Hydrolife Magazine June/July 2017 (USA Edition)

enjoy
BY DAVID OWEN RAMA
From its early origins in the
steppes of Central Asia to
ubiquitous usage and vilified
status, cannabis has gone handin-hand
with human civilization.
David Owen Rama takes us on a
journey back to the beginning.
Aside from the development of tools, there
are two things in human history that have
been instrumental factors in our ability to not
only survive, but thrive. First is the domestication
of animals, which includes man’s
best friend, the dog. Second is agriculture, a
huge development that is credited with the
creation of human civilization. When it comes
to the hybridization of specific flora for use in
agriculture, cannabis is the canine of the plant
world. With its myriad uses, and those yet to be
discovered, this highly vilified plant could very well
turn its dark reputation around and bounce back to take claim
to the title “man’s best friend” from our furry comrade.
Cannabis has its origins “on the steppes of Central Asia,
specifically Mongolia and southern Siberia,” writes University
of Kansas science Professor Barney Warf in his journal article
“High Points: An Historical Geography of Cannabis.” While
pointing out that others have suggested its origins to be in
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China’s Huang He River valley, the Hindu Kush Mountains,
or Afghanistan, Warf believes that “biogeography fluctuated
over time, largely in response to the waxing and waning of
Pleistocene glaciers from which it took refuge.”
According to Ernest L. Abel, author of Marijuana: The First
Twelve Thousand Years, cannabis likely flourished in the
Origins of Cannabis
dump sites of prehistoric hunter gatherers. There much
archaeobotanical evidence from the upper-Paleolithic period
of the use of cannabis hemp, and the plant’s geographical
distribution can be attributed to its value as a food source, for
fiber, and for its use in shamanic rituals.
O RAMA
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