Paper Ethno-biology

NUGROHO PONCO SUMANTO 0806420386

UNIVERSITY OF INDONESIA FACULTY OF MATHEMATIC AND NATURAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY DEPOK 2009

HISTORY OF MAIZE (Zea mays L.) WITH AN OVERVIEW OF ITS CULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL VALUE IN THE MALAYAN ARCHIPELAGO 1. Maize Maize or corn, or jagung as we Indonesians call it, is pretty much a valuable food source in this world. If not valuable, at least its favorable in almost all country that knows it. The native Americans use it as a staple food, they make non-rising breads and other meals with it. The people of India like to boil or steam it. Indonesians just cant have enough of barbequed corn, like the rest of the world. And who could forget the snack that makes even the dullest movies seem durable, popcorn. Weve known and used maize for centuries, and yet the history and value of maize here in the Malayan archipelago seems to be forgotten. With that, Ive decided to make a paper that will review, a bit, about maize in the Malayan archipelago. 1.1. Taxonomy Based on its taxonomy, maize is obviously a member of the plant kingdom. Everybody knows that, but here is a complete classification of maize based on the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) that Ive achieved from Ubio.org (2009). Plantae Tracheobionta Magnoliophyta Liliopsida Commelinidae Cyperales Poaceae Zea L. Zea mays L. 1.2. Biology Morphologically, maize resembles bamboo canes with long internodes. Their leaves looks like broad flags, and under these flags grows the corn ears. Those ears are female inflorescences, tightly covered over by several layers of leaves, and so closed-in by those leaves to the stem that the flowers do not show themselves easily until the emergence of the pale yellow strings from the leaf whorl at the end of the ear. The strings, usually called silk, are elongated stigmas that look like tufts of hair. The apex of the stem ends in the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers. Each string may become pollinated to produce one kernel of maize (Messer 2000; Ispecies.org 2009). Below are some nutritional value per 100 g servings based on the data collected by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA 2009): Energy 90 kcal 360 kJ

Carbohydrates 19 g - Sugars 3.2 g - Dietary fiber 2.7 g Fat 1.2 g Protein 3.2 g Vitamin A equiv. 10 g Thiamine (Vit. B1) 0.2 mg Niacin (Vit. B3) 1.7 mg Folate (Vit. B9) 46 g Vitamin C 7 mg Iron 0.5 mg Magnesium 37 mg Potassium 270 mg Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. 1.3. Usage

1% 15% 11% 12% 12% 4% 10% 6%

The fist usage of maize as we know it is as a food source. Maize and cornmeal (maize flour) constitutes a staple food in many regions of the world. Maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, the mmlig of Romania, to mush in the U.S. or the food called sadza, nshima, ugali, and mealie pap in Africa. Maize meal is also used as a replacement for wheat flour, to make cornbread and other baked products. Masa (cornmeal treated with lime water) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Mexican food. Popcorns are made from kernels of certain varieties that explode when heated, forming fluffy pieces that are eaten as a snack. Now a days we know corn flakes as our breakfast cereal (Johannessen. &. Parker. 1989; Messer 2000; Nesbitt 2005). Those cornflakes are made just like how we Indonesians make emping. Maize could also be used to make beverages. Chicha and "chicha morada"(purple chicha) are drinks made usually from particular types of maize. The first one is fermented and alcoholic, the second one is a soft drink commonly drunk in Peru (Messer 2000). Maize could be further processed to make cooking oil (corn oil) and maize gluten. Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce syrups, particularly high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener; and also fermented and distilled to produce grain alcohol. Grain alcohol from maize is traditionally the source of bourbon whiskey. The starch could also be used as an ingredient to make beers (Messer 2000; Nesbitt 2005). The corn and stem of the maize could be used as a source of fodder for livestock. It relatively cheap and it could be produced in a bigger quantity compared to those made from rice plants (Messer 2000). Starch from maize can also be made into plastics, fabrics, adhesives, and many other chemical products. Stigmas from female maize flowers, known popularly as corn silk, are sold as herbal supplements. The corn steep liquor, a plentiful watery byproduct of maize wet milling process, is widely used in the biochemical industry and research as a culture medium to grow many kinds of microorganisms (Ispecies.org 2009). Maize is also a very promising source for bio-fuel. Bio-ethanol could be processed from maize (Ispecies.org 2009). And for a country like Indonesia, rather than

