A hard nut to crack: nutmeg cultivation and the application of natural history between the Maluku islands and Isle de France (1750s–1780s)

Abstract

One of France's colonial enterprises in the eighteenth century was to acclimatize nutmeg, native to the Maluku islands, in the French colony of Isle de France (today's Mauritius). Exploring the acclimatization of nutmeg as a practice, this paper reveals the practical challenges of transferring knowledge between Indo-Pacific islands in the second half of the eighteenth century. This essay will look at the process through which knowledge was created – including ruptures and fractures – as opposed to looking at the mere circulation of knowledge. I argue that nutmeg cultivation on Isle de France was a complex process of creolizing expertise originating from the local populations of the plants’ native islands with the horticultural knowledge of colonists, settlers, labourers and slaves living on Isle de France. In this respect, creolization describes a process of knowledge production rather than a form of knowledge. Once on Isle de France, nutmeg took root in climate and soil conditions which were different from those of its native South East Asian islands. It was cultivated by slaves and colonists who lacked prior experience with the cultivation of this particular spice. Experienced horticulturalists experimented with their own traditions. While they relied on old assumptions, they also came to question them. By examining cultivation as an applied practice, this paper argues that the creolization of knowledge was a critical aspect in French colonial botany.

Pharmacological and Therapeutic Potential of Myristicin: A Literature Review

“…In this work, we will discuss a substance called myristicin. It was first discovered in the seed of nutmeg ( Myristica fragrans ), and was described in the French colonies in the mid-18th century, on the Maluku islands [ 6 ]. In addition to the high concentration in this seed, myristicin can also be found in cinnamon, parsley, some types of pepper and other spices native to Asia.…”

The history of science through the prism of race

“…The French had to accumulate botanical knowledge of nutmeg through experimental acclimatization, translation of Dutch texts and spying missions to the Banda islands. 38 A similar phenomenon occurred in the early nineteenth century, when the British East India Company (EIC) began to set up tea plantations in Assam. The EIC initially aspired to recruit Chinese tea cultivators, whom they believed to have leaf-processing skills, botanical expertise and a racial disposition toward industry that neither Europeans nor the region's 'primitive' natives possessed.…”

Le temps incorporé des collections. La collecte et la circulation des plantes entre l’Amérique et l’Europe au milieu du xviiie siècle

“…En résolvant des problèmes concrets d'étanchéité et de raccordement des matériaux grâce à l'usage du mastic, il maîtrise à la fois les interfaces souterraine et aérienne de la plante, désormais en mesure d'opérer la photosynthèse à l'abri des embruns (Nelson 2018). L'intérêt de ce détour par le XVIII e siècle est de montrer comment ce bricolage des matériaux était aussi un assemblage des compétences du jardinier, du pépiniériste, du naturaliste, du marin, de l'indigène (Bret 1999 ;Brixius 2018). Mais il révèle aussi la difficulté à instaurer entre eux la coopération requise : la caisse était un instrument de discipline, et fut à ce titre contestée.…”