahead and do that for the hell of it, but for the record: note to self, this might be a helpful resource.
By H. S. Dagar and J. C. Dagar, for Economic Botany (1991)
First, I am kind of offended by the idiotic point of view that one can stay with an indigenous community for “several days” (115) and in doing so “create confidence in them to reveal” (115) their ancient sacred practices.
That aside, this article details the folk medicinal use of plants naturally occurring on Katchal Island, India, by an indigenous group “living in complete geographical isolation” (115) with an unbroken history of interactions with local plants that date to time before memory.
For information on local use of plants encountered by Mandeville in India, I might refer to the significant list of plant species and usage summaries provided in the article. Given that the article only cites scientific names and I haven’t memorized the Latin for the plants Mandeville encounters, I probably won’t go ahead and do that for the hell of it, but for the record: note to self, this might be a helpful resource.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
The Metrical Version of Mandeville's Travels
Today's task: The Metrical Version of Mandeville's Travels, (ed. M. C. Seymour, Early English Text Society).
Okay, so this was a pretty cute text. I feel weird saying that about a 2950-line poem in Middle English, but it's true. Something about it is just very...sing-songy and light. Much of the moralizing and the in-depth discussions of the other versions have been excised (of course) and the rhymes don't often seem too laboured, so the overall effect is very...cute.
There are a few key points in the text that I think would make interesting intersections with the longer prose versions:
(Botanical)
1. The episode with the Trees of Sun and Moon 68
2. Hagiography / the origin of roses 30
3. People who live on the scent of apples 67
4. The pepper narrative 51
5. The discussion of balm 41
(Fantastical/weird)
6. Monopeds 50
7. The country of Amazons 49
8. The mention of Uther Pendragon and Merlin 57
9. The seemly men / unseemly women 48
(Authority)
10. The purpose of the book 3
11. On shortening the book 4
I don't have any concrete thoughts about how these cross over between poetry and prose, but it's something I'll look at more closely later.
Here is an index of plant references from my edition of the book:
Abundance -- 41, 69
Apple -- (Sodom) 35; 67
Balm -- 41, 46?
Bamboo -- 56
Banana -- 41
Cedar -- 65
Cloves -- 54
Corn -- 75
Cotton -- 54
Cypress -- 64
Fig -- 41
Forest -- 64, 70
Garden -- 34, 41
Ginger -- 54
Grape / Wine -- 15, 58, 75
Lemon -- 51
Mace -- 54
Mastic -- 18
Nutmeg -- 54
Olive -- 38, 67
Pepper -- 51
Reed -- 16
Rice -- 75
Rose -- 30
Saffron -- 72
Spices -- 52, 54, 75
Sponge -- 16
Thorn -- 16
Tree -- (Bread) 55; (Cotton) 63; (Flour) 55; (Honey) 55; (Olive) 67; (Poison) 55; (Sun and Moon) 68; (Wine) 55; (Wool) 60
Wine / Grape -- 15, 58, 75
Wood -- 54
Okay, so this was a pretty cute text. I feel weird saying that about a 2950-line poem in Middle English, but it's true. Something about it is just very...sing-songy and light. Much of the moralizing and the in-depth discussions of the other versions have been excised (of course) and the rhymes don't often seem too laboured, so the overall effect is very...cute.
There are a few key points in the text that I think would make interesting intersections with the longer prose versions:
(Botanical)
1. The episode with the Trees of Sun and Moon 68
2. Hagiography / the origin of roses 30
3. People who live on the scent of apples 67
4. The pepper narrative 51
5. The discussion of balm 41
(Fantastical/weird)
6. Monopeds 50
7. The country of Amazons 49
8. The mention of Uther Pendragon and Merlin 57
9. The seemly men / unseemly women 48
(Authority)
10. The purpose of the book 3
11. On shortening the book 4
I don't have any concrete thoughts about how these cross over between poetry and prose, but it's something I'll look at more closely later.
Here is an index of plant references from my edition of the book:
Abundance -- 41, 69
Apple -- (Sodom) 35; 67
Balm -- 41, 46?
