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THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE YAM: INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF MAN AND YAMS IN AFRICA AND THE INDO‐PACIFIC REGION

1972; Wiley; Volume: 7; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/j.1834-4453.1972.tb00158.x

2204-1907

D. G. Coursey,

African Botany and Ecology Studies

Τ Τ appears at first sight remarkable that the term le civilization de Tignarne -*should have been used independently by different authors to describe two farseparated areas of human culture. In West Africa the term was first used by Miege (1954) to describe the more easterly part of the forest zone of West Africa, between the Bandama River in central Ivory Coast and the Cameroon Mountain chain ; and between the drier parts of the savanna, around 8°-io° N. and the sea with its bordering swamps and lagoons. This area, also described as the West African Yam Zone (Coursey, 1965, 1967) depends for its staple food supplies on root and tuber crops, especially yams (Dioscorea spp.), in contrast to the areas to the north, where sorghums and millets provide the major staples, and to the west, where upland rice (Oryza glaberrima Stapf.) is dominant. The identical term has been used in the Pacific Ocean context (Haudricourt, 1964) to refer to at least parts of that area, based on Papuo-Melanesia but extending far out into the Pacific Ocean, where yams are major staple foods. The concept has been developed by Barrau (1963, 1965), the delimitations of this area of the Indo-Pacific being essentially as indicated by him. There are many differences between these two areas of the world, which outweigh the similarities. Nevertheless, on closer examination the application of this term to both is less surprising than it seems at first ; for in both the basis of the civilization is, in fact, the cultivation of yams. The introduction of new crops, especially sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. and cassava (Manihot esculenta Cranz.), and others of American origin, in recent times, has reduced the dominance of yams as the material basis of the subsistence of the people, but in former times in some places within living memory yams provided substantially the greater part of the staple food. This was reflected in both these areas in the large volume of ritual and magico-religious practices associated with almost every aspect of yam cultivation and storage. These civilizations were then based on the yam not only in a material sense ; the crop was also fundamental to the cultural life of the people, to at least as great a degree as were the grain crops in Mediterranean and Asiatic cultures. To those who have received their scientific education within the framework of the cultural heritage of Europe and the Mediterranean world as have virtually all