DKH01-027_man - Mañ 'Red pandanus fruit'

Pandanus (Pandanus conoideus) is an endemic plant of New Guinea. When referred to in Tok Pisin, people from the Sepik call it karuka, while the Highlanders use the term marita. Its oily fruit is an important part of the Awiakay diet, eaten either with sago pancakes or with sweet potato, when the latter is available. As a source of oil it is even more important for the Meakambut. Pandanus fruit cluster, which has a tapered cylindrical shape, is up to 1m long and can weigh up to 10kg. It is green when unripe, and turns red to dark-red, or yellow to yellow-orange (depending on the type of the pandanus) when ripe. The fruit cluster consists of many fruits, attached to an inner pith, which can be either white or yellow. The fruits consist of a seed and the surrounding pulp. The Awiakay and Meakambut eat both, the pith and the fruits. As the length of the fruiting season depends on the temperature (and therefore on the altitude), at lower altitudes, fruits are available more or less throughout the year (Walter and Sam 2002: 210). The Awiakay and the Meakambut always check pandanus trees on their way to bush camps, while hunting, etc., and when they notice that a fruit cluster is poking out of the leaves [the fruit has developed and become visible], they know it is ready to be harvested. When ripe, the fruit cluster is harvested from the tree, often with a help of a long stick, and brought to a camp or to the village, where it is cut into smaller pieces, to fit into a pot. It is then boiled in water, which softens the hard fruit cluster enough so that the fruits can be extracted from the pith. The pith, which becomes soft when boiled, is eaten by itself, but is not considered ‘real food’. People bite into the pieces from which the fruits have been scraped, and partly swallow them, partly suck them out, and the fibrous core is chewed out and discarded. The oily fruits, however, are the most desirable part of pandanus. They softened during cooking, so the oily pulp can now be removed from the seeds. This is done by pouring cold water over the fruits and grinding and mixing them with hand. The person who does it (among Awiakay and Meakambut it can be either a man or a woman, but in other parts of PNG this work can be gender-specific. Bonnemère (Walter and Sam 2002: 211) reports that among the Ankave this is exclusively men’s job) then puts the remaining seeds in the mouth, sucks off the remaining pulp, and spits them out. The so prepared pandanus sauce (called karuka in the Sepik and marita in the Highlands variety of Tok Pisin) is very rich and oily, and usually eaten with sago pancakes or sweet potato. Its intense red colour dyes one’s faeces, and when eating pandanus sauce, the Awiakay often joke with the kids: “enmen pawinay” ‘your poo will be red’. As dogs often eat the seeds that people spit out after sucking off the pulp, as well as any leftover sauce and sago, we often see that dogs’ excrements are red and full of undigested seeds a day after people ate pandanus. Excessive consumption of pandanus sauce can cause diarrhoea. Pandanus oil has a strong pigment, and it is hard to hide that one has eaten it. In the best case scenario one ends up with bright orange-red lips and tongue (see Plate 10). If the ripe fruit cluster has not been harvested, it goes into ‘over-ripe stage’: the bright red grains start to darken and falling off the core. As the tangled aerial prop roots of pandanus trees bear a resemblance to tangled strings, the Awiakay closely associate pandanus with string figures in general, to the point that some Awiakay suggest that string figures are played when people eat pandanus fruit (see Hoenigman, forthcom.). At altitudes below 1000m, however (which is most of Awiakay land apart from their highest mountains), the fruiting season almost never stops. This string figure represents the three stages in the ‘life’ of a pandanus fruit. In the first stage the string figure-maker makes the fruit cluster. As she proceeds with the figure, she explains how the fruit is ripening. The second stage represents a ripe fruit. From now on, a reverse process starts taking place, as the figure is being undone. This represents the ripe fruits gradually falling off the cluster until the core is left bare. Many Awiakay say that mañ ‘red pandanus’ is the most difficult figure to make, because of all the twisting it involves. It was the only Awiakay figure for which I could not describe the entire process of making – I never managed to get beyond the ‘green fruit’. Images: 02, 03, 04: Darja Munbaŋgoapik making a string figure called mañ ‘red pandanus’, representing three stages of its fruit: 02: unripe fruit; 03: the ripening of the fruit; 04: the over-ripe fruit falls off the fruit cluster, leaving an empty core 05: mañ ‘the red pandanus’ 06: wakoñ ‘the yellow pandanus’ 07: making red pandanus sauce by mixing the boiled fruits with water Hoenigman, Darja. Forthcoming. Talking about strings: The language of string figure-making in a Sepik society, Papua New Guinea. Language Documentation & Conservation Journal. Walter, A. and C. Sam. 2002. Fruits of Oceania. Canberra: Australian Centre for International Agricultural research (ACIAR). pp. 210-211 https://aciar.gov.au/node/8516 (accessed 23 June 2020) . Language as given: Awiakay