Bamboo -- 56
Banana -- 41
Cedar -- 65
Cloves -- 54
Corn -- 75
Cotton -- 54
Cypress -- 64
Fig -- 41
Forest -- 64, 70
Garden -- 34, 41
Ginger -- 54
Grape / Wine -- 15, 58, 75
Lemon -- 51
Mace -- 54
Mastic -- 18
Nutmeg -- 54
Olive -- 38, 67
Pepper -- 51
Reed -- 16
Rice -- 75
Rose -- 30
Saffron -- 72
Spices -- 52, 54, 75
Sponge -- 16
Thorn -- 16
Tree -- (Bread) 55; (Cotton) 63; (Flour) 55; (Honey) 55; (Olive) 67; (Poison) 55; (Sun and Moon) 68; (Wine) 55; (Wool) 60
Wine / Grape -- 15, 58, 75
Wood -- 54
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Travels of Friar Odoric
Today’s task: The Travels of Friar Odoric (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002)
Let me start by saying that while I love buying books online, I need to start looking more closely at the editions I order. This one starts with a bit of bible-thumping as some publisher out of Grand Rapids reclaims Odoric for the modern missionary. Okay, it’s not so bad, but the framework this particular book provides for Odoric’s writing pirouettes on my very last nerve. It has a beautiful dust jacket, a pleasant typeface and a reassuring weight to the paper, though, so in the end, all is well.
Quick recap: who is Friar Odoric? A Franciscan monk from northeastern Italy who traveled throughout Asia in the early fourteenth century (I believe through present-day Iran, India, Indonesia, China, Nepal and Russia).
I have totally loved Odoric since we read his journal in 515. There’s no bullshit with Odoric. He’s descriptive and even poetic at times, but always in measured doses, and generally you sense you’re receiving his impressions unaltered by any thought of artistry or politics. If this makes sense, what impresses me about Odoric is how he confidently shuns any need or desire to impress. In short, he’s the sort of traveler I aspire to be: he lets the places and people he encounters largely speak for themselves, and speak how they will to whatever audience they find – but he doesn’t shame himself from indulging in description of the crazy shit he comes across, either. Good man.
Some points that cross with Mandeville:
-Odoric gives prices for trade items like dates and ginger, which Mandeville largely avoids in the versions I’ve read
-Odoric mentions the Dry Tree in passing (though Mandeville describes it at length), and passes over the Tartary Lamb in a passage that seems a bit truncated to me
-The discussion of bamboo, its uses and its properties is very similar to my versions of Mandeville
-The trees bearing honey, flour, poison and wine are in both Odoric and Mandeville, and change very little between the two
I am intrigued by the following passage that occurs early in Odoric’s journal:
“Of all I purpose not to speak, though I shall be the first to tell of many which will seem to a number of people past belief” (64).
I feel like this is close to a statement made by Mandeville in at least one version, but as I don’t have Mandeville with me here in Koeye (for shame!) I’ll have to check up on this later.
For the future, I have a question: what the hell are lignum aloes? I keep coming across references to them and have yet to find a satisfactory explanation. I'll push on this a little harder when I have a stabler internet connection.
For now, here is an index of botanical references in my edition of Odoric:
Agriculture -- 131
Apple -- 163
Bamboo -- 109
Barrenness -- 75
Cotton -- 131
Dates -- 75
Fertility -- 155
Flower -- 78
Forest -- 144
Fruit -- 67, 106
Ginger -- 98, 121
Green Mount -- 136
Lemon -- 115
Lignum aloe -- 105, 141
Pasture -- 93
Pepper -- 94, 96
Rhubarb -- 151
Rice -- 105, 106, 120, 128, 154
Shrubbery -- 129
Spices -- 107
Sugar -- 123
Thicket -- 136
Tree -- (Dry Tree) 68; (instrument of martyrdom) 88; (pleasant) 129; (tree of flour) 108; (tree of honey) 108; (tree of poison) 108; (tree of wine) 108; (tree worship) 77, 78
Vegetable lamb -- 148
Wheat -- 105
Wine -- 67, 77, 78, 100, 107, 120, 128, 134, 148
Let me start by saying that while I love buying books online, I need to start looking more closely at the editions I order. This one starts with a bit of bible-thumping as some publisher out of Grand Rapids reclaims Odoric for the modern missionary. Okay, it’s not so bad, but the framework this particular book provides for Odoric’s writing pirouettes on my very last nerve. It has a beautiful dust jacket, a pleasant typeface and a reassuring weight to the paper, though, so in the end, all is well.
Quick recap: who is Friar Odoric? A Franciscan monk from northeastern Italy who traveled throughout Asia in the early fourteenth century (I believe through present-day Iran, India, Indonesia, China, Nepal and Russia).