betting the whole production of biofuel on one source, I think its better to make it from many sources, and one of them could be maize. 1.4. Ecology Maize is a type of herb that has shallow roots. Therefore maize are usually very prone to droughts, though the tolerance level of each variety differs. Maize are also intolerant of nutrient deficiency, and could easily be uprooted by a strong gale (USDA 2009). Fortunate for us Indonesians, those problem are not common here. Although a rotation type of planting is advised to avoid the nutrient deficiency problem. Unlike the problems above, pests could be a major problem here in Indonesia. The magnitude could increase if the pests are introduced. Here are some common pests and disease found in maize in the US: * Corn earworm known in Mexico as huitlacoche, which * Fall armyworm is prized by some as a gourmet delicacy * Common armyworm in itself. * Stalk borer * Maize dwarf mosaic virus * Corn leaf aphid * Stewart's Wilt (Pantoea stewartii) * Corn borer (ECB) * Common Rust (Puccinia sorghi) * Corn silkfly * Goss's Wilt (Clavibacter * Lesser cornstalk borer michiganese) * Corn delphacid * Grey Leaf Spot * Corn rootworm * Mal de Ro Cuarto Virus (MRCV) * Corn smut or common smut * Stalk and Kernal Rot (Ustilago maydis): a fungal disease, (USDA 2009) Most maize doesnt grow too well in shades. Like other grass, they usually prefer direct, tough not too much, sunlight. That shouldnt be a problem for Indonesia if we could just plant the maize in unproductive fields (Ispecies.org 2009). 2. History of maize 2.1. World history The exact history of maize in the world is still up for a debate. The diversity of the genus Zea and the fact that there has not been found any maize with a distinct teosinte trait has made the exact origin of maize seems blurry. But apart from those controversies, its a common consensus these days that the maize today was most probably domesticated from teosinte, a shrub-formed grass, due to genetical resemblance (Messer 2000; Nesbitt 2005; Blake 2006). Further debate come from the findings about how maize spread from the American continent to the rest of the world. Picture 1 (below) depict the common theory of how maize spreads throughout the world. Basically the theory is based on the Spain and Portugueses conquest journey around the world. But a, perhaps forgotten, finding in 1988 tells of a different story. Carl L. Johannessen and Anne Z. Parker (1989) found sculpture of corn ears in some of Indias temples. They argued that no such detailed

sculpture could be made in more than one temple without a huge quantity of reference sample. They also proposed an alternative theory that the traders of India and China has come into contact with the Mesoamerican people long before the Spain or the Portuguese. Its very interesting if we could study the native variation of maize, not the mass produced ones. Only then could we know for sure based on genetical evidence on when the variety of maize was produced in a certain area.

Picture 1. Commonly accepted hypothesis about how maize spread around the world (Ispecies.org 2009) 2.2. History of maize in the Malayan archipelago With the problem of how maize spreads around the world, the history of maize in the Malayan archipelago is actually up for debate also. The common theory is that maize came from the Asian continent to the Malayan archipelago after the Portuguese had landed in the Philippines and India (picture 1). From there, maize probably spread by trade to China, and eventually Malaysia and Indonesia. There is little evidence that maize could spread directly from the Philippines to Indonesia before 1600, tough perhaps in some region of the Indonesian archipelago maize did reach directly from the Philippines. Further research should be done to confirm that. If we would look at how the Indonesians plant and make use of their maize, its obvious that the biggest influence comes from China and India (Messer 2000; Nesbitt 2005; Blake 2006). If we look at the alternative theory, maize could have just reached the Malayan archipelago, and Indonesia, in the 14th century, or even earlier. If maize did reach the India region around the 13th century as Johannessen and Parker (1989) proposed, then it would be surprise that maize could reach the Malayan archipelago around that same time. That hypotheses is backed by the historical fact that the traders from India and China has reached the Malayan archipelago since before the 13th century, bringing goods and religion (McCulloch 2009)

3. Value and impact of maize in the Malayan archipelago Maize is not a native plant of the Malayan archipelago. Thus the introduction of maize, apart from the dispute of how, when, and from where, must have some impact on the people and on the environment of the Malayan archipelago. 3.1. Cultural and economy Maize comes with the traders of India and china to the Malayan archipelago, theres no dispute on that. Along with other goods, the traders also bring their gods with them. The meaning of the previous sentence is that the traders bring not just the economical values of maize but also the cultural and religious values too (Nesbitt 2005). I have not found a complete record of how the people of the Malayan archipelago valued, and utilized maize. But from the fact that the Hinduism and animism influence is strong in India, China, and the whole Malayan archipelago, its common to see maize used in ceremony as an offering. Maize also symbolizes prosperity, along with rice. That is because rice and corn, usually sweet corn, was used as replacement and even staple food for most part of the Malayan archipelago. The cultural value of maize is not as great as rice though, for instance Ive not found a god specifically affiliated to maize as Dewi Sri is to rice. This is probably caused by the fact that maize comes into contact with the Indias, Chinas, and the people of the Malayan archipelago much later compared to the formation of basic believes and religions in the people of those areas (Messer 2000; Nesbitt 2005; McCulloch 2009). The value of maize is stronger in the economical side. Maize is valued because it could have more yields per hectare compared to rice. The grains could be stored for a very long time and the stem and leaves could be used for livestock fodder (USDA 2009). Maize has been a promising source of food and income for the people of the Malayan archipelago. 3.2. Ecology On the ecology side, maize has little impact compared to rice. In Indonesia, especially after the transmigration project done in the time of President Suharto, transmigrates usually plant rice, thus the rice paddies should have more impact on the ecology. The same thing happens all over the Malayan archipelago. Compared to rice, maize could be friendlier to the ecology of a certain place. Its easier to develop maize with more yields; because even without the development maize usually has more yield than rice. That fact means that we would need less plantation area for maize than wed need for rice. Less area needed means less area changed by human activity, and that is usually good for the environment (Ispecies.org 2009; USDA 2009). Another thing is that the rice planted in the Malayan archipelago is usually the type that grows in wet paddies. Thus the farmers usually change the feature of the ground. That is not the case with maize. Maize is planted in dry ground, so farmers dont need to change the feature of the ground. And that means fewer changes to the environment (Ispecies.org 2009; USDA 2009).

