Sacred Connections with Cat-Tail (Typha, Typhaceae) - Dragons, Water-Serpents and Reed-Maces
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Sacred Connections with Cat-tail (Typha, Typhaceae) - Dragons, water-serpents and reed-maces Daniel F. Austin Research Abstract Names are only one factor linking cat-tails to humans for tions discuss this (e.g., Morton 1975, Saha 1968, Thieret over 3000 years. The generic name Typha was derived & Luken 1996, Turner 1998). What has barely been sug- from Greek typhe that is linguistically related to Typhon, gested in the literature is that Typha also functioned as a typhoon, and typhus. These words link four concepts - significant symbolic link to deities. That aspect of the utili- monsters, storms, diseases, and plants. A tangled history tarian cat-tails is critical to understanding its importance of the words and ideas linking them began with the ances- to humans. This discussion will not update accounts of tors of the Indo-Europeans perhaps before 1800 BCE. Ei- uses but investigates the genus from a novel perspec- ther those views spread from the Old World into the New tive - it explores common names and religions to show with successive waves of immigrants or there is a remark- that Typha provides more than just edible and domestic able convergence. Confusion and other factors leading to materials. misunderstanding and simpler translations are outlined. Peré Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet recorded a dragon image in 1673 of what indigenous Iliniwek called Los nombres son solamente uno de los factores a on a cliff near what is now Alton, Illinois (Hen- que relacionan los tules a los humanos por más de Piasa son 1957). The Piasa was my introduction to the connec- 3000 años. El nombre genérico Typha fue derivado tion between the American pantheon and cat-tails in the del Griego typhe el cual esta relacionado linguística- 1960s, but I did not know that until about 40 years later. mente a Typhon, tifon y tifus. Estas palabras relacio- When I discovered that the Omaha considered the cat-tail nan cuatro conceptos - monstruos, tormentas, enfer- sacred (Austin 2004), and that the Hopi used Typha dur- medades y plantas. Una historia compleja de estas ing their Niman Kachina, it was clear that I was missing palabras y de las ideas que las relacionan comenzo something. Then, when disagreement was found about con los ancestros de los Indo-Europeos quiza antes the etymological derivation of the genus Typha, I realized de 1800 AC. Esas ideas se propagaron desde el Viejo Mundo hacia el Nuevo Mundo a través de sucesivas oleadas de emigrantes o resultan de una convergen- cia extraordinaria. Se delinean varios factores y con- fusiónes que han llevado a traducciónes simplifica- das y conceptos erróneos. Correspondence Daniel F. Austin, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 Introduction N. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ 85743, U.S.A. [email protected] “Of tzité [Erythrina] the flesh of man was made, but when woman was fashioned by the Creator and the Maker, her flesh was made of reeds puj[ , Typha].” Part I, Chapter 3, Popul Vuh (Goetz & Morley 1954) Cat-tails are used by people around the world as a source Ethnobotany Research & Applications 5:273-303 (2007) of food and household items, and hundreds of publica- www.ethnobotanyjournal.org/vol5/i1547-3465-05-273.pdf 274 Ethnobotany Research & Applications there might be a connection between dragons, water-ser- Four questions are explored: Do common names show pents, and cat-tails. diversity? Do any names point to cat-tails (Typha) being respected? Why are cat-tails revered? Is there a link be- tween Typha, wetlands, and dragons? Methods Library searches were employed to seek multi-cultur- Results al views and uses of Typha. Specifically, literature was Common Names searched for common names applied to Typha and any non-secular purposes for the plants. Names were trans- People everywhere have names for these plants in their lated where possible. Utilizations in a religious context own languages, some surely as old as their uses. While were evaluated for similarities and differences. Based on no attempt has been made to sample all of the languages the way Hopi and Omaha regarded Typha, the hypothesis in which Typha has names, or to include a broad spec- was that some people consider the plants holy. trum of those just in English, the Appendix gives 153 Old World and 141 New World names. These belong to 63 language families and subfamilies (Gordon 2005). Some names are simple and others are complex. Simple names typically indicate great time depth of usage. Those that are translatable, while often more recent, sometimes yield additional information about people’s views of the plants. That cat- tails have simple names (monomorphemic, unanalyzable root) in languages as differ- ent as Arabic, Greek, Maori, Russian, San- skrit, Spanish, Japanese, and others indi- cates that the plants have been