Ethnobotany of Pohnpei: Plants, People, and Island Culture

Chapter Six. The Sacred Root: Sakau En Pohnpei

Michael J. Balick Roberta A. Lee chapter six The Sacred Root sakau en pohnpei Sakau, known botanically as Piper methysticum G. Forst., is a species so tightly woven into the traditional practices of Pohnpei that it has become an integral part of Pohnpeian culture, with no palpable boundary between culture and plant. The power of sakau in defining Pohnpeian culture and daily life isperhapsoneofthebestexamplesoftheextraordinaryinfluence ofasingleplantspeciesonapeopleandtheiridentitytobefound intheMicronesianregion.OnPohnpei,wahu(respectorhonor) is the historic and contemporary foundation that defines its culture , society, and people. Wahu, in large measure, is structured, maintained, and mediated by sakau, based on the people’s reverence for and ritual use of this plant. Sakau is ultimate respect, higher than the highest paramount or oratory chief or any other living being in the society—and even higher than the most importantoftheancestralspirits ,bothgoodandevil.Sakautowers above them all, in a way that brings peace and community to the island, holding the cultural traditions together in the face of overwhelming and destabilizing economic and geopolitical forcesthatemanatefrom“beyondthereef”—thelocaltermfor the rest of the world. In a recent paper, Garabaldi and Turner (2004) recognized the importance of certain plants in the culture of a people and proposed that the term “cultural keystone species” be used to recognize such individual species. They defined cultural keystone species as “the culturally salient species that shape in a major way the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamentalrolesthesespecieshaveindiet,materials,medicine and/or spiritual practices.” It is sakau’s primary role in defining Pohnpeian cultural identity that makes it a cultural keystone species in this context. Based on an index of the identified cultural influence (ICI)1 of species developed by Garabaldi and Turner, involving criteria such as intensity of use, linguistics, role in narratives, ceremonies or symbolism, persistence of use 166 ethnobotany of pohnpei inthefaceofculturalchange,levelofuniquepositionintheculture,anditsuseas a trade item for resource acquisition outside of the territory, sakau would receive the highest score possible. This chapter explores the botany, ethnobotany, ethnomedical practices, and ethnopharmacologyofsakauandpresentsanintegratedperspectiveofthisplant based in part on interviews with local historians, chiefs, knowledgeable elders, religiousleaders,andobserversofthePohnpeianscene.Weprovidedataonconsumption patterns in Pohnpei based on a survey of 180 people during 2001, revealing a very high rate of use by both men and women.2 We also look at the use of sakau—known as kava in the international herb trade and elsewhere in the Pacific as kava, ‘awa, or yagona—in Western medicine, particularly in the fields ofintegrativeandcomplementarymedicine.Themostauthoritativepublication onthisplantanditsusethroughoutitscultivatedrangeisKava:ThePacificElixir, by Lebot et al. (1997). While this comprehensive treatment of many aspects of sakaudoesprovideageneralintroductiontoitsclassification,chemistry,anduse on Pohnpei, the aim of this present chapter is to provide the Pohnpeian perspective on this important species. Botany Piper methysticum is a much-branched, somewhat succulent shrub that can ultimately grow 5–6 m (ca. 16–20 ft) in height, although it is usually harvested at a much lower height, 2–2.5 m (ca. 6.5–8 ft), after two to three years of cultivation. It has ten to fifteen or more upright branches that spread 2–4 m (ca. 6.5–13 ft) across (Fig. 6.1). As the plant ages, the stems can reach 10 cm (ca. 4 in) in diameter , but at usual harvest age they are at most a few centimeters in diameter. The leaves are heart shaped, suborbicular-ovate to 25 cm (ca. 10 in) long and somewhatnarrowerinwidth ,to20cm(ca.8in),acuminate,anddeeplycordateatthe base, containing nine to thirteen radiating veins. The inflorescences are solitary spikes growing to 7.5 cm (ca. 3 in) long (L. H. Bailey Hortorium 1976). The part of greatest interest is the roots, which are stout brown structures that when split open are yellowish in color (Fig. 6.2). The plant grows well in the upland forests, but due to a significant demand for the roots, a great deal of upland forest has been destroyed over the past few decades, resulting in an erosion of the watershed area on this small island. The consequences of forest and watershed loss are widely recognized on Pohnpei, and a local “Grow Low” campaign put into placebyTheNatureConservancy,theConservationSocietyofPohnpei,andthe Pohnpei State government and local communities has encouraged production to move to the currently cultivated lowland agroforests, resulting in a significant decrease in the rate of upland deforestation (Merlin and Raynor 2005). Therearemanylocalvarieties(cultivars)ofkavafoundthroughoutthePacific, where it is used as a beverage. Lebot and Lévesque (1989) noted that there were the sacred root: sakau 167 eighty-two kava cultivars...