THE USE AND POTENTIAL OF THE PITA PLANT, AECHMEA MAGDALENAE (ANDRÉ) ANDRÉ EX. BAKER, IN A NGÖBE VILLAGE: A CASE STUDY OF CHALITE, BOCAS DEL TORO, PANAMA.

by

KATHRYN M. LINCOLN

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN FORESTRY

MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

2004

ii

The thesis “The Use and Potential of the pita plant, Aechmea magdalenae

(André) André ex. Baker, in a Ngöbe Village: A Case Study of Chalite, Bocas del

Toro, Panama.” is hereby approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN FORESTRY.

School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Signatures:

Advisor: __________________________________________ Blair D. Orr

Dean: ____________________________________________ Margaret R. Gale

Date: ____________________________________________

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PREFACE

This study was conducted between May 2002 and August 2004, during

my service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Chalite, Ño-Kribo, Ngöbe-Buglé

Comarca, Panama. Prior to my Peace Corps service I worked in a variety of

natural resource positions including work with the National Park Service at Isle

Royale National Park and owning my own landscape design company in

Wichita, Kansas.

My interest in people’s role in natural resources began with my

undergraduate study at the University of Nebraska, where I completed a major

in Horticulture with a focus in Landscape Design. Learning how people interact

and shape the land and environment around them sparked in me an interest to

travel and learn about human interaction in different environments.

Through my service as a Peace Corps volunteer, I had the opportunity to

see how the tropical moist forest shapes the lives of the Ngöbe people. I worked

side by side with the women of Chalite, farming, gathering plants and learning

about their views of the forest. This thesis is the result of many months of

learning what it means to be a Ngöbe woman.

“Go with the People. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But of the best leaders, when the job is done, the task accomplished, The people will all say, 'We have done this ourselves'." -Lao Tsu China, 700 BC

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As with any work, although only one name graces the cover of this thesis

it would not have been possible but for the efforts of many. I cannot thank

everyone who has touched my life these last four years, but all of you have

contributed to the completion of this work.

Specifically, I thank Bob Dainton for his friendship and unending

interest and suggestions throughout our shared Peace Corps service. I also

thank Jason Cochran, my APCD, for encouraging words. I also wish to thank

the people of Proyecto Ngöbe-Buglé for freely providing me with their research

and for their interest in my project.

I thank my graduate committee, Andrew Storer, Marty Jurgensen, and

Tom VanDam for their comments and suggestions. I thank Holly Martin and

Greer Gurganus for their endless encouragement and helpful edits. I cannot

express the amount of thanks I have for Blair Orr; advisor, mentor, friend, who

has never given up on me and pushed me to always do better.

Thanks go also to my parents and siblings, who don’t always understand

me but always love me without question. I wish to thank the women of Mesi

Chali; sisters, teachers, friends whom I will always cherish and keep in my

heart. Their laughter and secrets whisper in my dreams. Finally, I thank

Russell Slatton, my partner in the fullest sense of the word, husband, teacher,

pupil, cherished friend whose support never fails and love never ends.

Ma da brade kuin, Chodi!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE…………………………………………………………………………………. iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………. iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES……………………………………………………. vi

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………….. viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………. 1

CHAPTER II BACKGROUND OF PANAMA

Geography………………………………………………………………………… 5 History…………………………………………………………………………….. 10 People and Economy………………………………………………………...... 14 Agriculture and Natural Resources………………………………............. 15 CHAPTER III STUDY AREA

Bocas del Toro Province………………………………………………............ 19 The Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé……………………………………………........... 25 The Village of Chalite…………………………………………………............. 29 CHAPTER IV ETHNOBOTANICAL REVIEW OF AECHMEA MAGDALENAE

Ethnobotany……………………………………………………………............. 42 Non timber forest products…………………………………….................... 43 The Pita Plant, Aechmea Magdalenae…………………………................. 45 CHAPTER V METHODOLOGY

Participant observation………………………………………………............. 55 Interviews……………………………………………………………………........ 57 Verification....................................................................................... 63

Obstacles……………………………………………………………………......... 65 Analysis………………………………………………………………………........ 66 CHAPTER VI RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Demographics…………………………………………………………............... 70 The Processing of Fiber.......................………………………………......... 73 The Change in Use of Pita Plant Over Time……………………………..… 82 Discussion……………………………………………………………………….... 99

CHAPTER VII CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusions……………………………………………………………………… 102 Recommendations……………………………………………………………….. 103 LITERATURE CITED…………………………………………………………………...... 111

APPENDIX………………………………………………………………………………….. 118

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

FIGURES

FIGURE 1. Panama’s location in the Caribbean………………………………… 6

FIGURE 2. Panama map with Provincial delineations………………………… 8

FIGURE 3. The Canal entrance from the Bridge of the Americas......……… 13

FIGURE 4. Bocas del Toro…………………………………………………………… 18

FIGURE 5. Rainfall Patterns in Bocas del Toro as compared to those

on Pacific slope (David) . …………………………………………….... 20

FIGURE 6. Map of Bocas del Toro ………………………………………………… 21

FIGURE 7. Shoreline of Bocas del Toro mainland…………………………….. 22

FIGURE 8. Overlooking the Bocas Del Toro Landscape………………………. 23

FIGURE 9. Political map of the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé ……………………….. 28

FIGURE 10. Map of Guarivara River Region ……………………………………. 30

FIGURE 11. Map of Chalite …………………………………………………………. 31

FIGURE 12. Town of Chalite, school (blue buildings) ………………………… 32

FIGURE 13. A typical Ngöbe house and a missionary-built house…………. 34

FIGURE 14. Dugout canoe for family……………………………………………... 36

FIGURE 15. Larger canoe on the Guariviara……………………………………. 37

FIGURE 16. Rainforest trails………………………………………………………… 37

FIGURE 17. Typical farm in Chalite……………………………………………….. 40

FIGURE 18. Pita plant and flower………………………………………………….. 46

FIGURE 19. Aechmea magdalenae growth habit……………………………….. 47

FIGURE 20. Aechmea magdalenae fibers……………………………………….. 50

FIGURE 21. Products made from A. magdalenae fiber………………………... 50

FIGURE 22. Dense colony of Aechmea magdalenae……………………………. 51

FIGURE 23. Participant observation………………………………………………. 56

FIGURE 24. Members of the women’s group Mesi Chali ……………………... 62

FIGURE 25. Typical Ngöbe woman and child outside their home............... 70

FIGURE 26. Percentage of time spent on activities (weekly)....................... 72

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FIGURE 27. Harvesting pita leaves............................................................ 73

FIGURE 28. Removing spines from pita leaf.............................................. 74

FIGURE 29. Extraction of fiber from leaf................................................... 75

FIGURE 30. Cleaning newly extracted pita............................................... 75

FIGURE 31. Dye plants su, kuro, and kare................................................ 78

FIGURE 32. Extraction of dye from plant.................................................. 79

FIGURE 33. Newly dyed kiga..................................................................... 79

FIGURE 34. Making string from kiga......................................................... 80

FIGURE 35. Fashioning kra ...................................................................... 81

FIGURE 36. Plastic sacks.......................................................................... 90

FIGURE 37. Signs of a modern house: kra made from nylon

string, a modern propane powered oven and stove,

and plastic bleach bottles....................................................... 91

FIGURE 38. Ceremonial kra vs. work kra.................................................. 93

TABLES

TABLE 1. Topics and questions used to generate unstructured

interviews….............................................................................. 58

TABLE 2. Standard Measurements and prices of kiga………………………… 77

TABLE 3. Dye plants used by Ngöbe women of Chalite.............................. 78

TABLE 4. Significant variables correlated with “Age at which first

learned to make kra”, at a 0.10 level of statistical significance... 94

TABLE 5. Pearson correlation coefficients related to the emerging

market of buyers and sellers in Chalite ……………………………… 97

TABLE 6. Comparison of changes in pita use over time............................. 99

viii

ABSTRACT

The pita plant, Aechmea magdalenae, is a non-timber forest product

used among the Ngöbe women of Chalite, Bocas del Toro, Panama. Ngöbe

women harvest fiber from this plant, dye this fiber and make hammocks,

fishing nets, ropes and bags called kra. This study uses the methods of

participant observation and unstructured, informal interviews to define the use

of the plant in this village and to determine a change in the use of the pita

plant in recent years. Results indicate that some women have lost the

knowledge of extraction, dying and fashioning of bags while others have

improved upon these techniques. Improved techniques have emerged because

women hope to sell bags as artisan works to tourists. However, constraints in

transportation, competition, and few market outlets make selling to tourists

difficult. The separation in the village of women who fashion kra and those who

do not has created a local market for pita fiber and the bags used in daily work

activities.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

The women of any Ngöbe village in Bocas del Toro, Panama know the

significance of the name Mesi. She is, of course, the ancestress who invented

the kra. One night, as Mesi was sitting fanning the fire of her cook stove with a

palm frond, old mother Spider crept out of the shadows. “Mesi,” said Spider, “I

will teach you a craft that will help to ease your heavy workload.” And so Spider

took a great bunch of her web and began to fashion a large bag from it. The bag

was strong, and could stretch to hold almost everything Mesi needed to carry;

wood, bananas, taro root, plants gathered from the forest, even her children.

Mesi was overjoyed, and said to the Spider, “Oh great Spider, this is wonderful!

But I do not have a web - I cannot make this great tool!” And Spider replied,

“Why, there is a plant in the forest that has a strong fiber like my webbing. I

will show you how to get it.” So the next night Mesi and Spider collected the kra

plant and Mesi was happy again. Spider and Mesi became great friends and

night after night Spider would come and show Mesi how to make all kinds of

designs in the bags- snake, butterfly, painted rabbit, caterpillar, sea serpent,

fruit and boa to name only a few. Then one night Spider said to Mesi, “You are

a great woman now. You will teach the others to make the kra, and they will

always remember the name Mesi.” And so she did.

This tale of Ngöbe culture, told to me by the women of Chalite, Panama

demonstrates the importance of the kra, hand woven bags, in the lives of Ngöbe

women. Using fiber extracted from an understory forest species, Aechmea

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magdalenae, these bags have been crafted for many decades for use in the

home, trade and ceremonial purposes. Now, as Ngöbe become exposed to

different cultures, the purpose of these bags is changing. With greater access to

materials such as nylon rope and plastic sacks, fewer women extract the fiber

from the pita plant in favor of the other materials. Conversely, women who

knew very little about the extraction practice or had never learned it are

beginning to learn again. The women are motivated in part by the promise of a

small tourist market for ceremonial bags made of pita fiber. The hope of

economic gain is breathing new life into a dying cultural practice.

I lived for two years in the small Ngöbe village of Chalite, on the banks of

the Guariviara River in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Every day, I worked alongside

the women of this village and became their pupil, teacher and friend. I saw the

hope in their eyes and the calluses on their fingers as they scraped leaves of the

pita plant, rubbed their legs raw making string and stayed up late nights by the

light of a candle fashioning the kra. I knew they had an intimate relationship

with this plant and I sought to know more about their connection to pita.

As very little is known and even less documented about the use of the

pita plant by Ngöbe women, my first purpose was to determine use and

document how the plant is grown and harvested, and how fiber is extracted and

3

turned to string and then used to make bags, hammocks and other items. My

second purpose was to examine how this use of the pita plant has changed in

recent years with increased access to manufactured materials and a cash

economy. By determining what changes have occurred, I make

recommendations of future use of the pita plant for women in Chalite.

I begin this examination in chapter II with a background of the country

of Panama. I will discuss its geography, people and economy, natural resources

and agriculture. I will also give a brief history of the country and an account of

some of the events that helped shape Panama. In chapter III, I will continue

with background, focusing on the region where I lived and studied. I will

discuss how the geographical, environmental, political and social structures of

this region formed and describe how these factors make it unique within the

country. A historical background of Bocas del Toro, the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé

and the village of Chalite is given to orient the reader to the attitudes and

practices specific to the Ngöbe people.

In chapter IV, I provide an ethnobotanical review of the pita plant. I will

discuss the science of ethnobotany and the importance of this scientific

discipline. I will also discuss non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and their role

in natural resource management. Once thought to be the answer to widespread

deforestation on a global scale, in recent years NTFPs have seen many failures

commercially (Margolis 2004). Often these failures are due to a

misunderstanding of the cultures involved and the ways they use the forest.

Finally, this chapter gives a background of Achemea magdalenae, the pita

plant, and its use and cultivation worldwide.

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In chapter V, I will discuss the methodology for this study, focusing on

the concept of participatory research. I will discuss obstacles I strove to

overcome in the research and outline the methods used, from initial

observations to data analysis. I will follow with the results of my study and a

discussion of those results in chapter VI. In this chapter, I will provide a look at

pita use past and present in regards to utility, cultural and economic variables.

Finally, I conclude in chapter VII with a look at potential of Aechmea

magdalenae in Ngöbe culture and highlight the importance of further research

on this plant and its potential impact on a global scale.

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CHAPTER II

COUNTRY BACKGROUND FOR PANAMA

The Republic of Panama is the link between North and South America.

Bordered by Costa Rica in Central America to the west and Colombia and South

America to the east, only 555km of Panama’s border is land. The remaining

2,490km is coastline, separating the Pacific Ocean to the south and Caribbean

Sea to the north (CIA, 2004). Panama forms the only land bridge connecting two

continents and contains the only waterway connecting these bodies of water.

The unique geographic location of Panama has profoundly shaped its

landscape, people and ecosystems.

GEOGRAPHY

Located between 7.5 and 10 degrees North latitudes and 77.5 and 82.5

degrees West longitudes Panama is an isthmus, or s-shaped, country of 75,990

square kilometers, roughly the same area as the state of South Carolina (CIA,

2004). Formed by volcanic activity, Panama is cut by two high, rugged,

mountain ranges dividing the north from the south, and is surrounded by many

small island archipelagos. The depression between the two ranges is the

location of the Panama Canal, an 80km freshwater waterway connecting the

Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. This canal, in turn, divides the country from west

to east. Panama’s highest point is the inactive volcano Volcan Barú at 3,475m,

which lies at the end of the western range in the province of Chiriqui (Doggett

2001). Panama has a great diversity of ecosystems, coastal plains give way to

the rolling hills which characterize much of the Pacific coast, high rugged peaks

6

Figure 1. Panama's location in the Caribbean (CIA, 2004)

cut along the dividing range and steep ridges give way to lowland swamps and

mangrove forests on the Caribbean side.

