pea 
10. 
11. 
12. 
ENDNOTES 
. Cf. Lévi-Strauss 1950: 469-472; Fuerst 1970: 114-122. 
. The only previous mention that I could find was Barral (1949: 
150), who said: “Pero el “aru” propiamente tal, el “arw” guaraino 
[Warao], es la torta hecha con la fécula extraida de la “Mauritia 
flexuosa”, 0 también del temiche (Phitalephas temiche), no tan 
ponderada como la de moriche, pero tan real.” 
Among the secondary palms, the authors (ibid., 116) list: Acro- 
comia, Caryota, Coelococcus, Corphyra, Eugeissona, Phoenix, and 
Pholidocarpus. 
. Iam using the so called ethnographic present, although the prac- 
tice of palm-starch production may very well have been discon- 
tinued now among some of the tribes of southeastern South Amer- 
ica. 
Gumilla 1791, 1: 145; Schomburgk 1848: 49; Turrado Moreno 
1945: 73-83; Suarez 1966; Wilbert 1972: 81-82: Heinen and 
Ruddle 1974. 
. Cf. Dahlgren 1936: 202 and references since then (1936): Bailey 
1943: 392-393 Dugand 1940: 43; McCurrach 1960: 129-131; 
Wessels Boer 1965a, b; Braun 1968: 111. 
. If it is any consolation to botanists, Manicaria is ethnobotanically 
all but unknown; the snatches of information, frequently repeated, 
are restricted largely to the usefulness of the leaves for thatch 
and of the spathe for “monkey-caps.” In estimating migration and 
settlement patterns, for instance, archaeologists and ethnologists 
may have underestimated the effect of palm exploitation on the 
relative stability of autochthonous peoples in South America and 
elsewhere. I would like to thank Mr. August Braun and Drs. 
Harold E. Moore, Jr., Richard Evans Schultes, and Julian A. 
Steyermark for advice and assistance with the botanical aspects 
of this paper. 
Von Spix and von Martius (1823-1831; 3, 989) observed the same 
custom practiced on Marajo Island in the mouth of the Amazon. 
Lat. manica = sleeve; saccifera = sack-bearing. 
The ratio of single to multilobed fruits seems to vary markedly. 
In a second sample examined, I counted a total of 72 fruits with 
42 one-seeded, 27 two-seeded, and three 3-seeded ones. 
The apical incision in Manicaria eophylls results in two opposite 
terminal leaflets, each segment with an acute apex and smooth 
margins. 
The hoe and all the other tools and techniques employed in the 
recovery of Manicaria starch are the same ones that the Warao 
use for the extraction of sago from Mauritia. 
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