TEWA CONCEPTS OF PLANT LIFE 



Functions of Plant Parts 



We speak of the functions of certain plant parts; for example, we 

 say the leaf makes food for the plant, the bark has a protective 

 function, the colored petals of a flower attract insects. What are the 

 Indians' ideas of the functions of the parts of plants? It seems 

 that the majority of their ideas arise directly from their observation 

 of life phenomena; they do not arise as the result of thought and 

 deliberation; there is little evidence of philosophizing or of inquiry 

 into the reasons for the existence of things and conditions. They 

 say that the leaves make the plant grow; when the leaves fall off the 

 plant stops growing. The tree in the winter condition is not con- 

 sidered to be dead; they say it does not grow then because it has no 

 leaves; the tree stays just the way it is in the fall until leaves come 

 again. This idea arises purely from their observation of seasonal 

 vegetative events; they have not thought out nor wondered how 

 and why it is that the leaves cause resumption of growth. The 

 leaves fall from the tree because they get ripe like fruit. If you ask 

 them why a cottonwood sheds its leaves and a pine tree does not, they 

 have no answer. They observe the fact, but so far as could be 

 ascertained they have not thought about the reason therefor. We 

 find no folklore connected with the great majority of phenomena 

 relating to plant life. The roots of a tree are the parts upon which 

 the plant sits. The word for root, 'pu, is the same as that for haunches, 

 buttocks; base, bottom, or foot of inanimate objects. They have not 

 observed that roots take up water, but they say the ''roots have to 

 get wet or the plant dies." The bark is considered to be a protection 

 to the tree; the word for bark, also for skin, is Vowa; the bark is the 

 sldn of the tree. Spines, thorns, prickles are not thought to have 

 any protective function. The Tewa appear to have a very vague idea 

 of sex in plants. To corn pollen, which is used so much by them in 

 their religious ceremonies and which is produced by the plant in such 

 great abundance, was ascribed no use; the informants had not ob- 

 served that it falls on the corn silk and that its presence there is 

 necessary for the development of the ear of corn. It is merely some- 

 thing finely divided and yellow, and holy when used in certain ways. 

 A Tewa once made the statement, however, that one can not get a 

 field of purely wliite corn because the wind always mixes the colors 

 (see p. 84), but his idea was perhaps vague. The little plant is thought 



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