A Trip to a Museum: Manioc

Bitter manioc is a plant in the Amazon jungle that many of the tribes depend on for survival. This plant contains a chemical in its leaves, flesh, and skin that turn into cyanide (poison) when digested. The people of the Amazonian tribes have created many tools to make this plant edible.

Bitter Manioc

 
Manioc Grinder
Manioc Stirrer (left) and Strainer (right)

 Preparing Manioc

1. The people would take the manioc and skin it. Taking the poison from the skin, but leaving the poison still inside the flesh.

2. They will then use a grinder to turn the manioc flesh into mush.

3. The mush is then put into a manioc strainer to fully remove the liquid that contains the chemical/cyanide.






Chinese Finger Trap

The manioc strainer is like a Chinese finger trap. It is squeezed together and the manioc mush is added inside. Then it is constantly pulled apart and inward, squeezing the manioc mush repeatedly and taking out the liquid.



Manioc Sifter

From here the grinded up flesh is used for two things:

Manioc Bread, Tortilla, Pancake

1. The flesh is the put into a sifter and turned into flour.

2. The manioc flour is then turned into the manioc bread, tortilla, pancake.

This manioc bread, tortilla, pancake is a staple food for the Amazonian people. It is an important part of their diet offering much needed high carbohydrates.

Manioc Beer

1. The flesh is chewed by multiple people and then spit into a pot.

2. More manioc flesh is then added.

3. It ferments into Manioc Beer.

Manioc beer is a very important beverage, sometimes the only beverage a tribe may drink. The water sources in the Amazon can be contaminated and the manioc beer is actually better for their health then the water. Manioc beer is used for celebrations usually with a longer fermentation time.

I thought that this information was very interesting, especially since that these people turned an otherwise poisonous plant into a food that they depend on. In learning that out of the 400 tribes in the Amazon and only a few are have not been contacted and have no western influences, I am conflicted between two thoughts. One thought is that we should contact the tribes that have been able to avoid it  through controlled contact.  The goal would be to document each tribe and have a record of their evolution because we do not know how much longer they will be able to maintain this status on their own. On the other hand, I see how western influence can quickly change a culture because the many artifacts that I have seen at the Houston Museum of Natural Science Amazon Exhibit are all over 100 years old and it can be questioned on how much of the artifacts they still use today, if they still exist. So if we let them be they can preserve their own culture for a much longer period of time.

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