Panama has a diverse climate and a variety of ecosystems for such a

small country. While cloud forest dominates the high regions, mangrove

swamps and beaches can be found in coastal areas. Much of Panama was

originally tropical rainforest, but today large areas are being deforested, at a

rate of 41,321 hectares (102,106 acres) a year (ANAM 2004). As a result, soil

temperatures in these areas have risen and soil absorption rates have

decreased causing increased runoff and drier soils. The southern and eastern

parts of Panama have a marked, short dry season (December-April) and long

rainy season (May-November). The mountain region and Caribbean coast have a

7

more variable rainfall pattern with no marked dry season and higher humidity.

Temperatures are typically hot in the lowlands ranging between 21°C and 32°C

(70°F-90°F). The mountain region is cooler with a range of 10°C and 18°C (50°F-

64°F). Temperatures remain steady both diurnally and yearly (Smithsonian

2004).

There are nine provinces in the country of Panama and two indigenous

comarcas, areas delineated by the tribes and recognized by the Panamanian

government as semi-autonomous with limited sovereignty. From east to west

they are The Darien, Panama, Colon, Comarca de San Blas, Coclé, Los Santos,

Herrera, Veraguas, Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé, Chiriqui, and Bocas del Toro. The

Darien, the “wildest” of the provinces, borders Columbia and has large

expanses of dense rainforest. The indigenous groups of Emberá and Wounaan

live in the Darien, their way of life preserved by limited access. The cities of

Panama and Balboa, the two largest cities in the Republic, lie within Panama

Province. The Canal also cuts through this low-lying area.

Colon, on the northern end of the Canal, has a mostly urban Afro-

Antillean population, and profits from its port location as a center for

international trade. As part of the lowest-lying area of Panama, Colon’s

landscape is largely swamps and low plains. The Kuna Indians live in the

Comarca de San Blas, to the west of Colon province stretching along the coast

nearly to the Columbian border. The Kuna live on the over 350 islands of the

archipelago and farm the narrow strip of mainland along the coast.

8

Figure 2. Panama map with provincial delineations

9

White sand beaches of the Pacific coast give way to rolling plains and

hills in Coclé province, south of Colon and west of Panama Province. The

majority of the rural population of Panama farm in this region. Los Santos and

Herrera, jutting out as a peninsula into the Pacific, are also home to white sand

beaches, giving way to flat, dry rangeland. Many of the nation’s cattle are raised

here, and this is the driest area in Panama. Veraguas starts on the same

peninsula but extends to the Northern coast, crossing the central mountain

range. Higher peaks and steeper terrain are home to the Buglé indigenous

population.

Bordering Costa Rica to the west, the province of Chiriqui is rich with

farmland and rolling hillsides. In its mountains, the people of Chiriqui enjoy a

cooler climate where agricultural products requiring colder temperatures can be

produced. The capital of Chiriqui is David, located along the Pan-American

Highway connecting Panama to Mexico. David is the only city in the entire

western half of Panama, where roads are scarce between farming communities.

Bocas del Toro, named for the island archipelago that shelters the

mainland coast from the Atlantic Ocean, lies to the north of Chiriqui and has a

particularly different climate and feel. Cut off from the rest of the country by the

highest peaks of the Central mountain range, Bocas del Toro’s main cultural

influences are from the Caribbean islands and the large number of indigenous

peoples. Both the Ngöbe and the Terribe tribes occupy much of the land here.

The Ngöbe-Buglé Comarca stretches across three provincial borders, occupying

the highlands and the less populated coastal areas of the Panamanian West.

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HISTORY

The Spanish conquistadors arrived in what is today the country of

Panama in 1501, among them Christopher Columbus on his fourth voyage to

the New World. Panama at that time was densely populated, having some

500,000 to 3 million inhabitants. One man in particular, Vasco Núñez de

Balboa, made the perilous 25-day journey across the country through dense

jungle to “discover” the Pacific Ocean in 1513. He quickly developed a trade

route from the Pacific to the Atlantic, hauling gold and other treasures from

Peru and South America. Balboa succeeded where other Spaniards had failed

in colonizing Panama, setting up farms instead of relying on rations from

sporadic ships and raiding Indians for food. Although he was arrested for

treason and executed in 1517, he remains the most beloved conquistador;

gracing the face of every Panamanian coin. His name, “Balboa” is synonymous

with the word “money” in Panama (Doggett 2001).

After Balboa established the trade route, Panama quickly became the

third richest colony of the Spanish empire. However, the perils of the route,

diseases like malaria and yellow fever, and dense vegetation prompted the first

surveys and talk of building a canal along the Camino Real, or royal road in the

1520s. The idea was abandoned, however, when many of the slaves for the

colony, the indigenous peoples, began to die at rapid rates from European

diseases and the rest fled inland to escape harsh treatment by the colonizers.

This prompted the importation of Africans for slaves, and Panama became a

major slave trade port for all of Central and South America (Howarth 1966).

The Spanish ruled Panama for 300 years, and established a modern

society. Towns and buildings were constructed in Spanish style, complete with

11

large catholic churches and parks. The latest fashions were brought by ship

from Europe, and those ships were then packed with gold and returned to

Spain. Then, on November 28, 1821, after the Spanish governor to Panama left

for Ecuador and put Colonel Edwin Fábrega, a native Panamanian, in charge,

Panama declared its independence from Spain. It was still a part of Colombia,

however, and remained so until after the construction of the Canal was

complete (Black and Flores 1989).

During isolated periods throughout the 17th and 18th centuries Spain had

demonstrated interest in the construction of a canal, but it was not until the

gold rush in California when plans to build an easier route of passage began in

earnest. Traffic increased as prospectors chose the passage over the rugged

wagon ride across the United States. A company from New York, taking

advantage of the demand, built a railroad that was completed in 1855. With

this new development, Panama’s economy grew rapidly after years of

stagnation. This period of prosperity continued until 1869 when the trans-

continental railroad of the United States was completed.

The French decided to build a canal through Panama in 1879 along the

railroad route, and put Ferdinand de Lesseps, successful engineer of the Suez

Canal, in charge. In 1889, rumors of his eminent failure put out by his

enemies caused stock and bond prices to drop. de Lesseps received no help

from French politicians who wanted bribes to secure his holdings, and his

company went bankrupt before any serious construction began. In 1903 the

United States initiated construction of a canal. The process of construction was

not easy for the United States either; disease, labor strikes, financial and

political problems cost time and money. It is generally said that the Canal

12

would never have been built save for the efforts of Colonel William Crawford

Gorgas to combat the deadly mosquitoes carrying malaria and yellow fever

(McCullough 1977).

The United States drafted a series of treaties with Panama delineating

responsibilities for the construction and maintenance of the Canal. One of those

led to the separation of Panama from Colombia in 1903. The United States

helped liberate Panama in exchange for ensuring the United States retained

control of the Canal Zone, an area stretching for 5 kilometers on either side of

the Canal, for a period of 100 years. The occupation by United States military

and civilian personnel of the Canal Zone, delineated as United States soil,

ensured that United States ships could always pass through the Canal. The

first ship successfully sailed through the locks of the Panamanian Canal

August 15, 1914.

Panamanian citizens were not happy about the United States ownership

of the Canal Zone and wanted the land returned to the Republic of Panama.

This was the central issue of most national political debate in the country until

the military takeover in 1968. Members of the Panamanian National Guard

headed by General Omar Torrijos took power over the government after a

heated election in November of that year. Although relations between the United

States and Panama were uneasy during Torrijos’s reign, on September 7, 1977

he and President Carter signed a treaty of great significance to both countries.

The treaty stated the control of the Canal would be handed over to Panama at

11:59pm December 31, 1999 (Buckley 1991, Espino 2001, McCullough 1977).

Torrijos’s reign paved the way for the most famous Panamanian, General

Manuel Antonio Noriega Moreno to come to power. Taking control of Panama in

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1984 after Torrijos’ sudden death, Noriega was a ruthless dictator until his

forced removal by the United States government in 1989. Noriega is housed

today in a federal prison in Florida for drug trafficking and illegal arms dealing

(Koster and Sanchez 1991).

Although a democratic regime exists in Panama today, the effects of

Noriega’s dictatorship and the presence of the United States military are still

evident. As a consequence, many Panamanians have mixed emotions about the

United States and its citizens. The exchange of control over the Canal went as

planned however, and it has been proved over the last five years that

Panamanians run it well (fig. 3). Although a ruthless military dictator, General

Torrijos is remembered today as a “man of the people” for his negotiations of

control over the Canal. Martín Torrijos, Omar’s son, is the current President of

Panama.

Figure 3. The Canal entrance from The Bridge of the Americas

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PEOPLE AND ECONOMY

Today, over 1,764,770 (62%) of the 2,839,177 inhabitants of Panama

live in urban areas, and over half live in the cities of the Canal Zone. As is often

the case in developing nations, much of the wealth of the nation also lies in

these cities while rural areas are stricken with poverty. This explains why

Panama has an overall high life expectancy rate at 77.5 years of age and an

adult literacy rate at 92%, but rural adult literacy is at 82%, while indigenous

literacy is at 60%. The census of Panama also considers an adult to be a person

of 10 years of age or older (Census 2000).

The demographics of the population are as follows: 70% mestizo (mixed

Amerindian and white), 14% Amerindian and mixed (West Indian), 10% white,

6% Amerindian (CIA 2004). There are eight organized indigenous groups in

Panama: the Kuna, Embera, Wounaan, Ngöbe, Buglé, BriBri, Bokota, and

Teribe. The largest indigenous group is the Ngöbe, with a population of 142,946

fifty-eight percent of the total indigenous population (Census 2000). All of these

groups have their own languages, though the only officially recognized

languages of Panama are Spanish and English (CIA 2004).

Panama’s economy is based on the US dollar, and the average annual

income for a Panamanian is $US 6,300 (2003 estimate). Among the rural

population, however, the income earned drops to less than $US 1000. Panama

earns 77% of its gross domestic product in the service sector, with most firms

based in Panama City. Only about 21% of the population works in agriculture,

and this sector accounts for only 8.3% of the total GDP (Census 2002). This

dichotomy is prevalent throughout the developing world, but is more

15

pronounced in Panama and has lead to dire consequences. Prices for imported

basic goods and general labor wages are higher. As a result, an unskilled

laborer in Panama makes an average of $6 per day compared to the $3 to $4

per day in the rest of Central America, but pays more for basic goods and

services. Companies looking for a labor force will more likely go to other Central

American countries to save money, leaving Panamanians with fewer

opportunities to earn any money at all.

AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Internationally economically important natural resources in Panama

include copper, mahogany, hydroelectric power, and shrimp (CIA 2004).

However, natural resources that do not currently generate revenue are also

important. They include a large variety of flora and fauna, some of which are

found nowhere else in the world (ANAM 2004). The amount of primary forest is

high, providing large carbon sinks that contribute to the world’s oxygen supply

and may combat global warming (ANAM 2004). Panama’s unique geography

plays a vital role in migration patterns of many species. It is part of the

Mesoamerican biological corridor, a region of the world where 8% of all of the

world’s biodiversity exists in less than 1% of its land area (World Bank 2004).

Panama’s forest cover is relatively high, 38%, compared to all of Central

America and the Caribbean, 29%. Originally Panama had a forest cover of 97%,

indicating a loss of almost 60% of total forest cover. Fifteen percent of that loss

has been over the last decade, the result of logging and clearing of land for

agriculture. This deforestation has prompted Panama to engage in land

stewardship. Currently Panama protects 19.5% of its total land area in 41

16

national protected areas (World Bank 2004). Panama’s rainforests are host to

9,915 species of higher plants, 192 of which are threatened. The bird

population, a biodiversity indicator, is one of the highest concentrations in the

world at 302 known species, sixteen of which are threatened. Panama has 218

mammal species, 242 reptiles, 182 amphibians, and 275 known species of fish.

As world trends in conservation and preservation continue to rise, the role of

Panama’s non-timber rainforest species will become increasingly important

natural resources (EarthTrends 2004).

Although agriculture is not a particularly important part of the economy

for Panama as a whole, the rural population relies on it for income and survival.

The country contains 7.6% arable land, while only 2.0% is in permanent crops

and 0.4% is irrigated (CIA 2004). As heavy rainfall on the Caribbean side

prevents cultivation of many crops, much of the agricultural production is done

on the Pacific side (Tollefson 1989). The top three items of economic

importance produced within the country are cattle, chicken and bananas. The

major agricultural exports are bananas, accounting for 40% of total agricultural

exports, followed by cattle at 12.2% and cigar cheroots at 8.2%. Agricultural

products account for 33.5% of the total export economy. Sugar, historically a

main export of Panama, is still important nationally. Major agricultural imports

include food preparations NES (pre-packaged food products) at 12.6%, corn,

accounting for 8.4% and soybean cakes at 5.8%. Total agricultural imports

make up 13.5% of total imports (FAOSTAT 2002).

The majority of Panamanian farmers are subsistence farmers, producing

just enough food to eat and little for sale. Common crops grown by subsistence

farmers are bananas, cassava, yams, rice, and corn. Typically families will have

17

one to five fruit trees around their homes and will grow a small amount of a

cash crop such as vegetables, coffee, or cocoa that can be taken to local

markets or traded with neighbors. Many constraints affect Panamanian

farmers today. Most land is divided by parents and given as separate parcels to

offspring. After several generations of this division of land, parcels are too small

to produce more than what is necessary for consumption. Tropical soils are

nutrient poor and have a thin layer of topsoil (Baver 1972). World conservation

and reforestation efforts, while helping the land, are hurting the farmer by

taking even more land out of agricultural production. Market prices today are

especially low for large-scale production crops grown in Panama such as sugar,

coffee, rice and bananas. With the absence of new technology, machinery, and

tools, farming in Panama is labor intensive. All of these factors have played a

role in keeping the poor farmer poor in Panama.

