Derek Stavarski's List: Kuna - Ethnology Paper -Diet, Nutrition

• There are practically no vegetables in the Indian diet.  On their farms they grow corn, pineapples, bananas, plantains and sugar cane. A  small amount of rice and one species of cocoa bean are also cultivated. Three  villages are able to raise oranges and avocadoes on a small scale but not for  the commerical market. With such a limited supply of food it is difficult to  have any variation in the daily menu.

• Crops include plantain, coconut, banana, maize, yam, manioc (now generally the  sweet variety), sweet potato, rice, sugar cane, pineapple, orange, lime, mango,  papaya, cacao, avocado, bread fruit, star apple, many varieties of hot pepper,  tobacco, cotton
• Needless to say, not all of these products are grown by any one man or village.  There is a limiting factor of local environmental and ecologic condition, as  well as individual preference.
• also to village as opposed to mainland life and consequent reluctance to spend  as much time in the fields; and particularly due to the absence of the young  men, who work in the Canal Zone. The latter, upon returning, do not wish to work  in the plantations because of the comparatively hard labor.
• This decrease of interest in agriculture has resulted in a less satisfactory  diet; particularly upon islands such as Carti, where  even rice, banana and sugar are purchased from traders. At Narganá as much, if  not more, food is purchased from stores, in the form of bread, sugar, and canned  fish, as is raised or obtained by fishing

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• The plantain is the single most important crop, and is literally the ‘staff of  life’, even the common name Masi   meaning ‘food’. Croplands are measured  according to the number of banana plants they will hold, it will be remembered.
• Introduced by Europeans as ‘pure food’ it was the most important food, other  than meat, by Wafer’s time and has remained so. Its relative, the banana, is  enjoyed and countless varieties are grown, though it is not an essential item in  the diet.
• The author feels that the plantain has superceded the sweet and bitter manioc as  the major food stuff, for the bitter is no longer grown at all, and the sweet  only in small quantities. Stout’s (1947, p. 62) mention that the banana and  plan-[94]tain have become staples since the movement to the islands, may be  presumed to mean the decrease in importance of game animal with the decline in  game supply and the lack of time for hunting.
• The banana family is one of the world’s finest sources of food, for it is high  in carbohydrate content as well as in fats and proteins.
• It is unusual for even the annoying parrots to eat unripe plantain, unless their  normal diet is disturbed by flood. Floods serve to  distribute the plantain through the area, for Wafer distinctly states that the  young plants swept away by the flood reset themselves down river

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• Cuna rice is reported by Krieger (1926, p. 42) to be heavy and rounded, of  superior quality. No data as to its growth or importance in the diet is available, though we have samples of the mortars  necessary for its processing (see Plate, end).
• The lack of beans is somewhat surprising, in view of many of the other Central  American dietary patterns, though the proteins may be supplied by fish and meat.
• Sugar cane furnishes a sweet water, important among the enjoyed subsistence  items, though sugar itself is not processed out. The cane was only chewed and  sucked in the seventeenth century.

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• Today’s hunting, described above, is a distinctly secondary occupation. Stout
• has pointed out clearly that the former meat supply has not been replaced by the  introduction of domestic animals such as chicken and pig. The latter were  introduced and accepted in quantity while hunting was still practiced  extensively; but then, as now, were primarily an item of trade.
• Even some of today’s small supply of game is sold, in return for gold ornaments,  rather than being an item of diet. In 1921 at least,  there were some Indians enthusiastic enough about hunting to show an interest in  Beach’s electric torch, and to take him night hunting--again in opposition to  practice in Wafer’s time

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• An essential item in Cuna diet is the non-fermented  gruel, served early in the morning; as a snack during the day; carried as travel  ration when hunting or fishing; and the first thing offered to the weary  traveler or the convalescent.
• These are made with several bases, such as maize, plantain, banana or cacao. Two  of the most common are Gainissa  , made of sugar cane juice, roasted corn  meal, cacao, and water; and Saga  , a concoction of mashed plantain or banana,  cacao and water.
• The corn drink is slightly sour, and leaves a residue of corn in one’s mouth to  chew on. Infusions of orange tree leaves and other plants are also drunk.”

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• Though bananas may be eaten raw, plantain must be cooked; both are generally  utilized for cooking while in the green stage.
• Eggs and chicken are only eaten on ceremonial occasions, though iguana and  turtle eggs have been regularly eaten in the past. (see Cullen, 1868, p. 162).  Potatoes and yams are generally roasted. The Indians like tea, but coffee in the  American style is only enjoyed by a few of the more acculturated--and then laden  strongly with sugar.
• The Cuna generally roast theirs, pulverize it on a metate, and mix it in water  with corn or chocolate as another version of their favorite gruels.

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• The movement to the islands diminished the radius of the hunting territory,  increased the dependence on plant foods and made available a greater supply of  fish.
• That hunting was more extensive a generation ago is seen in the many anecdotes  concerning it which are told by the older men—one of the very few topics about  which they wax enthusiastic.
• Pigs and chickens have not supplanted meats gained through hunting, for while  hunting was still practiced extensively, the trading boats appeared and made a  market for game, so that today most game is sold in return for gold ornaments,  rather than serving as an item in the diet.
• Eggs are rarely eaten except at the friendship ceremony, and chickens only at  funerals and the four-day ceremony. In these instances, chicken eggs and  chickens have probably replaced indigenous birds and birds’ eggs.”

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