I have totally loved Odoric since we read his journal in 515. There’s no bullshit with Odoric. He’s descriptive and even poetic at times, but always in measured doses, and generally you sense you’re receiving his impressions unaltered by any thought of artistry or politics. If this makes sense, what impresses me about Odoric is how he confidently shuns any need or desire to impress. In short, he’s the sort of traveler I aspire to be: he lets the places and people he encounters largely speak for themselves, and speak how they will to whatever audience they find – but he doesn’t shame himself from indulging in description of the crazy shit he comes across, either. Good man.
Some points that cross with Mandeville:
-Odoric gives prices for trade items like dates and ginger, which Mandeville largely avoids in the versions I’ve read
-Odoric mentions the Dry Tree in passing (though Mandeville describes it at length), and passes over the Tartary Lamb in a passage that seems a bit truncated to me
-The discussion of bamboo, its uses and its properties is very similar to my versions of Mandeville
-The trees bearing honey, flour, poison and wine are in both Odoric and Mandeville, and change very little between the two
I am intrigued by the following passage that occurs early in Odoric’s journal:
“Of all I purpose not to speak, though I shall be the first to tell of many which will seem to a number of people past belief” (64).
I feel like this is close to a statement made by Mandeville in at least one version, but as I don’t have Mandeville with me here in Koeye (for shame!) I’ll have to check up on this later.
For the future, I have a question: what the hell are lignum aloes? I keep coming across references to them and have yet to find a satisfactory explanation. I'll push on this a little harder when I have a stabler internet connection.
For now, here is an index of botanical references in my edition of Odoric:
Agriculture -- 131
Apple -- 163
Bamboo -- 109
Barrenness -- 75
Cotton -- 131
Dates -- 75
Fertility -- 155
Flower -- 78
Forest -- 144
Fruit -- 67, 106
Ginger -- 98, 121
Green Mount -- 136
Lemon -- 115
Lignum aloe -- 105, 141
Pasture -- 93
Pepper -- 94, 96
Rhubarb -- 151
Rice -- 105, 106, 120, 128, 154
Shrubbery -- 129
Spices -- 107
Sugar -- 123
Thicket -- 136
Tree -- (Dry Tree) 68; (instrument of martyrdom) 88; (pleasant) 129; (tree of flour) 108; (tree of honey) 108; (tree of poison) 108; (tree of wine) 108; (tree worship) 77, 78
Vegetable lamb -- 148
Wheat -- 105
Wine -- 67, 77, 78, 100, 107, 120, 128, 134, 148
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Journey of William of Rubruck
Today's task: The Journey of William of Rubruck to the Eastern Parts of the World, 1253-55 (Kessinger Publishing, 2009)
I'm going to be honest with you here. I find William of Rubruck to be a rather distasteful man. I don't know what it is - something in his tone, no doubt. While it must take tremendous character and intrepidity to bring the Word of God all the way to Mangu Chan, the voice that carries across the centuries through this account is not a voice I find it easy to like or respect.
Anyway, that's just fine, because I don't need to respect him to find him useful. He did at least have this much sense:
"...it seemed to me, as I said before, that I had been transported into another world" (83).
Most plant references in Rubruck's text are pretty utilitarian. The majority reference millet, wine, food and drink, with little to no natural history or commentary on the botany/ecology of the lands he passes through. He gives some simple trade information - like Mandeville, the merchandise but not its worth, its consumers or its market.
Plants do figure on several occasions as points of comparison (X here is like Y at home), and while Rubruck does discuss the importance of agriculture, it is without moralizing. That is, people who do not practice agriculture are inferior, but they are not evil or immoral. This distinction, drawn by Mandeville, is one I find interesting and oddly logical (though by those standards, one might - and did - assume that my people were evil and immoral).
The most interesting botanical passage to my mind refers to rhubarb and its properties as a medicinal and supernatural curative. While the spiritual and medicinal are firmly parted ("Either go as an apostle doing real miracles . . . or do as a physician in accordance with medical art" [216]), the botanical is portrayed by Rubruck at different parts of the text as intrinsic to each one - a bridge, as it were.
At any rate, while I can make myself imagine limited borrowing by Mandeville in terms of Rubruck's plants, it is very minimal. Though he clearly relies on Rubruck for other aspects of his narrative, I fail to see the exchange of a bouquet of posies or anything else significantly plant-related between the two authors.