If the outlook for poor rural Panamanians throughout the country is

bleak, for those living sixteen hours from the capital the situation is much

worse. With less access to roads, electricity, phone service, markets or

government agency officials, it is harder for the extremely rural populations to

get aid and access to resources. As the divide between rich and poor increases,

the Republic of Panama as a whole suffers. By examining options for the poor

that have potential as income generating activities, this divide could be

lessened. It is important to look at and understand the options available for

rural Panamanians in order to provide relevant solutions. In the next chapter, I

will provide a closer look at the rural Panamanians of Bocas del Toro Province,

the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé, and the village of Chalite.

18

CHAPTER III:

STUDY AREA

Often in the world of Peace Corps volunteers, there is the expectation

that the site you will call home for two years will be an exotic place filled with

romantic, breathtaking views and beautiful, friendly, interesting people. The

sense of adventure overwhelms you as you travel to your new home. Within

three days reality hits, striking you in the face with the challenges living in a

poor, remote village brings - forgotten by the rest of the earth including, it

seems, your own mother. But if you are lucky, as I was, to live in a place like

Bocas del Toro, Panama, that feeling will return day after day as you pause in

your work to enjoy the truly breathtaking views, and learn enough patience to

listen to the people and begin to understand them (fig. 4).

Figure 4 . Bocas del Toro

19

My research on the pita plant began as a regular Peace Corps service,

one where I was put in a place to learn about the people and their culture. I

gained interest in the pita plant through the people of one remote village,

Chalite. The plant interested me because it played a great role in the daily lives

of the people of this place, remote, forgotten Bocas del Toro, Panama.

Bocas Del Toro Province

Crossing the Serraniá de Tabasará into Bocas del Toro, one can

immediately feel the difference between this and other provinces as the

humidity rises. The crests of this range average 1500m to 1800m above sea

level and in only 40 km drop down to 0m at the coast (Weil, et. al. 1972). The

mean annual rainfall on this slope, 2870mm measured at the town of Bocas del

Toro, known locally as Bocastown, is double the amount found on the Pacific

side. Based on annual averages, a pattern of two months of reduced rainfall

does exist in March and December; though the mean rainfall in those months is

still 140mm. Months of heavy rainfall, usually July and January, average

355mm. of rain (fig. 5). The high humidity can be attributed not only to the

monthly and yearly variation in rainfall pattern, but also that there is no

diurnal difference in rainfall. Half of all rain in Bocas del Toro falls at night,

while on the Pacific slopes only one quarter does (ETSA 2004).

20

Figure 5. Rainfall Patterns in Bocas del Toro as compared to those on Pacific slope (David) (ETSA 2004).

21

Bocas del Toro means “mouths of the bull” in Spanish. There is some

dispute as to how the Province acquired its name. The island chain was

originally known as “the islands of Toja”, and could have been misinterpreted

by the Spanish as “Toro”, but the “Bocas” part is more complicated. There are

five large rivers that empty into the Bay of Almirante and Chiriqui Lagoon, the

sheltered bodies of water surrounding the coastline of much of the province (fig.

6). The mouths (bocas) of these rivers deposit sand and silt into the Bay and

Lagoon. The largest river is the Changinola River, and it has several mouths

that empty into the Atlantic just west of the Bay of Almirante. The largest of

these mouths is near a narrow strip of water separating Isla Colón (Columbus

Island) from the mainland. This narrow strip is called Bocas del Drago (mouths

of the dragon), likely for the loud noise the river water makes as it empties into

the ocean. A distortion of Bocas del Drago and Islas de Toja perhaps became

“Bocas del Toro” (Gordon 1982).

Figure 6. Map of Bocas del Toro (adapted from Slatton 2004)

Chalite

22

The plant cover in Bocas del Toro is tropical rainforest dominated by

large, predominantly broadleaf evergreen trees. This vegetation type has an

extremely high biotic variety and complexity; species grow in an intermixture

rather than in clusters of one kind. The flowering and fruiting cycles, while on

an individual rhythm, do not follow monthly patterns. Common dominant tree

species come from the families Moraceae, Leguminosae, and Anacardiaceae

(Gentry 1985). The rainforest has many different layers, and often flowering

occurs only on the uppermost layer. Lianas and vines compete with the larger

trees for direct sunlight, leaving the understory species in dense shade. Every

plant has adapted to its layer using specialized roots and modified leaves and

reproductive strategies. Breaks in the dense canopy occur alongside major

rivers and coastline. Here, tropical ferns and grasses dominate and the majority

of the palm species and bamboo occur in abundance (Morley 2000). Mangroves

are present along the sheltered coastal areas of the mainland inside the Bay

and Lagoon and on southern edges of the islands of the archipelago (fig. 7).

Figure 7. Shoreline of Bocas del Toro mainland

23

The volcanoes that formed Panama became extinct before the Pleistocene

age (Bennett 1985). Generally volcanic ash and soils formed from volcanic

activity are fertile, however the ash that originated on the slopes of Bocas del

Toro region has been largely eroded (fig. 8). As a result, the soils on these slopes

are poor and lack nutrients. Covering mainly igneous rock, the soils in Bocas

are classified as highly acidic orthic and humic Acrisols (Yale 2003). Acrisols

are tropical and subtropical soils of old landscapes that are under high rainfall

conditions. They are extremely weathered and nutrient deficient, with a high

percent of low activity clay minerals and a low availability of phosphorus (FAO

2000). These characteristics are common to tropical soils in humid climates,

which generally have high moisture and leaching, low organic content, low

cation exchange capacity and formed on old landscapes of weathered material

(Baver 1972, El-Swaify 1982).

Figure 8. Overlooking the Bocas Del Toro Landscape

24

The only road leading into the province of Bocas del Toro is the Fortuna

Road, finished in 1985. Branching off the Pan-American Highway east of David

and cutting over the mountains to end at Chiriqui Grande, the 88 km journey

takes two hours by bus. Another road connecting Chiriqui Grande to the port

towns of Almirante and Chaginola, and then on west to Costa Rica, was

completed in 1997. While mudslides during the rainy season often cause both

roads to become impassable, they are the only land links to Bocas del Toro

Province. Other transport is by plane from Panama City or David to the Island

of Colon and Bocastown, or by boat. The canoe journey from Bocas province to

Colon powered by a 45hp motor takes 27 hours.

Bocas del Toro has a mix of different cultures. The islands and coastal

ports of the archipelago have a large population of Afro-Antilleans who migrated

to the islands from other Caribbean island nations, as well as a significant

population of mestizos, or people of mixed race. These populations make up

53% of the 89,269 inhabitants of Bocas del Toro (Census 2000). Though all

speak some level of Spanish, many also speak a dialect of English known as

guary-guary. Their major sources of employment are as fishermen or working

for the United Fruit Company, known locally as the Chiriqui Land Company

(Gordon 1982).

Two indigenous groups occupy the remaining land of Bocas del Toro. The

Teribe tribe, located in the Chaginola river valley, have a population of 2,220

(Census 2000). They practice subsistence farming and have an oligarchic

system of government, with a strong central chief (Gordon 1982). They do not

25

currently have a Comarca, though at the time of this writing negotiations for

land have begun with the Panamanian government.

Over 35,000 Ngöbe indigenous people live in the province of Bocas del

Toro, outside of the boundaries of the Comarca. The United Fruit Company

employs these Ngöbe to work in the fields weeding, pruning and tending to the

production of Panama’s number one export. The shift to income-based labor

has been a struggle for the Ngöbe population of Bocas del Toro. In the past they

worked for the company on a seasonal or temporary basis, leaving the

plantation to harvest their own crops after payday (Gordon 1982). Today the

Company has divided its land into farms that these Ngöbe work and live nearby

on a permanent basis. Many still have families who reside in the Comarca and

rely on income generated by the plantation workers to support their subsistence

lifestyle.

The Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé

The Ngöbe are the largest of the seven indigenous groups in Panama with

142,986 people, 58% of the total indigenous population. 85,078 live within the

Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé. The Ngöbe and the Buglé people are different, although

they have similar lifestyles based on kinship groups. Both peoples have been

referred to in the past as Guaymí, a word that is likely a distorted version of

ngwanmy, the term used by the Buglé to refer to the Ngöbe (PNB 2000). The two

are classified similarly linguistically, in the Guaymí language group, a sub-

family for the Chibchan language family (SIL 2004). Although much of the

literature refers to the Ngöbe as Guaymí, the term Ngöbe is more precise and

will be used throughout this study. The language that Ngöbe people speak is

26

Ngäbere, a guttural, oral language that has been difficult to translate into

written texts.

Christopher Columbus encountered a large population of Ngöbe living in

Bocas del Toro in 1502. Accounts of that time suggest that the Ngöbe peoples

were living much as they do today; practicing swidden fallow agriculture with a

variety of root crops and hunting and fishing to supplement their diets.

Population pressure on the land was a real problem, even though villages were

a day’s walk apart with small hamlets dispersed between them (Young 1971,

PNB 2000, Gordon 1982). After the Spanish conquest, Ngöbe populations

decreased and ecological pressures were relieved (Bennett 1968).

The Ngöbe lived for many years in isolation from outside society; their

main adoptions were the use of metal tools such as the machete, the

introduction of old world crops such as bananas and rice, and the introduction

of domesticated animals (Young 1971). Their system of government was based

on strong family ties. While villages had a designated chief in times of war, in

peacetime his power lapsed and he functioned as a typical village member (Fray

Adrian Ufeldre 1682 as cited in Martinelli 1993 and Young 1971). The Ngöbe

successfully resisted outside influence on their culture partly due to this loose

political system, as no dominant person or group within the society existed

(Bort and Young 1985).

Throughout the twentieth century, land pressures forced Ngöbe to either

choose to assimilate into mestizo society or to retreat further into the isolated

mountains of Panama. A backlash against “modern” culture occurred in 1961

with the formation of the new religion of Mama Chi (or Mama Tata as it is

sometimes known). The religion started high in the mountains of Chiriqui

27

province where it was rumored that God had spoken to a young Ngöbe girl at

the river, telling her to organize her people with a secret religion excluding all

non-Ngöbe. The movement did many things to strengthen ties within the Ngöbe

community. It stressed the use of Ngäbere language and encouraged women to

register births. The religion’s position against spousal abuse made great strides

to improve life for Ngöbe women (Young 1978).

Ironically, the Mama Chi movement called for an end to certain traditions

of Ngöbe culture, such as the practice of balseria (Young 1978). Balseria is an

event staged between two communities as a celebration, either for harvest or a

wedding or some other occasion (Gordon 1982, Young 1971). In this event, men

drink large quantities of fermented corn liquor and attempt to hit each other

with pieces of balsa wood. This type of organized fighting has strong roots in

Ngöbe culture, and is still practiced today in many forms. Today Mama Chi is

still practiced in Ngöbe society, though its power over Ngöbe political life

dwindled in the early 1970s (Bort and Helms 1983).

The Mama Chi movement strengthened ties in the formerly weak

structure of Ngöbe society. A strong youth presence emerged and pressed for a

centralized political system. As part of the individual provinces of Veraguas,

Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro, Ngöbe and Buglé communities had formed around

schools built by the Panamanian government in their areas (Young 1971).

Local chiefs of these areas began to receive recognition by the Panamanian

government in 1968 (Bort and Young 1985). In 1977, the chiefs and the dictator

of Panama, Omar Torrijos, met in Kankintu, Bocas del Toro to delineate the

areas of the proposed Comarca (Martinelli 1993). However, political debate as to

powers and structure of government continued until leaders of the Comarca de

28

Figure 9. Political map of the Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé (Jaen and Baules 2002)

(red circle shows study area)

29

San Blas (Kuna) supported the formation of a model similar to the Kuna

system. On March 7, 1997 the 694,406 hectare Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé was

created under Law 10 (Jaén and Baules 2002). A two–branch chieftain system,

the traditional and the regional, governs the semi-autonomous Comarca. The

regions are divided according to the provinces they once occupied, Nidrín

(Veraguas), Kodrí (Chiriqui), and Ño-Kribo (Bocas del Toro) (fig. 9).

Village of Chalite

Chalite is located twenty kilometers east and approximately ten

kilometers south of the port town of Chiriqui Grande, Bocas del Toro. Chalite

lies within the district of Kankintú, region Ño-Kribo, Comarca Ngöbe-Buglé (fig.

10). The village sits at the base of a small mountain peak, Cerro Chalite, the

first point of higher terrain inland from the Caribbean Sea, at an elevation of

347 meters. Chalite itself is at an elevation of only 60 meters, and is

surrounded by a substantial amount of swampland (fig. 11). The Guariviara

River lies to the west of town, and its frequent floods form a narrow fertile plain

of sandy loam along its banks. The Central mountain range can be seen from

Chalite to the south with its high peaks, frequent rains and cooler climate. The

Caribbean Sea can be seen to the north and its warm tropical breezes can be

felt from town. Chalite is the embodiment of the word tropical rainforest-

immensely humid, hot sunny days with frequent sudden bursts of heavy

rainfall, tapering off to cooler nights and more rain.

30

Figure 10. Map of Guarivara River Region (Slatton 2004)

31

Figure 11. Map of Chalite (Slatton 2004)

32

There are about 250 inhabitants occupying 33 houses in Chalite (Census

2000, est. from Guariviara region). According to village elders, a Frenchman

named Chalite founded the village in the 1950s. All of the inhabitants of

Chalite are Ngöbe indigenous people, and almost all are subsistence farmers.

Many people moved to Chalite after retiring from the United Fruit Company’s

banana plantation in the 1970s. Like most Ngöbe villages, Chalite received its

first school building and teacher in the late 1960s. It was a wood plank, palm-

thatched room where several of the elders first learned to speak Spanish. The

modern, concrete block and metal roofed three-room schoolhouse that sits on a

hill overlooking the town today was built in 1998. Five teachers now come to

teach grades K-6 at the school. The school and its storage building are the only

public structures in town (fig. 12).

