sunflower terms

[Rankin, Robert L]

Hi Mary,
 
I polled the group of scholars on the Siouan list for sunflower terms.  The terms do not match across the language family and are overwhelmingly descriptive.  In most cases it is something like 'yellow flower' or 'flower follows the sun', that sort of thing.  I'm afraid this isn't very helpful for the sort of thing you're looking for.  I'll check a little further and see about the term for sunflower seed.  There is a generalized term for things like melon or pumpkin/squash seeds that may extend to the sunflower.  It is generally something like [mantte].  Does that ring any bells?
 
Our results are in the attached Word document.  Occasionally non-Microsoft email servers convert these documents into unreadable "winmail.dat" files that cannot be opened.  If this should happen, let me know and I'll resend the document via another account.
 
Good luck with your study.
 
Bob Rankin

________________________________

From: Mary Pohl [mailto:mpohl at mailer.fsu.edu]
Sent: Mon 11/5/2007 2:47 PM
To: Rankin, Robert L
Subject: sunflower terms



Dear Dr. Rankin,

My colleague Nick Hopkins suggested that I contact you to get
indigenous terms for sunflower.

I would like to get some representative terms from the middle
Mississippi valley where sunflower was evidently domesticated in
North America (such as Mandan) as well as southeast Muskogean
representative terms.  It would be helpful if you could provide me
with the indigenous terms and their translations as well.

The reason I am asking is that working in the Gulf Coast region of
Mexico near the site of La Venta, we excavated remains of sunflower
dating to ca. 2600 B.C.  Evidently sunflower was independently
domesticated in Mexico; that is our argument.

Paleoethnobotanist David Lentz has collected indigenous Mexican terms
for sunflower.  We would like to see whether they are distinct from
terms used in North America.  If they are distinct, this fact would
be one supporting line of evidence for our hypothesis that there were
two domestications of sunflower.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Sincerely yours, Mary Pohl



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