part of peo- ple’s lives for thousands of years. Similarly, in the New World Typha has simple names in languages as old as Mayan (1200-600 BCE) (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994), and those as recently diverged as Apachean Diné (1300-1400 CE) (Hoijer 1956, Ruhlen 1998). Tepiman languages are 1000-50 BCE (Shaul & Hill 1998), and thus inter- mediate between Mayan and southwest- ern Diné. Names show also that Typha has been involved in not only secular life (e.g., Morton 1975), but played prominent roles in people’s sacred lives. The number of names within each language family varies in part because they may be applied to several Typha species. When more than one grows in a region each may be given a distinct variant of the name. This naming of species is complicated because of differing taxonomic philosophies. Some common names have been used for more than one genus of plants. One exam- ple illustrates the problem, especially since it is the most extreme. The word “tule” was Figure 1. Typha domingensis Pers. with fruits and leaves. Everglades derived from Náhuatl tollin, which has long near West Palm Beach, Florida. meant Typha to people in Mexico. Since www.ethnobotanyjournal.org/vol5/i1547-3465-05-273.pdf Austin - Sacred Connections with Cat-tail (Typha, Typhaceae) - Dragons, 275 water-serpents and reed-maces about 1837, “tule” was applied to the sedge Schoeno- and volcanoes, gave rise to a name subsequently applied plectus (formerly Scirpus; Cyperaceae), particularly in to plants, storms, and a disease. The connection that California, but also elsewhere (Bourke 1892). Since the these deities, storms, and disease have with cat-tails is word “tule” was loaned from central Mexico to California, an allusion to smoke. That association developed before the application changed. The other instance is likely con- 3000 years ago. fusion because Bourke saw the Apache gathering pollen from stands of cat-tail, but the sedge is often present also Cat-tails belong to the genus Typha, a name that has (Long et al. 2003). At least the Chiricahua and Mescalero been written for these plants since Theophrastus (372- Apache did use the sedge pollen at times but it was often 287 BCE) called them tiphe (τὐφη) and Dioscorides (fl. mixed with cat-tail (Castetter & Opler 1936). This discus- AD 40-80) wrote tiphes (τυφης). During the pre-Linnaean sion ignores references to the sedge. period, most scholars retained the modern Latin spelling (Linnaeus 1753). While the early Europeans knew only Old World Connections two, now 8-13 species are recognized (Smith et al. 2004). The genus is worldwide in wetlands, and people every- Although it is a contorted, complicated history only sum- where have recognized it for millennia. marized here, the old proto-Indo-European gods of storms The Latin Typha is cognate with Greek typhe, as many have pointed out (cf. Nicolson in Smith 1993 for spelling on borrowing from Greek to Latin). Morton (1975) said simply that the ge- neric name was taken from Greek “typhos, marshes.” Others, including Thieret & Luken (1996) and Mitich (2000), concluded that Typha was from the Greek typhein, to smoke. Mitich (2000) thought that the plants were originally named because the seeds being shed from the spikes resembled smoke or a cloud. Thieret & Luken (1996) believed the reference was more likely because Typha was used “…for main- taining smoky fires or to the smoky-brown col- or of the fruiting spikes.” Moreover, Thieret & Luken (1996) specifically excluded derivation from Greek typhos. Ward (2007) sided with Morton (1975) in favor of “marsh.” The story of the generic name is intimately involved with Greek words for several natural and religious entities, and these authors have oversimplified its derivation. Many westerners are introduced to the cat-tail by the Bible. While cat-tail is mentioned sever- al times, probably the most famous occurrence in the Old Testament (Exodus 12:15) is to Mo- is the ףוס ses being found in the bulrushes. Suf Hebrew word used for Typha in that sentence. Zohary (1982) argued that the Hebrew suf is cognate with Typha, and that the edible Ethio- pian grass seed tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trot- ter) is cognate with both. What has been omitted is that Typha and typhe are cognate with Greek words typhaon, typhoeus, typhōn, and typhos. All of these words are declensions of typhein, date back millennia, and are taken from Greek stories Figure 2. Typha latifolia L. with male inflorescence (above) touching usually called myths. female (below). Mt. Vernon, Illinois. www.ethnobotanyjournal.org/vol5/i1547-3465-05-273.pdf 276 Ethnobotany Research & Applications Typhaon (τυφάων), typhoeus (τυφωεύσ), and typhos his name as Seth. Egyptians considered all animals that (τυφoσ), all variants of typhon (τυφῶν, tνφὦν), refer to lived in water or spent part of their time in water to be as- a giant monster (Atsma 2007, Encyclopedia Brittanica sociated with Set (Frazer 1890).