Figure 12. Town of Chalite, school (blue buildings)

33

Forming a L-shaped pattern surrounding an open field used for soccer

(when not flooded) sit sixteen of the houses in Chalite. A missionary group from

the United States built these houses in the 1990s. The houses were built on the

ground, have concrete floors, metal sheeting for roofs and are entirely enclosed

from floor to ceiling with wooden planks. A typical Ngöbe house in Bocas del

Toro, like the other seventeen houses of the village, is raised off the ground

about five feet, has wooden floors, palm-thatch roofing and large gaps in the

wood plank walls to allow for breezes to pass through (Gordon 1982). Houses

generally have a large patio area to raise free-range chickens, fruit trees and

herbs. These sixteen were placed closer together than typical Ngöbe

communities, with only a 40–foot space between houses. Villagers have

explained that when the missionaries came to build the “modern” houses, many

people desired one. The houses are too hot inside during the day because the

metal roofing absorbs and then radiates heat and they are prone to flooding

since they are not raised off the ground. For this reason, most people have a

rancho, palm thatch stilt structure, built onto the back of the house. This area

is used for cooking (as all cooking is done on an open fire), socializing, siestas,

and many other activities. The missionary-built houses are used for storage (fig.

13).

34

Figure 13. A typical Ngöbe house and a missionary-built house

35

All of the missionary-built houses have access to clean potable water by

means of one spigot per house (or set of houses) connected to a series of PVC

pipes that feed from a stream on top of Cerro Chalite. Currently, forest

surrounds the stream and the water is the safest available, however many

people still collect water from the stream near the houses that is not clean and

nobody would hesitate to drink from any water source they happen upon in

their farms. The missionary houses also have concrete, modern latrines that are

now used for storage, play areas for children or chicken houses. The Ngöbe

people prefer to use the stream behind the houses for sanitation needs as

custom and tradition dictates. Electric lines connect each missionary house to a

gas-powered generator that has been broken for three years. The nearest

telephone is a two-hour hike from Chalite.

The Guariviara River is of great importance to the people of Chalite not

only for the soil it provides, but also as a means of transportation to and from

the village. There are no roads cut into this muddy, rocky, unstable soil, and

thus the villagers rely on dugout canoes for access to outside areas. Typically a

family will own at least one short canoe, six to eight feet in length, and use it to

travel on the river to visit friends and relatives as well as to fish and transport

small amounts of goods (fig. 14).

36

Figure 14. Dugout canoe for family

To reach the nearest larger town and closest road, Chiriqui Grande, the

villagers rely on a few people who own larger canoes, 20 to 30 feet in length,

with fifteen or twenty-five horsepower motors (fig. 15). These conductores travel

to Chiriqui Grande once a week, an eight hour round trip by river and ocean, to

transport people and goods to the marketplaces. The cost of this journey is

$4.00 one-way, an expense many cannot afford. However, the only other option

is to hike through an elaborate system of trails that cut through the rainforest.

One can reach Chiriqui Grande in eight hours by foot using these trails (fig. 16).

While this option is free, it is often difficult, as the journey is muddy, hilly and

hot. The choice to sit on a wooden plank for four hours in a narrow, leaking

canoe with often seven other people, bags of rice and bananas, and a chicken or

two; or climb the muddy hills barefoot for eight hours in the hot, humid,

Panamanian jungle is a purely financial one. If money is available, the canoe is

the best option for transport of goods and family members.

37

Figure 15. Larger canoe on the Guariviara

Figure 16. Rainforest trails

38

Chalite, like most Ngöbe communities, is made up of extended family, or

kinship groups (Young 1971). There are two main family groups, two brothers

are the heads of one and a man and his wife head the other. Nearly every

person in Chalite is related to one of these two families and often are related

through marriage to both. An average nuclear family in Chalite is made up of

one man, his wife and typically five to six children. Young married couples will

often live separately, each with their own parents, until a man can build a

house of his own. Often when a couple moves to occupy their own residence it

is near the extended family of the male, leaving the female to move away from

her kinship group to join her husband’s. It is common for members of extended

family to live in the household. An older woman never lives alone, so if her

husband has died or has gone to look for work outside the village, she will stay

with family. After a death in the family, members will move out of their home

and stay with extended family members. After the spirit has left the home, a

month to two months later, the family returns.

With the addition of the school in Chalite, all children are educated

through the sixth grade. Often female children will leave school earlier if they

become pregnant, not uncommon for thirteen- and fourteen-year old girls in

Chalite. If the family has money and the male child shows promise, he will be

sent away to live with distant family members and attend high school. This is a

tremendous expense and high school is such a different life from the village that

often the male children return after one year. The adults in Chalite do not seem

to oppose female children attending high school, and a few have done so, but

for lack of resources and norms set by sex roles, males are chosen over females.

39

Adult literacy rates are lowest for indigenous populations on the whole in

Panama, and because of this practice Indigenous women are the least educated

social sect in the country.

Subsistence agriculture is a way of life for the people of Chalite.

Subsistence farming is classified as growing food for personal consumption with

little left over (Beets 1990). Traditional crops grown for food include many

different types of bananas and plantains (Musa spp.), rice (Oryz sativa), root

crops (Dioscorea spp.) and peach palm (Bactris gasipaes). Some farmers do grow

a limited quantity of crops to sell including peach palm, cacao (Herrania

purpurea), and rice (Gordon 1982) (fig. 17). Domestic animals raised include

chickens, native pigs, turkeys, ducks, goats and Brahmin cattle. Hunting and

fishing are still a prominent part of life in Chalite, though population pressures

are affecting these practices. Hunted species include brocket deer (Mazama

Americana), painted rabbit (Agouti paca), ocelot (Felis pardalis), otter (Lutra

spp.), coatis (Nasua narica), toucan (Rhamphastos spp.), and armadillo

(Dasypus novemcintus) (Gordon, 1982). A number of plant species are also

gathered in the forest and used as food, tools, or aid in household chores. The

pita plant, Aechmea magdalenae, is one of the most important plants gathered.

The increase in recent years of the male population leaving Chalite to

find work on banana, coffee and sugar cane plantations has left the females in

charge of managing the farm. As a consequence, the women of Chalite are the

population that relies most heavily on crops and plants gathered from the

forest.

40

Figure 17. Typical farm in Chalite The missionaries who built the houses in Chalite are not the only

organization to provide development aid to the area. The latrines and water

system were built by a Panamanian government project. Proyecto Ngöbe-Buglé,

an organization funded by World Bank and the German Technical Cooperation

(GTZ) has provided workshops to Chalite residents in farming techniques (PNB

2000). Patronato de Nutrición (Nutrition Patrons) is a non-governmental

Panamanian organization that has built and maintains a community farm

project in Chalite (Slatton 2004). The United States Peace Corps sent my

husband and I there in 2002, and another volunteer will work in Chalite until

May of 2006. Groups have formed inside the community as well. Padres de la

Familia, made up entirely of parents of children in school, provides wood,

money and workers to supply school lunches and organize festivals for

holidays. The women’s artisan association, Mesi Chali, although formed through

my work as a Peace Corps volunteer, has expanded to function on its own

providing a forum for women in Chalite to express their views.

Chalite is a traditional Ngöbe community that sits on the edge of modern

society. Exposure to the larger Panamanian and global society is increasing as

41

more children are educated and more projects are introduced. The people of

Chalite are caught in a dichotomy that has been part of Ngöbe life for years, the

struggle between improved health and standard of living and the preservation of

tradition and culture. For example, the people of Chalite still practice the cacao

ceremony, sitting up for days and nights in a row drinking hot chocolate during

the full moon. They believe the practice wards off evil spirits, and keeps the

community safe. Everyone participates in this ceremony. However radios,

watches, other objects of modern culture are common. Continuing integration

into the economy of Panama has resulted in the search to develop products that

can be marketed on a national and even international scale. The Ngöbe in

Chalite currently enjoy an abundance of natural resources in the form of land,

agricultural crops and other plants and animals from the forest. These

resources are the best option for potential economic benefit for the people of

Chalite.

Ngöbe women have used the pita plant, Aechmea magdalenae, for

centuries; the making of the kra was a tradition passed from mother to

daughter. Today, modern goods are replacing the bags and other items made

from pita fiber, yet more and more women are learning the craft of kra. This

may show the plant plays a larger role in Ngöbe society. Perhaps that role is

monetary; a recent rise in tourism has sparked hopes of an international

market for kra sales. The future use of Aechmea magdalenae could prove to be

a significant part of the preservation of Ngöbe culture, and could change the

economic situation for Ngöbe women.

42

CHAPTER IV

ETHNOBOTANICAL REVIEW OF AECHMEA MAGDALENAE

Ethnobotany

Ethnobotany is an old discipline that emerged as a science in the

twentieth century (Davis 1995). It draws on aspects from a wide variety of other

disciplines including botany, anthropology, human geography, history and even

medical fields. Ethnobotany, as defined by Schultes and von Reis (1995) is “the

study of human evaluation and manipulation of plant materials, substances,

and phenomena, including relevant concepts, in primitive or unlettered

societies.” Other texts describe “primitive societies” as “undeveloped”, “non-

industrial”, or “indigenous” societies (Davis 1995, Prance 1995). Ethnobotany

can be further defined as economic botany (the exploration of plant resources

for industry) or ethnoscience (studies the plants roles in material culture)

(Toledo 1995). I will use the term ethnobotany in this paper to refer to my

study of the use of the pita plant by the Ngöbe indigenous tribe.

The two objectives of ethnobotanical research are to determine what

plants are used in the forest and why they are used and to determine potential

value held by these plants. In the past, the second goal applied to western

culture, i.e. what values do plants used by an indigenous society hold for

agriculture, industry or medicine of other societies (Brockway 1979). I contest

that the potential for future use within the indigenous society itself for it own

benefit needs to be examined as well. In the case of A. magdalenae, the history

of use and cultivation within Ngöbe society has been documented but the

43

evolution of modern use has not been examined (Hazlett 1986, Gordon 1982,

Young 1971). As Ngöbe society changes, so does the role of pita and other

traditional plants. By examining these changing roles, we can understand the

changing culture.

Non-Timber Forest Products

Ethnobotany focuses on the role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in

a society. A NTFP can be defined as any species that is harvested from the

forest and used in some way other than the sale of timber (Profound 2004).

These include other products extracted from trees, wood used for fuel

(specifically cooking fires), products from non-plant organisms, and products

from non-tree plant species. In the past decade, the importance of NTFPs has

increased with the concern for deforestation in tropical areas. The extraction of

NTFPs is seen as a way to provide a stable income for local peoples as an

alternative to clearing forested land for crops (Nepstad and Schwartzman 1992).

However, studies show that many NTFPs, especially those of economic

importance, are being over-harvested (Vasquez and Gentry 1989). In response,

scientists are now looking at cultivation practices of indigenous societies to find

a balance between managing for economic value while sustaining the resource

(Tewari 1999, Godoy et. al. 1995). Presently, little is known about the

indigenous use of most NTFPs (Ticktin 2004, Marshall and Schreckenberg

2002).

Whether used commercially or not, many NTFPs have a high value for

the local populations that use them. While the common practice in western

society is to focus on only one part of a particular plant for a primary use,

44

indigenous societies use a variety of different plants for more than one use.

Thus, knowledge or value of a particular plant and of the ecosystem itself is

high for indigenous peoples. By documenting this knowledge, we increase our

knowledge of the biodiversity of the ecosystem and can work to maintain it

(Alcorn 1995).

The way indigenous communities value their natural resources can aid

in development work. Often plant values change over time, due to increases in

western agriculture practices and less reliance on the forest. Development

workers can look at negative impacts of past projects documented by

ethnobotanists to determine better ways to move in the future (Alcorn 1984).

Indigenous communities will not adopt new plants or technologies if they do not

value the use, plant or technology being introduced (Johns 1999). By studying

what people do value from the forest and why, development workers can

incorporate strategies of technology adoption that will have better success rates

(Alcorn 1995).

Often the value of a plant species changes for an indigenous community

when outside markets become available, and rural people have access to a cash

economy. Products made from plants are then replaced by industrial

substitutes (Vincent and Binkley 1991 as cited in Godoy et.al 1995). When this

occurs, dependence on wild populations of plant species declines or shifts away

from basic needs such as food, medicine, or fuelwood. Extraction of NTFPs is

then done for monetary gain, utilizing products like timber and specialized

plant extracts (Gould, et. al. 1998). An exception could be NTFPs such as A.

magdalenae, whose value has shifted as the culture has changed.

45

In order to study the use of a particular plant species, the plant must

first be identified. Growth habit, reproductive methods, habitat and cultivation

are all factors that determine the use of a plant by a society. In order to study

the use of pita by the Ngöbe, I began by identifying and studying these factors

for A. magdalenae.

The Pita Plant: Aechmea magdalenae

Aechmea magdalenae (André) André ex. Baker fam. Bromeliaceae is an

understory, terrestrial bromeliad found in neotropical rainforests from Mexico

to Ecuador(Croat 1978). Common names of A. magdalenae vary from region to

region but include ixtle (Mexico), pingwing, silk grass (English speaking) and

pita (throughout Central and South America). The Ngöbe word for both the

plant and the fiber extracted from it is kiga (kee-ga). In this paper, I will use the

term pita in reference to the plant and the term kiga in reference to the fiber in

order to avoid confusion.

Habit

A distant relative to the pineapple plant (Ananas comosus) but similar in

appearance, A. magdalenae is an herbaceous perennial 1 to 3.5m in height with

a typical spread of 1.5 to 2m. It has a short, stout stem with a rosette of leaves

sprouting at or near ground level. Its leaves are waxy, thick, and are typically

2.5m long and 5-10cm wide. The midrib of the leaf is broadly sunken and the

margins are armed with stout, fierce spines (Kirby 1963). Its inflorescence is

borne on a stout stalk sprouting from center of the rosette of leaves, 10-15cm in

diameter. Its arrangement of bright pink to red spinose-serrate floral bracts is

46

quite showy, with or with out the yellow, 5cm long sessile flowers (fig. 18). The

fruit is an egg-shaped berry, 5 cm long, yellow turning to orange at maturity.