In any event, here is an index of botanical references for my edition of Rubruck:
Agriculture -- 134
Almond -- 67, 206
Apple -- 65
Art -- 54
Bean -- 95
Bough -- 211
Briar -- 133, 172
Cotton -- 44, 52, 70, 71, 201
Flour -- 68
Forest -- 51, 70, 92, 99, 158, 179
Fruit -- 48, 86, 103, 105, 143, 206, 212, 224, 242
Garden -- 134
Grains -- 221
Grapes -- 135, 262
Herbs -- 156
Medicine -- 156, 192, 216
Millet -- 62, 68, 98, 132, 169, 183, 186, 202, 221
Nomadism -- 53
Pasture -- 53, 92, 111, 117, 259
Pear -- 65
Plant technology -- 53, 55, 70, 71, 73, 195, 201, 208, 212, 147, 270, 272
Prune -- 206
Raisin -- 206
Rhubarb -- 192, 216
Rice -- 62, 166, 173, 186, 199
Rye -- 97, 98
Spices -- 44
Tree -- 128, 204, 208, 212, 247
Wheat -- 98
Whey -- 67
Wilderness -- 92, 118
Wine -- 48, 83, 86, 90, 102, 103, 105, 166, 173, 186, 194, 199, 206, 208, 242, 262, 266
Woods -- 133
Wormwood -- 172
I'm going to be honest with you here. I find William of Rubruck to be a rather distasteful man. I don't know what it is - something in his tone, no doubt. While it must take tremendous character and intrepidity to bring the Word of God all the way to Mangu Chan, the voice that carries across the centuries through this account is not a voice I find it easy to like or respect.
Anyway, that's just fine, because I don't need to respect him to find him useful. He did at least have this much sense:
"...it seemed to me, as I said before, that I had been transported into another world" (83).
Most plant references in Rubruck's text are pretty utilitarian. The majority reference millet, wine, food and drink, with little to no natural history or commentary on the botany/ecology of the lands he passes through. He gives some simple trade information - like Mandeville, the merchandise but not its worth, its consumers or its market.
Plants do figure on several occasions as points of comparison (X here is like Y at home), and while Rubruck does discuss the importance of agriculture, it is without moralizing. That is, people who do not practice agriculture are inferior, but they are not evil or immoral. This distinction, drawn by Mandeville, is one I find interesting and oddly logical (though by those standards, one might - and did - assume that my people were evil and immoral).
The most interesting botanical passage to my mind refers to rhubarb and its properties as a medicinal and supernatural curative. While the spiritual and medicinal are firmly parted ("Either go as an apostle doing real miracles . . . or do as a physician in accordance with medical art" [216]), the botanical is portrayed by Rubruck at different parts of the text as intrinsic to each one - a bridge, as it were.
At any rate, while I can make myself imagine limited borrowing by Mandeville in terms of Rubruck's plants, it is very minimal. Though he clearly relies on Rubruck for other aspects of his narrative, I fail to see the exchange of a bouquet of posies or anything else significantly plant-related between the two authors.
In any event, here is an index of botanical references for my edition of Rubruck:
Agriculture -- 134
Almond -- 67, 206
Apple -- 65
Art -- 54
Bean -- 95
Bough -- 211
Briar -- 133, 172
Cotton -- 44, 52, 70, 71, 201
Flour -- 68
Forest -- 51, 70, 92, 99, 158, 179
Fruit -- 48, 86, 103, 105, 143, 206, 212, 224, 242
Garden -- 134
Grains -- 221
Grapes -- 135, 262
Herbs -- 156
Medicine -- 156, 192, 216
Millet -- 62, 68, 98, 132, 169, 183, 186, 202, 221
Nomadism -- 53
Pasture -- 53, 92, 111, 117, 259
Pear -- 65
Plant technology -- 53, 55, 70, 71, 73, 195, 201, 208, 212, 147, 270, 272
Prune -- 206
Raisin -- 206
Rhubarb -- 192, 216
Rice -- 62, 166, 173, 186, 199
Rye -- 97, 98
Spices -- 44
Tree -- 128, 204, 208, 212, 247
Wheat -- 98
Whey -- 67
Wilderness -- 92, 118
Wine -- 48, 83, 86, 90, 102, 103, 105, 166, 173, 186, 194, 199, 206, 208, 242, 262, 266
Woods -- 133
Wormwood -- 172
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