Ethnobotanical cultural ceremony

The SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany class ends the term observing the traditional ceremony at the heart of Pohnpeian culture - nohpwei. This is an out-of-the-classroom experience, out in the community, in a local nahs.

Wadel Jr., Sepe Rose, Diana, Vern, Delinah, Merlynn starting the hike up the mountain

This term the visit was to a nahs up the mountain to the east of campus. Due to the steep terrain and poor road condition, the class would have to walk in. Students with medical conditions were excused.

Garvin

Sepe Rose, Vern, Delinajh, Diana

Delinah, Vern en route

A car did follow the class up, but the car spun out repeatedly on gravel and bottomed out in places

Already in the nahs was Nayme and Kayleen
 
Garvin and Darnick

Faustino Jr., Wadel Jr., Vern

Edson, Garvin, Darnick

Edson as ouarir to Ounmwar, Lepen as the menindei

Lepen, shirt off to show respect to Ounmwar, explains some of the terminology in Luelen Bernart's chapter on sakau.
Sakau enters the nahs, traditional rules invoke inside the nahs. The men have removed their shirts to show respect. The branches are cut.

Four pounders with four moahl.

Menindei issues commands, directs the process

Pwel would go to ounmwar. Arehn sakau to a representative of togusrai. Esil traditionally to Daug, tonight esil is returned back to honor the squeezer. Oapoang went to a woman from Madolehnihmw. Sapw went to Ounmwar. Lepen then asked me to say a few words, Lepen also spoke to the class. Very informative.

Sakauen poaki koasoai pwahda: just for talking


Lepen and ounmwar after class.

Headed back down the mountain

Road's end

Volleyball on the ridgeback
 
Steep descent ahead

Sunset in the west

Sunset on the campus

The campus in the evening light

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Plotting polar coordinates in Desmos and a vector addition demonstrator

Image
In an earlier post I noted that Desmos did not directly plot polar coordinates. Not only was I incorrect, but Desmos responded to my blog to correct me! Although I had at some point seen that one could define a function f(x)=3x+5 and then have Desmos calculate f(6), I had not absorbed how this might be used to plot polar coordinates. The above works beautifully . Realizing that I could effectively program Desmos, I applied this thinking to demonstrating how to add two vectors when given the magnitudes m and the direction angles theta. The graph calculates the i and j components for the two vectors and then adds the vectors, graphically displaying the result while also providing information on the magnitude and direction of the vector sum. m1 and theta1 are the magnitude and direction angle for one of the two vectors, m2 and theta2 are the magnitude and direction for the other vector. All four are dynamically interactive and can be changed. The diagram purports to illustra
Read more

Setting up a boxplot chart in Google Sheets with multiple boxplots on a single chart

Image
The  Google Statistics  add-on for Google Sheets can display multiple boxplots in a single chart. The key is the layout of the data. One column should be the variable by which the data is to be grouped, the other column should be the data to be box plotted. Set up the Statistics add-on with the data to be plotted as the variable, and the grouping column as the "by" variable. In this image I had deselected all but the boxplot option, the result was the appearance of the Moment, Standard errors, and Confidence intervals options. The default is apparently a 95% confidence interval for the mean. The result is multiple boxplots on a single chart with a common scale. The new tab that is created also quotes 95% confidence intervals for the mean. Note that as of 2018 the Google Statistics add-on cannot be found by search in the add-ons. In addition, as of May 2018 the add-on no longer verifies, possibly due to the add-on not having been updated since August 2017. One may ha
Read more

Traditional food dishes of Micronesia

Image
Clara, Jennette, and Joanie presented ground hard taro cooked in an umw, effectively a hot rock oven. Pohnpeian: rotama. Pingelapese: sero. Mwoakillese: rodma. Mortlockese: Amahd. Kosrae: rodoma. After cooking in an umw the rotama is pounded with the petiole of a palm frond. Rotama is made from hard or swamp taro, known as mwahng on Pohnpei, mweian on Pingalap, pula in Mortlockese, and pahsruhk on Kosrae. In traditional times on the outer islands the women had primary responsibility for tending the taro while the men handled fishing and climbing tasks. Joesen and Noeleen presented fermented breadfruit from the outer islands of Yap such as Woleai and Eauripik. The raw ingredients were actually brought in from Yap, Noeleen prepared the maare.  The leaf wrap is ti leaf - Cordyline fruticosa. Pauleen, Barnson, Trisha, Verginia, Con-ray, and Maylanda from Kitti, Pohnpei brought in mahi umw, koahpnoair koakihr, and uht sukusuk. Above is breadfruit umw, mahi umw, one o
Read more