This fruit is a preferred food of coatis (Croat 1978).

Figure 18. Pita plant and inflorescence

Growth Patterns

Aechmea magdalenae is a shade tolerant plant found in the understory

of tropical forests (fig. 19). It forms dense colonies that can spread to 500m² and

be found at a density as high as 7 colonies/ha in young forests and 10

colonies/ha in older forests (Brokaw 1983) The plant has been found to grow in

areas of higher sunlight, such as in canopy gaps and secondary forest growth,

and rosette production is higher in these light conditions (Ticktin 2003, Villegas

47

2001). However, in low light conditions, leaf extension has been found to be

significantly higher (Villeagas 2001) and this is important for harvest of fiber

from the leaves. In the study area, the three most frequently visited stands were

in forest gaps with greater than 10% canopy cover.

Figure 19. Aechmea magdalenae growth habit

Aechmea magdalenae is typically found in low, wet areas (Croat 1978).

Sunlight caused by gaps increases the number of leaves, but if the areas are

particularly dry, leaf production significantly decreases (Villegas 2001). In

climates with a pronounced dry and wet season, it seems to grow more rapidly

in transition periods when it is neither extremely wet nor extremely dry (Ticktin

48

2003). The climate of Bocas del Toro provides excellent growing conditions for

A. magdalenae because rainfall is steady throughout the year.

The pita plant has been shown to express the Crassulacean acid

metabolism (CAM) photosynthetic pathway (Pfitsch and Smith 1988). CAM

photosynthesis is typical for plants that are adapted to high light and low

moisture conditions. The plants that exhibit CAM photosynthesis close their

stomata during the day and generate malic acid, collected at night, to produce

carbon dioxide for carbohydrate production (Stern 1997). Although growth of A.

magdalenae occurs in lower light conditions, the carbon dioxide production rate

through CAM is 80-90% unless subjected to high light conditions, where it

drops to 60% (Pfitsch and Smith 1988). This results in a greater amount of

nitrogen, chlorophyll and water than found in species that do not exhibit CAM.

A. magdalenae may use this form of photosynthesis to maximize carbon gain in

periods of high light in order to survive as an understory species (Skillman, et al

1999).

The most common form of reproduction of A. magdalenae is vegetative

through rhizomes, and single plants seperate from colonies are rare (Brokaw

1983, per.obs.). While seedlings have been shown to reproduce in lab

situations, they are rare in nature (Villegas 2001). The rosette is monocarpic

and after producing one inflorescence, it dies. There are few flowering rosettes

present in any given year. It has been suggested that coatis distribute seeds,

although the germination rate of wild seedlings is not known (Croat 1978,

Brokaw 1983). Although the dense habit of pita colonies shades out seedlings of

other species in younger stands, pita does not affect tree density or diversity of

species in older stands (Brokaw 1983).

49

Use and Cultivation

The indigenous populations of Central and South America and Mexico

have used Aechmea magdalenae for centuries (Gordon 1982, Young 1971,

Ticktin 2002). The long white fiber extracted from its leaves is strong, durable

and resistant to salt water (Kirby 1963)(fig. 20). These indigenous groups used

the fiber for fishing nets, rope, fishing line, bags, fans, sandals, hammocks,

thread for clothing and string for musical instruments. The fiber was also used

to make paper in the 19th century (Williams, J.J. 1852 as cited in Ticktin 2002).

A. magdalenae fiber is strong and has a breaking strength of 283.3gm. It is

comparable to jute or hemp in its fineness, though its strength is comparable to

hard fiber (Kirby 1963). The Ngöbe still use this fiber, kiga, today in much the

same way their ancestors did.

In the village of Chalite, A. magdalenae is extracted and used as a NTFP

for rope, hammocks, fishing nets, and bags (fig. 21). These bags, called kra in

Ngäbere and chacara in Spanish, are used to carry every item the women of

Chalite ever carry; food from the farm, children up to three years of age, game,

fish, tools, clothing, and household supplies.

50

Figure 20. Aechmea magdalenae fibers

Figure 21. Products made from A. magdalenae fiber

Fishing net

Hand woven bags-kra

51

Other uses

The outer parts of the leaf which remain after the extraction process are

also strong and are used as rope to tether domesticated animals such as pigs,

dogs, and chickens. In Mexico it was once used to make mats (Ticktin 2002).

The fruit of A. magdalenae is said to resemble the pineapple in taste and was

consumed by indigenous groups throughout Central America. The leaves are

succulent, and produce a juice that was used to treat side pains (Hazlett 1986).

The Ngöbe plant pita as natural fence, as the dense colonies and sharp spines

form an impenetrable barrier against humans, domestic animals and wildlife

(fig. 22).

Figure 22. Dense colony of Aechmea magdalenae

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The Ngöbe cultivate pita today on a much smaller scale than in the past.

Accounts of Ngöbe harvesting and planting pita appear in 17th and 18th century

documents (Gordon 1982). The Ngöbe cultivated a broader leaf variety of pita,

and few people outside Ngöbe culture today are even aware there is a difference

between wild and cultivated pita (Gordon 1982). Today, pita fiber is sold in

small local markets throughout Central and South America, but it is cultivated

and sold on a larger scale in Mexico. The Chinteco indigenous people cultivate

and sell pita fibers for the art of el piteado, an embroidery on belts, hats and

saddles that is expensive and highly valued. With the increase in demand for

pita in Mexico in recent years and a reduction in its habitat by deforestation,

the Mexican government sponsors programs to help farmers with improved

cultivation and harvesting practices of the pita (Ticktin 2002). In 1997, the

Fondo Mexicano para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (Mexican Nature

Conservation Fund) funded a project to conserve and manage pita populations

in Chinantla, Oaxaca (FMCN 2004).

Ticktin and Johns (2002) have studied the management of Aechmea

magdalenae by the Chinanteco people of Oaxaca, Mexico. Their study looked at

the value of indigenous management of the pita plant on a large-scale

commercial basis. The Chinateco, who have been managing A. magdalenae for

centuries, as have the Ngöbe, use a more successful management technique

than those developed by scientists.

The demand for and subsequent rise in cultivation of pita in Mexico may

indicate potential for cultivation in Panama as well. Trends in cultivation of pita

among the Ngöbe have never been fully studied, the use and potential of pita as

a strong part of Ngöbe agriculture has been mentioned in few texts. The current

53

use of pita must be examined in order to determine the potential for A.

magdalenae as a non-timber forest product (NTFP) in Panama. During the first

year I lived with the people of Chalite, I began to see that pita has a central role

in the life there. I wanted to learn more about the importance of pita in the lives

of women in the community and determine what value it held and its future

value. As a development worker, my job was to find new approaches to

problems by building on traditional knowledge. I felt that pita had played a

significant role in Ngöbe society and had the potential to play even a greater

one.

54

CHAPTER V

METHODOLOGY

I developed this study over the course of my two-year service in the Peace

Corps, while living and working on a daily basis with the Ngöbe of Chalite.

Although I had been a university student for a year, I did not have a specific

research topic in mind upon arriving. This was done for a reason. I chose to

find out first hand about the culture I lived in and how they use their natural

resources before formulating a hypothesis to test. By doing so I hoped my

research would have direct benefits for the people of Chalite, the Ngöbe people

and country of Panama.

As a community member, my strategies for research were participatory,

not only through my observation but also through the facilitation of discussions

by participants in the study. As Alexiades (1996) points out, “The subject

matter of ethnobotany, the relationship between people and their botanical

resources, is ideally suited to applied and participatory research.” Later he

states “Previously unrecorded knowledge is best approached through

participatory research at a local community level”. There are a variety of

methods used in participatory research. I began my study by using participant

observation to determine the interaction of humans with plants in Chalite. After

I determined that pita played a major role in Ngöbe life, I used an informal

interview process to find out how and why. This process was extensive, and

required verification of the data I received. I will describe how I verified my

research through group interviews and collecting data outside the community.

A research study of this kind is never without obstacles, and I will discuss how

55

I overcame the obstacles in this study. I conclude by reviewing the statistical

analysis I used for my data.

Participant observation

I began my study of the role of pita in Chalite by documenting my

participation in activities involving interaction between the people of Chalite

and their natural resources. Due to cultural taboos against women working in

the fields with men who are not their husbands or family, I chose to work with

the women and determine what natural resources were important to them. One

of the main activities of a woman’s life in Chalite is gathering food from the

farm. They use the kra to do this. They fish at the river using nets made from

kiga. They rock their babies to sleep in kra and rest themselves in hammocks

made from pita. I worked side by side with these women and determined that

pita was an invaluable part of their life (fig. 23).

As part of my job as a Peace Corps volunteer, I helped a group of women

organize an artisan association, Mesi Chali. The women were interested in

making their own money by selling bags made from pita to tourists. Some of the

women had participated in seminars given by Proyecto Ngöbe-Buglé that talked

about the growing tourist market and opportunity to sell kra to tourists. The

seminar was given in a town near the road, a five-hour journey from Chalite.

The major problem for the women of Chalite was transport. As part of the

group and hoping to improve their lives, I volunteered to sell kra they made

while traveling outside the village for a period of one year, until they profited

enough from sales to afford transport out of the group fund. Through this

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experience I learned first hand about the market for pita in the Bocas del Toro

area. I documented every kra I sold and for how much and to whom for the

entire year period. By helping in this experience, I realized further the value of

pita in the lives of Ngöbe women.

Figure 23. Participant observation

I recorded the information I gathered from taking an active part in the

Ngöbe women’s lives in journals. As this kind of study has not been conducted

on the women of this area, a large amount of observational data was necessary,

making participant observation ideal for the study (Nichols 2000). Participant

observation is a research method that involves living in a community for an

extended period of time, participating in life there and recording the information

gathered (Bernard 2002). Using this method, I documented the daily activities

of Ngöbe women, their use of the forest, their use of pita, and their role in

Ngöbe culture.

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Analysis of my journals led me to formulate some specific questions I

wanted to investigate. Why does pita play a role in the life of Ngöbe women?

Had the value of pita changed in the lives of the Ngöbe in the past twenty years?

If so, what was the significance of that change? What is the viable future of pita

in Ngöbe society? I thought that the changes associated with the value of pita

had a connection with the availability of outside resources. Using pita to make

kra had shifted from necessity to preference over other materials. Why had that

occurred? Also, the emerging tourist market in Panama played a role in the

value of pita to Ngöbe women, providing a means of monetary gain never before

available to them. I was curious of this impact and its implications for the

future value of pita.

Interviews

Most data for ethnobotanical research is collected through interviews

(Alexiades 1996). From my general hypothesis, I formulated specific questions

by topic to test it. Table 1 shows the topics I chose and questions I wanted to

answer. I began a series of unstructured interviews (Bernard 2002) with the

women of Mesi Chali, the artisan group I helped to organize. Although there are

thirteen women in the group, only eleven were interviewed to comply with

Human Subject Research Guidelines that an adult interviewee be eighteen

years of age or older. These interviews continued in many settings on many

occasions throughout my remaining time in the village.

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Table 1. Topics and questions used to generate unstructured interviews

Topics and questions for interviews

Age/demographics 1 How old are you?2 How long have you lived in this house? 3 How many houses do you have?4 Where were you born?5 How many children do you have? Boys_____ Girls______6 How many people live in your house?

Education/marital status 7 Did you attend primary school? 8 Did you attend secondary school? 9 Do you know how to read/write?

10 Are you married?11 Does your husband live in the house?12 Did your husband attend primary school?13 Did your husband attend secondary school?14 Does your husband read/write?

Income 13 Does your husband work outside the house?14 If yes, where does he work? 15 Do you work outside the house?16 If yes where?17 Does anyone else living in your house have work outside of the house?18 If yes, who and where?

Farm 19 Do you have a farm? 20 How long does it take you to walk to your farm?21 What do you grow in your farm? free list22 Do you work at your farm everyday?23 What activites do you do at the farm?24 What food do you buy, that you don't grow on farm? free list25 Do you plant things in your farm that aren't for food? free list26 What types of things do you grow in your farm that you don't eat? free list27 What products from your farm do you sell? free list

Pita plant 28 Does pita grow on your farm?29 How long does it take to walk to your pita? 30 Do you plant pita?31 How do you plant pita? 32 Do you harvest pita from the forest?33 How many times a year do you harvest pita? 34 When is the best time to harvest pita? 35 What is the best way to harvest pita? 36 Can you describe where pita grows best?

Pita Use 38 Do you make things from pita?39 What do you make?40 Do you make products from pita every day?41 How many hours each day do you spend making bags from pita? 42 Where did you learn to make products from pita?43 How old were you when you learned how to make products from pita?44 How many pita bags have you made in the last year?45 Do you know how to make different designs in pita bags?46 Where did your learn how to make the designs?

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Table 1 (cont.). Topics and questions used to generate unstructured interviews

Topics and questions for interviews cont…

Sales/market 47 Do you sell products made from pita?48 What do you sell?49 How many products of pita have you sold in the last year?50 Where do you sell your products made from pita?51 How much do they sell for?

52 Do you buy products made from pita?53 What do you buy?54 Do you ever buy pita?55 How much does pita sell for?56 Does colored pita sell for more money?57 If yes, how much more?

Dyes 58 Do you know how to dye pita?59 Where did you learn how to dye pita? 60 What age were you when you learned how to dye pita?61 Do you know how to collect plants to make dyes?62 Where did you learn how to collect the plants?63 How many different colors can you make from plants?64 What are they?

Pita Replacement 65 Do you make bags from other material?66 What other material do you make bags from?67 Where do you get this material?68 Do you buy this material?69 Do you dye this material?70 Why do you make bags from other material? Rank reasons71 Do you sell bags made from other material?72 How much do they sell for? 73 Do you know how to make designs in bags made from other material?

