Bananas in New Caledonian Kanak Society: Their socio-cultural value in relation with their origins

Abstract

The introduction of bananas into New Caledonia is directly linked with the arrival of various peoples on the islands of the Pacific. The genetic characterisation of bananas cultivated in Asia and in the Pacific (Carreel 1993,1994, Lebot et al. 1993 has enabled their relation with wild species to be demonstrated which in turn can be used to put forward strong hypotheses concerning the various migrations of people in the Pacific area and to better understand the socio-cultural role that the banana cultivars Maoli and Popoulou occupy in New Caledonia's Kanak society some 3500 years after their introduction. At the present time there are still "true" bananas and " others". The former which were introduced by the first people to arrive have a sacred ancestral value as well as a social role, while the latter, introduced during the period of colonisation have gradually become revenue generating crops. Abstract in Xâracûu languageKè pè jati nâ rè pwi tö xû nei a Calédonie, è gè wâ ké fädë rè dèèri mê ba töwâ mîî wâ neï bwa tö Pacifique. Wâ kè bwarè nè rè, pwâ rè mê kwiö wâ pwî dobwa è nä nâü rè tö nèpwé kètè Asie mê Pacifique (Carreel 1993,1994, Lebot et al. 1993) fa ba gwéré kè nä bwa rè pwî è näü mê pwî bwa è tuè cicöö. E dù kè té gwéré kè fädë nâ rè dèèri tö nèpwé kètè Pacifique, nè dù kè té xwaé tèpe rè pwî Maoli mê Popoulou töwâ muru rè ka ngürü kè Calédonie, 3500 xwâda nêdùù ké toa nâré pwî. Nâmwâ è xwî nâ « döpwi »mê pwî pwângara. « Dopwî » ù pè mê nâ rè ké dèèri bwa ri toa mââ nâ tö xû nei a, è baa nâ kwiö sègû mê tèpe rè tö wâ xwâ sègû rè kaa ngürü. Mîî pwî dè, è toa nâ wi rè ka pwângara, è nä pwâwâ näü rè ri nâ kè xwiri ngê pwâ rè.

Pacific Bananas: Complex Origins, Multiple Dispersals?

“…Their terminology remains confused. Iholena has been shown to be a plantain-like hybrid (AAB), sometimes included among the Pacific plantain group (Kagy and Carreel 2004;Lebot et al 1993: 164). Maia Maoli and P6p6'ulu are sometimes reduced to a single group (Daniells 1990(Daniells , 1995Daniells et al 2001;De Langhe and de Maret 2000).…”

“…Table 4 and Figure 1 show the recorded distributions of the three groups. Daniells 1990Daniells , 2004Daniells et al 2001;Lebot et al 1993Lebot et al , 1994Kagy and Carreel 2004;and Ploetz et al 2007.…”

“…The two eastern Musa acuminata subspecies, errans and banksii, have similar morphological characteristics and have often been confused (Kennedy in press and references; Lebot 1999). Differences in several DNA markers establish them as separate (Carreel et al 2002;Kagy and Carreel 2004).…”

“…errans derivation, pollinated by one or more of the western Musa acuminata subspecies (not all of these are shown in Table 6). They might have developed later than the plantains (Kagy and Carreel 2004;Raboin et al 2005). The morphologically distinctive East African Highlands bananas are separated from other AAA groups: their cytoplasmic DNA implies they are hybrids related maternally to Musa acurninata ssp.…”

Crops and Cultures in the Pacific: New data and new techniques for the investigation of old questions

“…Olsen and Schaal (2001) concluded that their data support a single center of domestication, not multiple centres in different parts of the range of wild cassava, and origin from a single species, without the interspecific introgression suggested by Rogers (1965). Kagy and Carreel (2004) have shown the potential of molecular studies for investigating possible center(s) of origin, routes of dispersal and subsequent diversification of Pacific cooking bananas. DNA fingerprinting studies on other crops putatively linked with early arboriculture or agriculture in the Pacific could therefore produce fascinating information on bottlenecks associated with successive eastward dispersals (natural or man-assisted) of these species to distant island groups, as well as on possible locations of the populations that served as sources for these dispersals.…”