Araukariensamen als Nahrungsgrundlage.

Eine kulturökologische Konvergenz dreier Erntevölker in Südamerika und Australien

Abstract

Among the total of 19 species of the coniferous genus Araucaria in the southern hemisphere, three distinguish themselves by their comparatively arge distributive organs (seeds). These sure Araucaria araucana in the southern Andes, A. angustifolia in south Brazil, and A. bidwillii in Queensland, eastern Australia. Growing in cones about the size of a head, their seeds present nut-like dried fruit of high nutritional value, since more than 80 percent of their dry matter are carbohydrates. It is worth noting that the areas of distribution of these three varieties form the habitat of native tribes who conform in using the seed of the Araucaria as a staple food. These are the Pehuenche in the southern Andes, the Caingdng in south Brazil, and the Kabi in Queensland. Thanks to the dominant position of a wild food-plant these three peoples may be described as harvesting peoples (Erntevolker) - a term established by Julius Lips in the 1920s. A detailed analysis of the three peoples in respect of the particular utilization and significance of Araucaria seed as a staple foodstuff results in an accordance so striking that it is possible to speak of a cultural-ecological convergence. The most important parallelism consists in the form of storage of the seeds in earthern pits, which the Pehuenche, Caingang and Kabi have developed independently, but very similarly up to points of detail; this parallelism is the more striking as the Kabi are the only known case in Australia of people who set up substantial plant food stores which last for an extended period. The ripening of the seed, moreover, occurs at the very beginning of a season that is more likely to be short of food, thanks to the seasonal fluctuations of the climate in each of the three areas of distribution. From the point of historical development the peoples occupy an intermediate position between hunters and gatherers on the one hand, and cultivators and cattle breeders on the other. Their temporary sedentarism, the result of their harvesting of Araucaria seed, makes them very close to agricultural peoples.