Reasons for pita use 74 When you sell a bag, do you keep the money?75 What do you do with the money? free list

76 Do you like making bags from pita?77 If yes, why? 78 Do you teach your daughter how to make bags from pita?79 If so, why? Rank reasons

Past use of pita 80 Does your mom know how to make bags from pita? 81 What else does your mom make from pita? 81 Do your parents plant pita in their farm?82 How long have they planted pita?83 Does your mom dye pita? 84 Does your mom know the dye plants?85 Does your mother know how to make different designs in the bags?86 Does your mother make bags from other material?87 Does your mother sell bags from other material? 88 Where does your mother live?89 Where was your mother born?

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Unstructured interviews differ from informal interviews because the

informants know they are part of a research study, provide information for it,

and cover a set of specific topics (Bernard 2002). Unstructured interviews differ

as well from semi-structured interviews in that they are often conversation-like,

and do not constrict the interviewee to simply giving responses to questions

that are put to them. In an unstructured interview, the informant is allowed to

open up and express themselves in their own terms and at their own pace.

Bernard (2002) suggests the use of unstructured interviews when the

researcher will be able to interview the informants on more than one occasion.

The unstructured interview worked best when interviewing the Ngöbe

women. Using this method, I collected data from conversations in which the

women would reveal more to me about the subject than when asked directly in

a formal interview. Ngöbe women are shy and will not respond to people they do

not trust. This is not an uncommon phenomenon in human subject research

(Cunningham 1996, Devereux and Hoddinott 1993). When I entered the village

for the first time, the women would not even say hello to me. I would approach

their homes and shout the traditional greeting “Ñantore!” and they would not

respond. After a month, I would approach the house and they would tell me

how starving they were, how they were sick and needed money and food, but

would not engage in a conversation with me. These were lies they told in an

effort to test my true intentions for living in the community. It took three

months of living in the village for women to respond to my greeting, and four

months for them to approach me and greet me first when we saw each other.

The day I left the village after two years was the first time three of the women

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had ever been in my house. If I had had only two or three months for this

study, I would have received little useful response from the women of Chalite. If

I had taken a sheet of paper and pencil to their house to write answers they

gave me down in front of them, they would not have answered my questions,

although every one of them knew I was conducting a research study on pita and

had given me permission to use their answers. As Martenelli notes (1994) this

situation is not unique to the Ngöbe women of Chalite; in the past, Ngöbe

women did not talk to outsiders, as a result today they still feel uncomfortable

speaking informally with someone they do not fully trust.

I chose to interview only women for this study, as value of pita is most

directly tied to them. While men traditionally aided in the harvest of pita from

the field, the role of pita in Ngöbe life today is completely dominated by women.

Women are said to be the ones that hold the culture sacred, and the making of

the kra is the most evident symbol of culture in Ngöbe society (Martinelli 1993

and 1994, Hamlin 1993). Each member of the group Mesi Chali became a key

informant for the study (Nichols 2000) (fig. 24).

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Figure 24. Members of the women’s group Mesi Chali

As I had daily conversations with the women of the study and recorded

the answers in my journal, I would note which individual stated the answer by

a three-letter code I had assigned each informant. I also included a number in

the journal entry corresponding with the question to which it pertained, thereby

coding all critical information (Stake 1995). Coding helped me organize my data

by both key informant and by relevance. At times I would record details of a

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conversation about pita and it would not correspond to one of my pre-

determined questions. In this case, I would code it with a star symbol and

record the page number on a separate page at the back of my journal. These

conversations provided a great deal of qualitative data, a subjective research

method that needs to be verified to avoid misunderstandings (Stake 1995). I

used several triangulation techniques to verify my data (Yinn 2003).

Verification

I wanted to verify answers on planting techniques and tenure rights to

pita colonies as well as verify the cultural norms some women practiced. To do

so, I conducted semi-structured interviews (Bernard 2002) in group settings.

The meetings of Mesi Chali were an ideal place to conduct these group

interviews. During meetings I would begin by saying that I had heard about a

particular topic and then ask what they knew about it, never revealing who had

told me the original information. This is a form of “member-checking”, repeating

back to a participant their answers in order to verify your understanding of

them (Stake 1995). Often interviewees will provide one response alone and a

different response when in a group (Nichols 2000). By asking questions to

individuals and then also proposing the same questions to the group, I insured

I had recorded their responses the way they had intended for them to be

revealed. If individual responses varied from group responses, I would return to

the individual to clarify the response. I did not ask questions pertaining to

wealth or one’s own knowledge or skills in a group setting.

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On several other occasions, I conducted unstructured interviews with

women from outside of Chalite. These included two women from the community

of Pueblo Nuevo, a larger Ngöbe village that sits on Fortuna Road and has

access to more resources. I visited this town once a month as it was the nearest

Ngöbe village to the port town of Chiriqui Grande. I had developed a level of

trust with these women. This village was the location for the seminars held by

Proyecto Ngöbe Buglé that taught techniques of making kra to sell to tourists.

This community had over 1000 inhabitants and five women’s artisan groups.

The women I interviewed were the presidents of two of them.

I also interviewed women from the artisan group known as FORANB, a

group organized by Proyecto Ngöbe-Buglé based in the town of San Felix. San

Felix is in Chiriqui, a day’s journey from Chalite, and has been the center of the

research on Ngöbe culture since the 1960s (Young 1971). These women have a

market in San Felix, on the Pan-American Highway. With the help of Proyecto

Ngöbe-Buglé, they have built this market and sell bags made by women from all

over Chiriqui.

By observing practices and interviewing people living outside of Chalite,

I was able to verify answers given by my informants and make some

assumptions about Ngöbe culture as a whole, rather than just the women of

Chalite. I was also able to make comparisons between the data I received from

outsiders when their responses did not correlate with those of Chalite. By

identifying the factors related to the answers, I could verify reasons for the

difference in answers. This process of seeking alternate explanations is used in

research to check validity of answers (Yinn 2003).

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I took five samples of Aechmea magdalenae leaves, meristem and flowers

from four separate stands and pressed them. The best two of these samples

were submitted as vouchers to the herbarium of the University of Panama in

Panama City. They are cataloged as “Kathryn M. Lincoln specimen 001” and

“Kathryn M. Lincoln specimen 003”.

Obstacles

On one occasion, while walking the countryside with my neighbor, I

interviewed a woman who lives in the mountains and sells pita to the women of

Chalite. This interview was conducted through translation by my neighbor as

the woman spoke only Ngäbere, and although I understood her answers she

could not understand my questions because of my accent. Two of the women in

Mesi Chali do not speak Spanish, and others speak very little. However, because

they had taught me Ngäbere, they were used to the sound of my voice and were

better able to understand me. When it became difficult to communicate or a

misunderstanding arose, I used other members of the group or members of the

household to interpret for me. In this way, the interview could remain

unstructured; with the use of one single interpreter the conversational

structure of the interview would have been lost. Often Ngöbe women feel

intimidated speaking Spanish, as their level is rudimentary (Martenelli 1994).

My level of Castillean Spanish was also rudimentary when I arrived in Chalite.

The women and I found it at times easier to communicate because we both

spoke only a basic level of Spanish.

There were other barriers in the research I strove to overcome. Some

women in my study do not know their age, so in this instance we estimated how

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old they were by an approximation of their age at the birth of their eldest child.

Cultural norms were an obstacle, as is generally the case in all research of this

kind (Nichols 2000). For example, Ngöbe women view time in a different way

from Western society. They are unaccustomed to counting time in hours and

minutes. This difference often led to vague responses to my probing for some

measurement of time spent on daily activities. In order to verify answers I

received I chose three women and personally monitored their activities for a

week, tracking the amount of time they performed seven basic activities:

cooking, washing clothes, fishing, making kra, going to the farm, gathering

wood, and gathering other plants. I averaged these activities to make a basic

outline of a woman’s day, but then also asked every woman for estimates of

time spent on the last four activities. Their responses fell within my

assessment.

Analysis

After the period of collection, I began to organize my data into a format

appropriate for quantitative analysis (Bernard 2002). I formatted the findings

from my questionnaire to fit into the SAS database. Pearson correlations were

found for the 104 variables of the questionnaire. The Pearson correlation

measures the association between two variables (Delwiche and Slaughter 1995,

Cody and Smith 1997). The output values range from –1 to +1, with a negative

value indicating a negative correlation and a positive value indicating a positive

one. A positive correlation means that as one variable increases, the other

variable increases. A negative correlation signifies that as one variable

67

increases, the other decreases. The significance values of 0.10 and 0.01 were

used to determine a 90% and a 99% confidence level for the correlations.

Among these correlations I determined trends that indicate strong significance.

Much of my data was qualitative in nature. This data I organized by

subject area, extraction and dying process, knowledge of harvesting and

cultivation of Aechmea magdalenae, and daily, cultural, and market use. Within

each of these categories I examined factors relating to the past, gained from

interview data, and factors relating to the present, gained from both interviews

and participant observation.

Participant observation played the greatest role in my research. Through

this method, I gained most of the data used to determine the results of this

study. An integral part of a use study is to determine the use of the object being

studied and document it. I determined the use of pita through participant

observation techniques and documented this use in the first section of the

results chapter. The interviews were used to verify trends that I had already

determined through participant observation (Yinn 2003). I determined my

hypothesis “there has been a change in the use of the pita plant in recent years”

by participant observation and sought to substantiate it by interviewing women

about their use and their mother’s use. I used a small sample of eleven women

because of the trust I had gained with them. A correlation found by itself with a

sample of this size is not valuable. I sought to find clusters of significant

correlations in order to verify a trend discussed and documented by interview

data.

The basis of my study of A. magdalenae and its role in the Ngöbe

community of Bocas del Toro, Panama was formulated through knowledge of

68

ethnobotany and NTFPs and the desire to contribute research to these fields.

With the opportunity to live and work in the community for a long period of

time, I gained valuable data through participant observation and unstructured

and semi-structured interviews. In the next chapter I will discuss my findings. I

begin by describing how Ngöbe women use the pita plant, with a description of

harvesting, extraction, dying, and making string for bags. Secondly, I report

results of the interviews, concentrating on past and present use of pita and the

change in value that has occurred in the community. I will then discuss how

the change in value affects Ngöbe culture in Chalite and in Bocas del Toro.

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CHAPTER VI

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

As I began to organize the results of this study, I realized that for such a

narrow topic, there are a great many factors involved. Aechmea magdalenae

has potential to play a significant role in a variety of topics including the recent

increase in interest of NTFPs, the continuing concerns of development agencies

to alleviate world poverty, and the great strides made to include women and

their roles in scientific study. The greater question, then, is how important is

Aechmea magdalenae and what is its potential? These were the main questions

I wished to have answered, as these answers could lead to further research on

this topic.

Most of the data reported in this chapter was determined through a

process of analyzing journal notes on participant observation and interviews

with eleven Ngöbe women. Although there are fifteen women in the Mesi Chali

women’s group, only eleven were interviewed to comply with standards for

Human Subject Research, as several members are under the age of eighteen.

The 89 interview questions generated 104 variables(see Appendix), and clusters

of correlations were determined.

I will begin the results with some demographics on the women of Mesi

Chali, reported in order to determine the role of the pita plant in the activities of

an average Ngöbe woman. I then discuss the processing of fiber, determining

the use of pita by Ngobe women in Chalite. Finally, I report results of the

interviews and correlations found from reported answers to the 104 variables.

The significance of the clusters I found are discussed.

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Demographics The average age of the women in my study was 34, the youngest was 21

and oldest 50 (fig. 25). They have an average of five children, two of whom are

female. The majority of the women in the group were born outside of Chalite,

and moved to the village to be with their husbands and his family. Most of the

women live in houses built by the missionaries and have access to running

water. All of the women have a small number of domestic livestock, mainly

chickens and pigs. A few of the women have cows, ducks and turkeys. The

average household, while relying on farming, has received money from outside

income in the last two years. The only significant difference in wealth between

the women is determined by whether or not the family sells goods outside of the

community. These goods include cacao, coffee, rice and peach palm. If her

family does sell these things, she has more access to cash income than other

women.

Figure 25. Typical Ngöbe woman and child outside their home

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Only 18% of the women in Mesi Chali have been educated beyond the

sixth grade and know how to read and write. The majority does speak some

level of Spanish, though 36% only speak Ngäbere. Most of the women who

speak Spanish in Mesi Chali learned it from their husbands. All of the women

are married and 73% of their husbands have graduated sixth grade and read

and write Spanish. Slatton (2004) found that a strong positive correlation exists

between farmers who adopt new farming technologies in Chalite and whether

their wives are a part of Mesi Chali. This trend suggests the women of Mesi

Chali are part of households who have had some outside influence, and may be

adopting other practices. During my time in Chalite, the women’s group of Mesi

Chali evolved from women interested in making kra for sale to outside markets

to a voice for women in the town. The group’s activities promoted health

education and family planning activities, suggested solely by group members. I

attended a total of eighteen meetings of Mesi Chali during my time in Chalite.

Much of a Ngöbe woman’s time is spent running the household, and the

women of Mesi Chali are no exception. They care for children constantly and

make sure food is available, clothes are cleaned and livestock fed. Lacking

modern conveniences like refrigerators, ovens, sinks, and washing machines,

these duties consume many more hours than they would in the United States. I

lived and worked alongside these women for two years, and monitored time

spent on five daily activities. As not every activity is done on a daily basis, I

used a weekly scale to determine time (fig. 26). Activities such as caring for

children are not included as they are performed constantly throughout the day.

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Figure 26. Percentage of waking time spent on activities (weekly)

Women spend fifteen percent of their total weekly activity time making

kra. This is a significant amount of time. Women work on the craft as relaxation

time, and also work with friends and daughters as an act of female bonding.

This may suggest why the craft remains an important part of daily life, though

access to backpacks, grain sacks and other manufactured items has increased.