4. Discussion After reviewing about maize in the Malayan archipelago, a few questions should arise in our heads. So which scenario of maize introduction into the Malayan archipelago is true? Whats the proof? Is there a future for maize in the Malayan archipelago? Whats the impact if maize were to dominate the Malayan archipelagos agriculture? And so on. Of course we cant answer those entire questions, but here we shall discuss about some of them. 4.1. About the scenario Regarding the question about which scenarios true, we may not be able to answer the question. But hopefully we could dissect the problem and pick out proofs, or would be proofs, to support either version.

Picture 2. Both hypothesis about how maize spread around the world, plus hypothesis about how maize reaches the Malayan archipelago The physical evidence points in favor of the common hypothesis that the Spain and Portuguese spreads it after the discovery of America by Columbus. The alternate theory lacks backing physical evidence of the complete path. That problem is obvious due to the fact that the path made by the colonist would erase the older path(s). If youre confused, let me put it like this. The maize found across the greater and lesser Asia would of course be Zea mays. That is very logical because the maize that the colonist brought were Zea mays. Even if there were other type of maize, those types would be hybridized, or replaced, with Zea mays. Theres still a possibility that the colonist prefer the traits of Zea mays. That scenario is very probable if we would see what happens everywhere, especially Indonesia. If the reigning government chose to plant a particular species, than that species could, and in a short time to, dominate. Finding a proof about any plantation around China and India before the colonist got there would be a problem too. Based on the discovery of Johannessen and Parker

(1989), the sculptures are not that common around India. So even tough their logic were right that it would take more than a couple of kernels to make a sculpture that accurate, the fact remains that its not impossible if the plantations then were clumped in small regions. Tough the area of India that are very suitable for corn crops are large (Ispecies 2009), rice has taken root in India long before corn. That could be the reason why corn plantation were not common then. The mixture of above conditions would make the preservation of evidence in favor of pre-Columbus maize introduction in India a lot harder. J.M. Renfrew (1969) stated that most of the time preservation of evidence from past time could be hard, even almost improbable. In ethno biology, that condition also happens. But still we should not discard the proof that the sculpture of maize comes along with the sculptures of pineapple, chili, and sunflower. Chili is very common even in Asia and India, there should be chili with out India having to make contact with America. But pineapples and sunflowers, the type found in the sculptures, are native to the American continent. Its very doubtful that India could domesticate a species similar to the American continent ones. That reasoning is backed by the fact that the wild species are nothing like the sculpture (McCulloch 2009). To collect accurate physical evidence of how maize arrived in India would be almost impossible. The chance of finding a transitional form of Zea mays and Zea mexicana, or what ever species reaches India first, would be very slim. The only chance of finding any kind of evidence is through the magic of genetics. If we could map the genetical variability of maize across central and north America, greater and lesser Asia, also across the Malayan archipelago, then we could know which area get their maize from where and when. If the result shows that the maize in Indonesia, Malaysia, and India are all closely related and that cluster is closely related to the Philippine and then central American ones, then the commonly accepted hypothesis could be right. But if theres even a small population of maize in India that are closer to the North American ones and not so close to the Philippine ones, then the alternate hypothesis of Johannessen and Parker may have a point. By studying the genetical variability of maize, we could answer a lot of questions. Some of them, besides the above problem, are if the alternate hypothesis are right, which population reaches the Malayan archipelago and where. Another question could be did the population in Philippines reaches Indonesia, if it did where, is it around the Celebes. But then a deep analysis and interpretation of the complex data should be done, cause even genetical investigations are prone to mistakes. 4.1. About the future of maize The impact of maize in the Malayan archipelago seems to be quite small. That is mainly because maize were introduced, no matter what scenario is true, a lot later compared to rice. It would not be such a wonder than if rice have more impact, especially ecologically and culturally, than maize. Rice has been around in India, and the Malayan archipelago, for such a long time that it has been deeply embedded in the cultures of those regions. Rice even has been affiliated with some gods, like any other important crops. When maize came to those regions, even if the economical value per weight might be greater than rice, it wont be able to replace it. But in part of India,

