Implications Ofthe Distribution Ofnames for Cotton (Gossypium Spp.) in the Indo-Pacific
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Implications ofthe Distribution ofNames for Cotton (Gossypium spp.) in the Indo-Pacific Received 16 December 1980 RUBELLITE K. JOHNSON AND BRYCE G. DECKER INTRODUCTION UMANS HAVE BEEN ATTRACTED to cotton for a very long time. No less than four species of Gossypium have come under domestication on at least three conti H nents. The Old World diploid (n = 13) cultigens G. herbaceum and G. arboreum were domesticated in association with spinning and weaving in Southwest Asia (San thanam and Hutchinson 1974:89-91), where cloth fragments were found in the remains ofthe Harappan civilization ofthe Indus Valley 2300-1700 B.C. (Vishnu-Mittre 1974). In Tehuacan Valley, Mexico, domesticated cotton, probably G. hirsutum, has been dated to 3500-2300 B.C. (Smith and Stephens 1971:167). From Peru comes the oldest known arti fact of cotton, a twined textile from the Andes dated 4550-3100 B.C. (MacNeish 1977: 780), and cotton remains from coastal Peru, that have been dated about 2500 B.C., may represent an early stage in the domestication of G. barbadense (Stephens and Moseley 1974). The geography of ancient cotton technologies sweeps almost around the world, east ward from East Africa and the Middle East across the Pacific to the New World. The New World cottons G. hirsutum ("upland") and G. barbadense ("Egyptian;' "Sea Island") are tetraploid (n = 26) and have proven vastly superior in modern cultivation to the Old World diploids, which have been displaced to relic or curiosity status by the New World cottons almost everywhere but in India, even in traditional cultivation (Santhanam and Hutchinson 1974:97; Phillips 1976). We shall show evidence ofborrowing ofwords for 'cotton' over time and distance that is Rubellite K. Johnson is affiliated with the Department orIndo-Pacific Languages, University ofHawaii, Hono lulu. Bryce G. Decker is affiliated with the Department ofGeography, University ofHawaii, Honolulu. Revised manuscript received 4 December 1981. 250 Asian Perspectives, XXIII (2), 1980 even broader in scope. Taken together, ifnot quite hand-in-hand, since 'cotton' can mean many things besides 'Gossypium', the lexical and botanical lines ofevidence seem to bear important clues for an amplified view ofcultural history. We begin to see prehistoric tran sits and transplantings of words and techniques of fiber technology. From an apparent nexus in India, the set of words eventually embraces the whole of Eurasia and the Indo Pacific islands. Finally, there appear faint echoes of the same thing in the New World as well. Our study of words and meanings as they relate to 'cotton' involves very many species and substances besides Gossypium. Gossypium is a very promising focus, however, because it is well known genetically, thanks to the efforts ofcotton breeders during more than half a century. The powerful tools ofgenetics applied to evolutionary studies ofcultivated and wild Gossypium species have enlightened us about the role of cotton and textiles in the archaeology and history of both the New and the Old worlds (Fryxell 1965; Hutchinson 1962,1974; Hutchinson, Silow, and Stephens 1947; Phillips 1963, 1976; Stephens 1973; Santhanam and Hutchinson 1974). Our interest in Gossypium and native names for it first centered on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. That interest had been quickened by papers by Stephens (1963) and Fry xell (1965), both cotton geneticists with scholarly interest in the historical relations between Gossypium and human affairs. They pointed to the presence ofindisputably wild and probably indigenous species scattered across the Pacific from the Galapagos to north ern Australia and Saipan. Stephens concluded from historical evidence that the wild Gossypium species were known to and effectively used by Polynesians before the arrival of Europeans. His evi dence was threefold: (1) the botanist Solander on Cook's first voyage (1768-1771) had recorded Polynesian names for 'cotton' (Gossypium sp.); (2) the Marquesans possessed an ancient tool for cleaning cotton that had no comparable model outside ofPolynesia to sug gest that it had been borrowed; and (3) the local economic value of Gossypium was singu lar, in that it was used in lamp-wick and for tinder in kindling fire. The native Gossypium species of the Pacific Islands, wild and uncultivated, were gathered for nontextile purposes by the Polynesians, who had no looms. The nontextile uses of 'cotton' (not exclusively Gossypium) recur insistently in our lexical studies. We now see that the Polynesian ways ofusing 'cotton' were at one time very extensive in the world. Native names collected by Solander in eastern Polynesia in the eighteenth century were also noted by Stephens in western