The giant kra used to carry crops home from the farm remains the best tool for

this purpose, and therefore the craft of fashioning kra continues, even if kiga is

substituted with manufactured materials. The extraction of fiber from the pita

plant and fashioning of the kra is a time consuming process. It begins at the

farm, in a dense colony of spiny-leafed plants and ends with a work of art.

12%

15%

9%

6%

7%

34%

17%

at the farm making kra gathering wood gathering plantsfishing cooking laundry

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The Processing of Fiber

Harvest and Extraction of Aechmea magdalenae

To extract the fiber from the leaf of the pita plant, one must first harvest

the leaves. The Ngöbe will do this in one of two ways, either by removing

individual leaves from rosettes leaving enough for the plant to continue living,

or by removing the entire rosette. The latter way is much faster, and the plant

will sprout new rametes from the rhizomes. However, the stand will take three

years to mature again. Removing individual leaves ensures a continuous supply

of leaves when needed (fig. 27). The harvester also can select for longer better

quality leaves to harvest. The plants die after flowering, and when this occurs

the entire plant is removed. Similar methods of harvesting are used in Mexico

among the Chinateco (Ticktin 2002).

Figure 27. Harvesting pita leaves

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Males in Ngöbe society traditionally harvested leaves and removed

spines, though today females also do this (fig. 28). The women then carry the

harvested leaves to their houses to extract the kiga. One leaf at a time is placed

on a balsa wood log. The wood must be clean, and to ensure this, the bark is

removed. A piece of rattan cane, about 25cm long, is cut in half so that a clean,

smooth edge is exposed. The cane is held on either end with the bark facing

outward. It is then repeatedly rubbed against the leaf in an upward motion on

the balsa wood until the outer layer of leaf is removed and the kiga is exposed

and comes loose from the bottom layer (fig. 29). The kiga is then removed

further by hand and washed in water. The juice of a citrus fruit is often added

to the water may to aid in cleaning. When it is clean, the kiga is hung on a line

to dry and bleach in the sun (fig. 30).

Figure 28. Removing spines from pita leaf

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Figure 29. Extraction of fiber from leaf

Figure 30. Cleaning newly extracted kiga

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The Ngöbe believe that the kiga will only come out pure white (which is

desired) if the woman extracting it has not lain with her husband within 24

hours and is not menstruating or pregnant. A woman must be at full strength

in order to extract the kiga fiber from the pita leaf. Joly et al. (1990) mention in

their work with the Ngöbe of Chiriqui Province that there are strict taboos

surrounding women speaking about menstruation. I found that women in

Chalite do not speak of these things with their husbands but do speak of them

in groups of females only, as long as children are not present. Pita must also

be harvested during the full moon for best quality. This belief has some

scientific basis, as the groundwater table is higher during the full moon,

especially near the coast, due to tidal shifts (Porter 2002). The amount of water

the roots are receiving at this time may have some effect on the plant thus

producing a whiter fiber, although this has not been studied.

Raw fiber is a primary product of pita that holds its own value and is

bought, sold or traded for money or goods. While prices for kiga are negotiable

and depend on factors such as past trade relations and family ties, there is an

accepted standard of measurement and price (Table 2). The measurements

provided in this table are estimates. The names correspond to a type of

measurement, i.e. if a woman wishes to buy a “leaf” this means she wants as

much fiber as a leaf produces, which is enough fiber to be of one-quarter inch

diameter in thickness and five to seven feet long. A “handful” correlates to as

much fiber as the woman can hold in her hand and touch her fingers at the

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tips, estimated at two and one-quarter inches in diameter and five to seven feet

long.

Table 2. Standard measurements and prices of kiga

The Dye Process

Cultural norms are associated with the dying of kiga as well. In order to

participate in the dying process, a Ngöbe woman must be of reproductive age

but not pregnant or nursing a child. Again, she must not have lain with her

husband in the past 24 hours and must not be menstruating in order to give

her full energy to the dye process. It is believed the dye will not take if these

norms are not followed.

Dye plants are gathered from the forest to use in the process. A listing of

the plant, the color extracted and the plant part used can be found in Table 3.

Figure 31 shows the parts used to extract dyes of the plants su, kuro and kare.

The women know the plants only by their Ngöbe names, therefore this listing is

incomplete as I had no other reference for information. This listing is not

extensive, and women have told me of other plants said to make purple and

other natural shades, though I never saw these plants. Mud (kronan) is used to

achieve hues of colors or to dye kiga black.

Name (Spanish, Ngabere) Amount Price Trade Valueleaf (hoja, ka) 1/4 in. diameter 5-7ft.long $0.10 n/acolored leaf (hoja pintado, ka juke) 1/4 in. diameter 5-7ft.long $0.25 1lb ricehandful (mano,kise) 2 1/2 in. diameter 5-7ft.long $2.50 one 3- 5lb chickenball (bola, n/a) 5 in. diameter ball $5.00 negoc. no standard

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Table 3. Dye plants used by Ngöbe women of Chalite

Figure 31. Dye plants su, kuro, and kare

Dye is extracted by pounding the specific part of the dye plant and

placing it in boiling water (fig. 32). The water turns the desired color and the

plant residue is strained from it. The pita fiber is then placed in the dye and the

mixture is boiled again. Citrus juice, salt or pieces of an acidic cane (caña

agrigo) are added to the dye mixture to fix the dye to the pita fiber. After several

minutes, the kiga is removed, wrung out and hung to dry (fig. 33).

Photo by R. Dainton

Dye Plants used by the Ngobe women of Chalite

Scientific NameSpanish common name Ngobe name

Color Produced

Plant part used to extract color

unknown (fig) Su Yellow rootKan wada pink bark

Tectona grandis teca Kan red leavesBixa orellana achiote (fig) kuro orange seedsArrabidaea chica chica kokra tain red leaves and stems

unknown (fig) kare green leavesblure blue berries

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Figure 32. Extraction of dye from plant

Figure 33. Newly dyed kiga

Fashioning the Kra

The pita fiber is a fine, silky fiber. In order to use it, it must be rolled into

string. This is a long and tedious process that is difficult and something I was

never able to achieve. To begin this process, a woman takes a handful of kiga

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and ties it to a post, leaving one end of the bunch free. She then separates three

to five individual strands from the whole and rolls these three against her bare

thigh to twist them together (fig. 34). She works up from the loose end, rolling

the strands, to form one strong string. After one is complete, she starts the

process over, separating and rolling strands until the bundle is complete. The

string formed is used to fashion kra, rope, hammocks, and fishing nets, each in

a process of sewing these individual strings together.

Figure 34. Making string from kiga

Fashioning a kra is a difficult process to describe, and the intricacies of

adding colored strings in a methodological way to form designs is beyond my

scope of understanding. Therefore, I will only say that this process begins with

a single string woven upon itself, and ends in a true work of art. The process

can take from several days to several months of working diligently to complete.

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The women use no needles to aid in sewing the kra and often work at night by

the light of a single candle or kerosene lantern. This is the art of Ngöbe women,

born out of need and continued by tradition (fig. 35).

Figure 35. Fashioning kra

Photos by R. Dainton

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The Change in Use of Pita Plant Over Time

Past and Present

I wanted to determine to what extent pita was used in the past and

compare that to the use today. I did this by interviewing my informants about

their mother’s use of the plant. Personal interviews as well as other documented

works reveal that Ngöbe women have been fashioning the kra and other

products for many years (Young 1971, Hazlett 1986). We also know that Central

and South American Indigenous peoples have cultivated the pita plant for

centuries (Gordon 1986, Kirby 1963, Levi-Strauss 1950). As the average age of

my informants was 34, we can approximate that the responses they gave about

their mothers could range in time period from the 1930s to the present. To be

more accurate, I would conclude that the information they provided is

significant for the past twenty years. However, women often referred to “the

past” in accounts of pita use and when asked for a time frame referred to “when

my grandmother was a child”, suggesting a time dating back further.

There have been some significant changes in Chalite in the last twenty

years. The addition of the multi-room schoolhouse brought in mestizo culture

through the addition of three teachers. The town had electricity for one year,

they had new houses built in a colonial American fashion, they received water

to their houses without having to haul it from the river, and development

organizations have come to Chalite. These changes have prompted some

changing attitudes, and often these changes are both positive and negative.

There have been some changes in the use of pita over these last twenty years as

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well, and some significant differences were found in responses of women when

compared to their accounts of pita use by their mothers. For each of the

following five variables I discuss the comparison of these changes. I also report

on results of knowledge source of present use, noting responses given as to

where the knowledge of each subject was gained. A general discussion of what

significance these differences may have follows this section.

Cultivation and use of Aechmea magdalenae

In the past, use of the pita plant was extensive. Women in the

study report that their mothers spent more time making the bags, and more

time harvesting pita. Pita grew in a greater number of farms and was harvested

from the forest on a greater scale. Often pita was planted closer to the home,

where it could be harvested more often and with greater convenience for the

woman. One woman who reported her mother planted pita said, “As a child, my

mother planted pita close to our home, so that she could harvest it easier. Many

women did the same, but now we live too close together and there is no space

for the pita, so we plant it in the farm, where it will grow better.” (translated

from Spanish). When asked if their mother planted pita in the farm, 73% of the

women said yes, and 27% reported that pita grew naturally on the farm. This

data shows that all of the informants’ mothers had access to pita. An older

woman was more likely to report that pita grew naturally in her mother’s farm,

rather than planted (correlation: age of informant to pita grows natural for

mother r=0.88, P=0.0004).

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I learned over time that the women consider all land around Chalite

“farm” and not “forest” because all land is “owned” by someone. Therefore, I

always received a negative response when I asked if the women harvested pita

from the forest, although land that has over 60% canopy cover and is not being

used for crops could be considered “forest” by an outside perspective. The

mothers of my informants lived farther from their neighbors than today, making

the possibility of buying pita more difficult. Therefore, knowledge of how to

extract fiber from the plant and to tend cultivated stands was of greater

importance.

There has been a general decline in use of Aechmea magdalenae since

the time of the interviewees’ mothers. A lower number of women (55%) reported

planting pita than their mothers, and a few women reported having no access at

all to pita. One woman noted, “If you want to have pita in your farm today, you

have to plant it.” However, other women (18%) did report that pita still grows

naturally on their farm. There were many occasions when I would be at a

meeting of Mesi Chali and they would all agree that they could not work on kra

at the time because there was no pita available. People once gave the pita away

for free to anyone who wanted to take the time to harvest it. These individuals

own the several giant pita stands near Chalite. Now these owners are charging

for the pita, and on more than one occasion the women’s group paid an owner

$2.00 a person for access to pita on a farm.

The women who reported planting pita on the farm stated it was fairly

easy to do so, describing the process as follows: ask a neighbor who has pita for

permission to take some young rametes, dig up three to five young rametes of

less than knee height (approximately 22 inches), sever the rhizome from the

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mother plant leaving at least seven inches attached to the ramete, and finally

plant the rametes in the desired location. All but two women stated that the

best place to plant pita was under trees near water.

All but one woman interviewed reported knowing how to harvest pita.

The preferred method of harvest reported by these women is to remove

individual leaves. Only 73% of the women who reported knowing how to harvest

pita learned from their mother. Others had learned as part of women’s group

activities. The women in the study reported that they could harvest leaves from

the same colony of pita twice per year. I witnessed this first-hand on two

occasions, once in January of 2003, and again in July of that same year. The

average walk to pita was reported at 25 minutes, and the four stands I visited

were five-, fifteen-, 30- and 45-minute walks away from the center of town.

I found that women who dedicate their time to farm activities and

gathering wood spend less time on activities involved with pita (r= –0.69, P=.019

planting pita, gathering wood) (r= –0.60, P=.051 harvest pita, hrs work on farm).

This evidence suggests that This can be further suggested through the negative

relationship of hours gathering wood to hours spent making kra (r=-0.79,

P=.004). As more men leave the community of Chalite to work on coffee and

sugar plantations, women dedicate more time to farm work and household

chores out of necessity rather than planting and harvesting pita. A correlation

also exists between planting pita and age (r=0.53, P=0.094), suggesting older

women dedicate more time to planting pita than do younger ones. Older women

also spend more time gathering other plants (r=0.64, P=0.033) and collecting

medicinal plants (r=0.56, P=0.071).

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Knowledge of dye plants and dye processes

All bags made of pita use colored pita in some way, even if only in small

quantities. Most often, a woman will make periodic bands of color in the kra.

This is known as the diseño sencillo, simple design. Sixty-four percent of the

women reported that their mothers knew how to dye the fibers of A.

magdalenae. Results show that mothers who dye pita also have a knowledge of

what plants are used in the process (r= 0.61, P=.048). None of the women

reported that their mothers planted these plants, but 45% said the dye plants

grow naturally in their mother’s farm. A correlation of was found for mothers

knowledge of dye plants and mother planting pita. If a respondent reported

their mother had knowledge of pita cultivation, she would also have knowledge

of the dying process and plants used for dye (r=0.61, P=.047 mother’s

knowledge of dye plants and mother planting pita).

Only a little over half of the women reported knowing how to dye kiga

today, and have knowledge of the plants used to dye kiga. Individually, some

women reported knowing less about dye plants than their mothers had and

some reported knowing more. Eighteen percent of the women reported planting

dye plants in their farms, while 55% reported knowing that dye plants grew

naturally in their farms. The source of knowledge for dying kiga and dye plants

is interesting to note. Only 27% of the women learned to dye kiga from their

mothers. The others learned either from Mesi Chali activities or from seminars

given by Proyecto Ngöbe-Buglé. The same response was given in regards to

knowledge of dye plants, only 27% learned about dye plants from their mother.

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A distinction was made between knowledge of the dye process and

knowledge of dye plants due to the increased availability in recent years of

imitation dye products. These products can be bought from markets in Chiriqui

Grande, and are often used to dye pita in the same fashion as natural dyes,

without the extraction process. The imitation dyes require less time to dye pita

and therefore reduce labor. Some women also report pita dyed with imitation

dye products hold color longer. The women of Mesi Chali preferred natural

dyes, because development agencies had either directly or indirectly told them

that tourists prefer natural to imitation dyed pita bags.