maize might have been quite important that it managed to be incorporated along with rice in the sculpture of temples. In the Malayan archipelago, the same thing doesnt happen. Here, no god seems to be clearly affiliated with maize as it is with rice (Messer 2000; Nesbitt 2005; McCulloch 2009). But then the problem could just be because there hasnt been enough investigation about the historical-cultural value of maize in the Malayan archipelago, especially in Indonesia. Despite the seemingly small impact of maize in the Malayan archipelago, the prospect might not be that small. The picture below will show us the land prospect for maize plantation.

Picture 3. The prospect of maize (Ispecies.org 2009) As we could see for ourselves, the prospect for maize in India is very large. If the pre-Columbus scenario is right, this could explain why there could be some maize plantation(s) big enough so there were enough maize spread, and used, in some part of India to enable maize to be incorporated in the culture and religion of the people. If we would see the prospect of maize in the Malayan archipelago, we would see that the prospect for maize is better in the Philippines than in Indonesia. That could be another reason why the cultural impact of maize is not very big in Indonesia. Since the people has already known rice and the land prospect were never that large in the first place, there might not have been enough maize plantation for maize to be firmly incorporated in the culture of the people to be recorded. The fact that the northern Celebes is suitable for maize might be a hint that there could be a possibility that the maize from the Philippines reaches Celebes from the Philippines. Again, genetic could answer the introduction patterns that weve already discussed. If we only see the prospect of maize in Indonesia from picture 3, we could come to the conclusion that maize might not hit it off in Indonesia. That is because only a small part of Indonesia, and Timor Leste of course, are very suitable for maize and only some part of Indonesias suitable for maize. But this should not be a huge problem for us, because now we could not only make hybrids, but also genetically modified maize. If we could design a variety of maize that could be planted even in the marginally suitable land, we could utilize maize more effectively instead of rice. Add in the fact that maize

could produce more yield per plantation size compared to rice (USDA 2009), maize is one of the perfect food source to substitute rice. The reason why maize could be more profitable than rice is that the long term ecological impact of maize plantation is smaller, tough not nil, than rice. The ecological impact of rice, especially wet-paddy rice, is quite big. Goldsmith (2009) shows the effect of long term irrigation to the soil. He stated that if a land were to be irrigated for long period of time, salt will gather up in the soil. That would change the character of the soil and would have an impact not only for the ecology of the land, but also the production of rice. Apart from the gathering soil, the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in an irrigated land could in turn pollute the land and water of not only the plantation site, but also the lands and water downstream. The ecological impact, and problem, broadens along with the increase of the plantation number and size. People tend to plant rice in large connecting areas pack-filled with paddies (Harris 1969; Flannery 1969; Goldsmith 2009). This could bring more problems considering that the ecosystem and habitat of the Malayan archipelago tends to be complex and heterogen, and not homogen. Another reason why maize might have a better prospect in the Malayan archipelago, especially Indonesia, is that maize has a lot more use compared to rice. Almost every part of maize could be processed into a variety of products, and all of them has quite a high price (Johannessen. &. Parker. 1989; Messer 2000; Nesbitt 2005; Ispecies.org 2009). 5. Conclusion Maize, as one of the most valuable food source in the world has many usage for mankind. It could be used as food, building material, medicine, source for alcohol and other chemicals, and also as a source for biofuel. Due to its shallow roots, maize is very susceptible to drought, also flood, and could easily be uprooted by a strong gale. A maize plantation needs not change the physical and chemical of the land too much compared to a rice paddy. That is mainly because maize cant stand flooded ground to grow in. Since irrigation could bring problems, mainly those concerning pollution, a maize plantation therefore usually have less ecological impact compared to rice paddies. And by giving the fact that maize could produce more yield per plantation area compared to rice and there are a lot of areas suitable for planting maize in the Malayan archipelago into mind, we cant fail to see the prospect of maize as a replacement for rice. The method of planting and utilizing maize for the people of the Malayan archipelago, mainly Indonesia, are quite similar to those of the Chinese and Indias. That is one proof that the ones that introduced maize to the Malayan archipelago, mainly Indonesia, were the Chinese and Indias traders. The dispute of how maize was introduced to China and India could not be solved easily by mere physical, including historical, proof(s). Genetics could, and should, be used to shed some light on this problem. By utilizing genetical technology, hopefully, we could figure out the pattern of distribution for maize.

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