露兜树（Pandanus conoideus）是新几内亚的特有植物。在托克皮辛语（Tok Pisin）中，塞皮克地区的居民称其为karuka，高地居民则使用marita一词。其含油果实是阿维亚凯人（Awiakay）饮食的重要组成部分，可搭配西米煎饼或甜薯（当甜薯可获取时）食用。对于米卡姆布特人（Meakambut）而言，其作为油料来源的重要性更甚。

露兜树的果序呈渐狭圆柱形，最长可达1米，单簇最重可达10千克。未成熟时为绿色，成熟后依品种不同，会转为深红至暗红色，或黄至橙黄色。果序由众多果实附着于内部髓心构成，髓心可呈白色或黄色。单颗果实包含种子及包裹其外的果肉。阿维亚凯人与米卡姆布特人会食用髓心与果实二者。

结果期时长取决于温度（因此也受海拔影响），低海拔地区的果实几乎全年可获（Walter与Sam 2002：210）。阿维亚凯人与米卡姆布特人在前往丛林营地、狩猎等途中总会巡查露兜树，当发现果序从叶丛中探出（即果实发育成熟并显现）时，便知晓已到采收时节。

成熟的果序通常借助长杆从树上采下，运至营地或村落后被切成小块以适配锅具。随后将其放入水中煮沸，使坚硬的果序软化，便可将果实与髓心分离。煮沸后的髓心可直接食用，但不被视为"正经食物"。人们会啃咬已刮去果实的髓心块，部分吞咽，部分吮吸，最后咀嚼并吐出纤维状的芯部。

含油的果实才是露兜树最具价值的部分。烹饪后果实变软，即可将含油果肉与种子分离。具体做法是将冷水浇在煮好的果实上，用手揉搓搅拌。处理这一工序的人员（在阿维亚凯人与米卡姆布特人中男女均可，但在巴布亚新几内亚其他地区，该工作可能存在性别分工。Bonnemère（Walter与Sam 2002：211）记载，在安卡夫人（Ankave）中，这完全是男性的工作）会将剩余的种子放入口中，吮吸掉残留的果肉后吐出。

经如此处理制成的露兜树调味酱（塞皮克地区称karuka，高地托克皮辛语中称marita）富含油脂，通常搭配西米煎饼或甜薯食用。其浓郁的红色会将粪便染成红色，阿维亚凯人常以此和孩子们开玩笑："enmen pawinay"——"你的便便会变成红色"。由于狗常会啃食人们吮吸果肉后吐出的种子，以及剩余的调味酱和西米，因此在人们食用露兜树果实后的次日，常会看到狗的粪便呈红色且混杂有未消化的种子。过量食用露兜树调味酱可能引发腹泻。露兜树油脂含有强效色素，很难掩盖食用过的痕迹，最轻微的情况也会导致嘴唇和舌头呈现亮橙红色（见图版10）。

若成熟的果序未及时采收，便会进入过熟阶段：亮红色的籽粒开始变暗并从髓心上脱落。由于露兜树错综纠结的气生根与缠结的绳索极为相似，阿维亚凯人将露兜树与绳结游戏普遍联系在一起，甚至有部分阿维亚凯人认为，人们会在食用露兜树果实时玩绳结游戏（参见Hoenigman，即将出版）。

不过在海拔1000米以下的区域（阿维亚凯人的领地除最高山脉外大多属于此范围），结果期几乎从未中断。这种绳结图案代表了露兜树果实"生命"的三个阶段。第一阶段，制作者先编出果序。在编结过程中，她会讲解果实的成熟过程。第二阶段代表成熟的果实。此后，编结过程开始反向进行，即拆解绳结，这对应着成熟的果实逐渐从果序上脱落，直至髓心完全裸露。许多阿维亚凯人表示，mañ（"红色露兜树"）是最难编结的绳图，因其需要大量扭转动作。这也是我唯一无法完整描述编结过程的阿维亚凯绳图——我始终没能完成"绿色果实"阶段之后的步骤。

图片：02、03、04：达尔贾·蒙巴ŋ戈阿皮克（Darja Munbaŋgoapik）正在编结名为mañ（"红色露兜树"）的绳图，展示其果实的三个生长阶段：02：未成熟的果实；03：果实的成熟过程；04：过熟的果实从果序上脱落，留下裸露的髓心；05：mañ（"红色露兜树"）；06：wakoñ（"黄色露兜树"）；07：将煮好的果实与水混合制作红色露兜树调味酱。

参考文献：
Hoenigman, Darja. Forthcoming. Talking about strings: The language of string figure-making in a Sepik society, Papua New Guinea. *Language Documentation & Conservation Journal*.
Walter, A. 与 C. Sam. 2002. Fruits of Oceania. Canberra: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). 第210-211页，https://aciar.gov.au/node/8516（2020年6月23日访问）。
所用语言：阿维亚凯语（Awiakay）