Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

Oenocarpus 5 were treated as a single category. Their fruits are collected in large
quantities when they are in season, and are boiled to make a porridge or a hot drink.
The fruits of the etai palm, Mauritia flexuosa, are gathered from groves along creeks
in the savannah. They can be made into a drink, or the flesh mashed and formed into
balls, but appear to be most commonly consumed as fresh fruits. Immature fruits,
referred to in Wapishana as shuruk, are sometimes sucked for refreshment.
Interestingly, the patrimony of this species is, to my knowledge, unique in the
Wapishana language, which may reflect its importance in both nutrition and
construction (see chapter 4.5.3 below). The etai fruit is known as dyuwu, and the
tree as dyuwuza, whereas in almost all other cases the fruit is referred to simply by
following the name of the tree with the general term for fruit, aku. The fruit of
Attalea regia is another seasonally important food, again generally eaten as a fresh
fruit although processing methods are known. The dry seeds of this species are of
importance as a source of fish bait, as they often harbour an insect larva known as
the kokerite worm, or yapun. Some older informants report that yapun were
occasionally consumed as food, but that this practice has nowadays virtually ceased.
Three other segregates were mentioned at frequencies comparable to that of the
palms mentioned, although observations of their consumption in the field were less
common. Wild cashew (Anacardium giganteum) was mentioned at the highest
frequency of all species (joint with Oenocarpus), despite the fact that it is a fairly
rare tree, individuals of which fruit at intervals of several years. Its popularity most
likely reflects the fact that fruits are highly prized for their delicious taste, rather
than high levels of consumption. Unusually, in this species the same word - kawarori
- is used to refer to both the tree and the fruit. Manilkara bidentata is a far more
common tree, but its consumption was not observed so frequently as that of the
palm fruits mentioned. This may be abnormal, as in at least one of the years during
which this study was conducted trees of this species failed to produce fruit. I suspect
that gastronomic criteria might have led this species to be mentioned at a frequency
somewhat higher than might have been expected on the basis of levels of
consumption alone. The category koram ('whitees') refers to an undetermined
number of species in the genus Inga, most of whose fruits are edible, and is also used
polysemously to refer to a single species of this genus. The frequency with which this
category was mentioned is probably at least partly a function of the relatively wide
5 The genus Jessenia (J. bataua being the palm turu/ochori) has been reassigned to
Oenocarpus.