Polynesia, indicating an early linguistic connection. To Stephens' list of native words (vavae, vavaz) for 'cotton' (Gossypium spp.; Ceiba pentan dra) we may add the forms listed in Table 1, which permit us to evaluate the distribution of vavae 'cotton' (Gossypium spp.) in Polynesia before attempting to locate or to recon struct a proto-Austronesian form. Study of the Polynesian forms vavae "v vavai in relation to other Austronesian forms indicates that they are not uniformly distributed throughout Austronesian. l The closest Austronesian forms seem to occur in eastern Indonesian languages in island groups between New Guinea and Celebes. Unless data are incomplete, Polynesian vavae "v vavai are lacking in Melanesia and Micronesia. The Fijian form vavau 'cotton' in Melanesian, cited by Stephens, is not cognate with vavae "v vavai but rather with Poly nesian fau "v hau 'cordage', as of hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus). Benedict (1975:249) cites Niala wai 'fire' (Pim, Ceram) in eastern Indonesian, which suggests an association between 'cotton fluff' and firemaking that is consistent with Polynesian forms vavae "v JOHNSON AND DECKER: Native Names for Cotton 251 TABLE 1. ADDITIONAL FORMS OF NATIVE POLYNESIAN WORDS FOR COTTON LANGUAGE WORD GLOSS Tongan vavae kana 'milkweed' vavae 'cotton, kapok' (Churchward 1959) tupenu 'cotton' fila 'cotton' (sewing thread) Samoan vavae 'general name for cotton, Gossypium spp.' (Milner 1966) vavae 'large tree (Ceiba spp.), kapok tree' Marquesan vevai 'cotton' ha'avai 'cotton' haha'avai 'cotton, cotton plant' purupuru 'cotton, cotton plant, Gossypiulll' uruuru 'cotton, cotton plant' (Dordillon 1904) Tahitian vavai 'Gossypium religiosum' (Andrews 1944) Rarotongan vavai 'cotton, kapok' (Savage 1962) vavaimamau 'kapok' 'ua vavai 'cotton seed' pu vavai 'cotton, tree or plant' mamau 'kapok tree Ceiba caesaria medicus; the silky product ofthe ripe pods ofthe tree' (Savage 1962) (mamaku) 'species oftree fern' Tahitian mama'u, mamau 'tree fern' (cf. Rarotongan vavai mamau 'kapok'; mamau 'kapok tree'; mamaku 'species oftree fern') Hawaiian ama'u, ma'uma'u Cibocium spp. offern yielding pulu pulu (Elbert and Pukui 1973) (cf. Marquesan purupuru 'cotton') pulu, pulupulu 'fluffor down, as on plants; hairy down on the ama'u tree fern used as stuffing' pulu, pulupulu 'cotton' (post-European usage) huluhulu ma'o plant ma'o 'Gossypium tomentosum' (Elbert and Pukui 1973); probably from 'green' ('oma'o) dye used to color tapa cloth vavai 'cotton, fuse' (tinder). Except for the scant evidence from eastern Indonesia, Aus tronesian languages on the whole generally lack the proto-form for Polynesian vavae rv vavai 'cotton, fuse'. Was it then borrowed from languages outside the Austronesian family? Indeed, Aus troasiatic languages farther west in Mainland Southeast Asia do provide proto-forms for 252 Asian Perspectives, XXIII (2), 1980 vavae 'V vavai that are reflected in the languages ofCeram and Polynesia. Thai, Laotian, and Vietnamese forms for 'cotton', 'fire', 'kindling', 'tinder', 'spark', 'light', and in cur rent modern usage, 'electricity' (electric light) are similar to Polynesian vavae 'V vavai. It is linguistically important to note, however, that Austroasiatic forms are monosyllabic and phonemically distinguishable by tone and vowel length, so that 'cotton' (Jaay) in Thai has a longer vowel and falling tone while 'fire' (Jay) has a short vowel and mid-tone. The Polynesian forms vavae 'V vavai, which are comparable to Austroasiatic vay 'V bay 'V pay 'V fay 'cotton', 'kindling', may thus combine two sememes into one disyllabic morph implying either oftwo possible developments: (1) a fusion ofAustroasiatic forms fay 'fire' andfaay 'Gossypium ssp.', or (2) a separation in Austroasiatic between 'cotton' as 'plant' and 'kindling' through tone differentiation, assuming that at one time 'cotton' and 'fire' were semantically associated. If not, then the Polynesian speakers may have treated these Austroasiatic forms as homonyms, the fusion of which produced the reduplicated forms vavae'V vava i. (Table 2 compares Polynesian and Austroasiatic forms, some ofwhich are indicated in Fig. 1. Scholars are divided in opinion about including Thai and Laotian in TABLE 2. COMPARISON OF POLYNESIAN AND AUSTROASIATIC FORMS LANGUAGE WORD GLOSS Polynesian Samoan vavae 'cotton, fuse' (Milner 1966) Tongan vavae (0 e ma'ama) ~wickJ vavae (e ma'ama kasa) 'mantle, as ofa benzine lantern' filo 'cotton, fuse' (Churchward 1959) Tongan pate 'burner, as ofkerosene lamp' (Churchward 1959) Marquesan pate 'tinderbox' (Stephens 1963) Tahitian pate 'to strike a light' (cf. pata 'to strike') (Andrews 1944) Marquesan pukohe patu ahi 'tinderbox' (Dordillon 1904) (patu 'to strike'; cf. Indonesian batu api 'to strike' as flint in making fire) pukohe 'bamboo cylinder tinderbox' Marquesan purupuruluruuru