I had a discussion with a woman and her husband in the community one

day about the origin of knowledge of dyes extracted from plants. This family is

one of the most respected families not only in Chalite but also throughout the

entire Ngöbe community, and the man is well traveled and educated. He relayed

a story to me about a Ngöbe youth who had gone to Costa Rica to study. There,

he saw a beautiful cloak and kra of many colors made from pita fiber. When he

asked who had made such beautiful crafts, he was told the Ngöbe had made

them. He had never seen pita dyed in such a way in his home in Panama. He

was so impressed that he spent his remaining time in Costa Rica studying

which plants made which colors and how to extract the dye. Then he came

home and taught his people how to make the dyes again.

I do not know how much truth there is to this story. I offer it only as a

possible reason why some women, such as the wife of this man, knew more

than fifteen species of dye plants and she reported that her mother knew none.

By examining the Pearson correlation coefficients relating to knowledge of the

dye process, I found that there are a number of strong positive correlations

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between knowing and planting dye plants, hours spent making kra, and

planting pita. These correlations suggest further that several people specialize

in the craft of kra making and others do not, even within a group specifically set

up to do so. Women who had learned the process and plants for dying pita

from group activities, though, did show a high correlation to hours spent

making kra (r=0.53, P=.092) and selling kra (r=0.56, P=.074).

Local Pita Use

In the past, women did not have the access to nylon substitutes that

they do today, and pita had a greater utilitarian value. When asked how their

mothers used pita fiber, the informants listed these things: rope to tie houses,

clothing, hammocks, fishing line, fishing nets. They fashioned the bags of many

shapes and sizes for a variety of reasons, cradling babies, carrying food, and

storing items big and small. One woman described her mother as having a

curtain made from pita to separate rooms in the house. Just under half of the

women reported that their mothers do use nylon string and plastic grain sacks

to make kra today. They reported that this practice has increased in recent

years, and was rare in their childhood.

Interviewees that reported they did not learn to dye kiga from their

mother also reported that their mother makes kra from plastic or nylon (r= -

0.56, P=.074, mother makes plastic kra and respondent learned how to dye kiga

from her mother). This data corresponds to other correlations that show a

mother who sells plastic kra also does not plant pita (r=-0.61, P=.048). This is

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proven further by interview responses where informants said that when plastic

became available, more people stopped planting pita.

The leaves of the pita plant were used in the past to tie animals, as they

are still used today. No other uses were reported freely, but when asked if the

plant could be eaten, two of the women reported that their mothers had given

them the fruit to eat. This suggests that there has been little to no

abandonment over the last twenty years of other uses of pita.

All of the women interviewed knew how to make work kra (simple

design), and all had learned the craft from either their mother or grandmother.

The average age at which they learned to make the bags was eleven years.

However, several women reported that they have since forgotten how to craft

kra, stating that other activities, mainly work on the farm, now replace this time

consuming one. The use of pita to make rope and fishing nets is still high, with

91% and 73% of the women reporting they own fishing nets from pita and use

pita as rope. The use of pita to make hammocks has declined, as only 27%

report owning a hammock made from pita fiber. Pita bags used for carrying

items from the farm will last one year before holes are torn, those used to store

items in the home will last two to three years. Women make the work kra as

often as needed, averaging three per year.

With the addition of a school in Chalite, women have greater access to

sacos, large plastic sacks (fig. 36). These sacks hold food for school lunches like

rice, beans, and crema (corn meal mush). After they are empty, these sacks are

utilized by townspeople for storage, curtains, shelter for animals and bags. The

women take apart these sacks and roll the plastic into string in the same

manner as raw pita fiber is rolled to make workbags. These sacks have also

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replaced the need to make storage bags as the women can use the sacks to

store possessions.

Figure 36. Plastic sacks

An increased number of people living in the Guariviara river basin have

led to an increase in boat traffic to the port town of Chiriqui Grande. Although

most women do not leave Chalite except for an emergency, men will travel to

Chiriqui Grande an average of once every three months to visit relatives, get

medicine, attend political conferences, and work. Dry goods stores in Chiriqui

Grande sell nylon string that some women now use to fashion the bags (fig. 37).

Ngöbe women like bright colors and the nylon is sold in a large variety of

bright colors that stay bright longer than colored pita, which tends to fade after

three to five months of use. Another obvious advantage to nylon is the time

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saved on extraction and dying of the fibers. A 340 meter nylon string ball costs

$3.95, comparable in amount to a bola of kiga, which costs about five dollars.

Bags made from nylon string last longer than pita ones, up to three years if

used for work in the farm, five to seven if used for storage.

Figure 37. Signs of a modern house: kra made from nylon string, a modern propane powered oven and stove, and plastic bleach bottles.

Nylon bags do have disadvantages. The bags are hotter than pita, and

the string rubs harder against the back, cutting and burning the skin even

when leaves are placed between the bag and woman while she is carrying the

items. The women also complain the plastic bags cut into their head at the

strap. The women of Mesi Chali expressed a dislike for the use of plastic kra for

these practical reasons, and when asked also stated they prefer pita “because it

is natural”. However, 73% of the women interviewed said they do make kra out

of plastic and nylon when the material is available.

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If a woman has more children to care for, she has less time to spend

harvesting pita and making the bags from kiga. Thus she is more likely to make

bags from plastic or nylon (r=0.58, P=.060) if she has many children. Also, if a

woman sells other goods outside of Chalite, namely cacao, she is more likely to

make plastic kra (r=0.56, P=.074), for both cacao selling and goods sold out of

Chalite. This can be attributed to the trend I noticed that women who gain an

income from selling other goods spend less time making kra from kiga. It could

also indicate that these women have more access to plastic and nylon string, as

they are more likely to travel to markets where these items are available. When

asked why, one woman replied that she works in the farm tending to cacao and

coffee and does not have time to harvest pita, so she uses the plastic she gets

from the cacao cooperative to make kra. She also claimed she had to make less

plastic kra because they are stronger and last longer, though she did say she

prefers pita and buys it when she can.

Cultural Pita Use

The women reported that the bags were part of ceremonial dress in the

past, and were used to hold talismans and charms. The kra used were the

smaller, highly ornamental ones that are sold today to tourists (fig. 38).

However, the majority of the women reported that their mothers did not know

how to make the small ornamental kra with the many designs. If a woman

reported that her mother knew how to make designs, I asked how many designs

she knew. The response never exceeded two designs. According to Proyecto

Ngöbe-Buglé, there are at least 10 different types of designs with many

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variations (PNB 2000). This result seems to contradict other results that

suggest pita was used more in the past, and is notable. Perhaps this knowledge

of the kra designs was not learned by many of the mothers, as they had no

utilitarian reason to do so.

Figure 38. Ceremonial kra vs. work kra

Correlation data suggests the same. If a woman reported her mother

knew designs, she was more likely to have a sixth grade education (r=0.56,

P=.074). This suggests the mothers who know designs are younger mothers,

who have perhaps learned the designs from their daughters, or women in the

women’s group. There are several of the women’s group members whose

mothers are not in the group, and have reported teaching their mothers

designs. This is reinforced by data showing the number of dye plants the

mother knows correlates positively to the informant’s graduation from sixth

grade (r=0.77, P=.006).

Simple design kras are made by expecting mothers in anticipation of the

need for a large kra in which to cradle their babies. This is similar to the

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tradition in Midwestern United States culture of crocheting a baby blanket in

anticipation of a newborn. These kra are the largest ones made in Chalite, and

are always made from pita, even today as more and more work kra are being

made with plastic and nylon. Women use kiga because the nylon and plastic

bags rub the skin and hurt, not because of any cultural loyalty to pita fiber.

Half of the women of Mesi Chali interviewed make ceremonial kra, and

only 18% said they learned how to make designs in kra from their mothers and

grandmothers. Data show that if a woman learned how to make kra at a young

age (from mother or grandmother) she is more likely to make the ceremonial kra

and she knows more designs (Table 4). Results also showed that women who

learned to make kra at a young age also made more kra overall and sold more

than others. The interview results I received confirmed that there is a

connection between learning kra at a young age and dedication and interest in

making the kra. If a woman had learned the practice well at a young age, she

tended to dedicate more of her time making both forms of kra.

Table 4. Significant variables correlated with “Age at which first learned to make kra”, at a 0.10 level of statistical significance

VariablePearson Correlation

Coefficient PMake ceremonial kra -0.93 <0.001Make designs -0.76 0.007Number of designs known -0.60 0.053Number of kra made last year -0.72 0.012Number of kra sold last year -0.64 0.033

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Forty-five percent of the women report learning how to make designs

from other sources such as other members of Mesi Chali and Proyecto Ngöbe-

Buglé. Upon request from members of the group, I brought in a booklet that

showed pictures of kra designs, published by Proyecto Ngöbe-Buglé (PNB 2000).

One woman, displaying incredible interest and patience, copied one of these

designs simply by looking at the picture. Other members would borrow kra that

I had purchased from other communities and copy the designs in them. This

suggests that it is important to these women to learn how to make designs in

these bags. The reason for this is economic.

Economics of Pita Use

Results show the respondents’ mothers bartered pita more often then

today. This bartering existed within the kinship groups, and on rare occasion

with others in the community. The women reported that their mothers had

bought and sold pita and kra in the past. Most of the selling was done in the

community, 64% reported this to be true, although there is some indication

that kra was sold to outsiders as well with 27% reporting this. Only 27%

reported that their mothers bought pita bags. The same women that reported

their mother sold kra to outsiders said that their mother sold and bought pita.

Although there is no strong correlation data regarding age and mother selling

kra, results from interviews indicate that older women reported their mothers

only bartered pita and kra, and younger women speak of selling and buying kra

for money.

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According to the women of Chalite, the concept of buying includes the

barter of pita for another item, most often a chicken. Therefore, responses for

buying, selling and trading are often the same. However, the correlations I

found related to buying, selling and trading are interesting. If a mother sold

bags made from pita to others in her village, she was more likely to also sell pita

(r=0.61, P=.048), plant pita (r=0.81, P=.003), and be in charge of the money she

makes from sales instead of giving it to her husband (r=0.69, P=.019). This

indicates that some women’s mothers may be known as sellers of pita, and

grow pita and harvest dyes for the specific purpose of selling kra made from

pita. The correlation of the money being kept by the mother indicates a trend

that I have only found in women under the age of 55, once again suggesting

that this trend is a new one.

In the village today, simple design kra are often bought and sold amongst

the women, but barter still exists. The women buy and sell pita as well, and

buy pita from outside the community, especially colored pita. Over half of the

women reported selling pita for money. One older woman I interviewed who

lives 45 minutes from town is known as a reliable source of pita and does make

money selling it. She sells colored pita, most often dyed from imitation dye

products, to the women of the village. This woman told me she learned the dye

process only three years ago, though she would not tell me where. She is an

example of the “buyer” and “seller” market emerging in Chalite.

Similar results occurred in response to bags made from plastic and

nylon. Some women spend their time making and selling plastic kra and others

spend their time on other activities and buy kra from their neighbors. Table 5

shows some of the correlation data that supports this trend. The data shows

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that if a woman buys kra she is less likely to sell it. The correlation between

speaking Spanish and this relationship further supports the evidence shown

that younger women are relying on buying rather than selling, as younger

women are more often the ones who speak Spanish (correlation of age to

speaking Spanish: r= -0.59, P=.057).

Table 5. Pearson correlation coefficients related to the emerging market of buyers and sellers in Chalite reported at a 0.10 level of statistical significance (negative correlations in red)

The women most often reported that their mothers had not sold

ceremonial bags to tourists. This response correlates with the response given

that the interviewees’ mothers do not know how to make the ceremonial kra of

intricate design. A correlation between being born in Chalite and whether or not

one’s mother sold kra to tourists (r=0.54, P=.086) could reflect the fact that

most older women were not born in Chalite, and most younger ones were. This

Variableshours making

kraspeak

Spanishbuy kra from

pitabuy plastic/nylon

krasell kra from

pita

buy kra from pita

r = -0.59 P =0.054

r = 0.57 P = 0.066 r = 1.00 ----- -----

buy plastic/ nylon kra

r = -0.59 P = 0.057

r = 0.69 P = 0.018

r = 0.83 P = 0.002 r = 1.00 -----

sell kra from pita

r = 0.58 P = 0.057

r = -0.69 P = 0.019

r = -0.82 P=0.002

r = -0.83 P = 0.001 r = 1.00

sell plastic/ nylon kra no sig.corr. no sig.corr. no sig.corr.

r = -0.67 P = 0.024

r = 0.54 P = 0.083

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is further suggested through the correlation of age of informant to mother

selling to tourists (r=-0.59, P=0.055). The older women’s mothers did not live in

a town but rather in an isolated kinship group.

The potential market of ceremonial kra is better, however. Correlations

exist between the number of designs known (thus the number of ceremonial kra

varieties one can make) and number of ceremonial kra made and sold (r=0.79,

P=.003 for made, r=0.78, P=.004 for sold). Also a correlation exists between the

woman learning designs from the group and the number of ceremonial kra she

sold last year (r=0.55, P=.083). However, there is a big difference between a

potential market and an actual market. The women of Mesi Chali made 45

ceremonial bags in the year 2003, with the express purpose of selling those

bags. With the help of the Peace Corps, they sold 25. In the year 2002, the

women reported making a total of fifteen ceremonial bags, and sold three, all to

me. For the first half of 2004, the women made fifteen ceremonial bags sold six

and gave away two, all to Peace Corps volunteers who came to the village, as I

was no longer taking the bags out of the village to sell. These figures show there

no real market in Chalite, and an extremely limited national market.

The average ceremonial kra sells for $15. The profit from the sale of just

one of these bags contributes a significant amount to the estimated $450.00

total average annual income for residents of Chalite. However, without the

existence of outside agency help, the chances of selling a ceremonial kra are

slim to almost impossible for the women of Chalite.

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Discussion

The results show that there have been some significant changes in the

use of Aechmea magdalenae by the women of Chalite in the past twenty years.

Table 6 delineates the trends found in use of pita over the last twenty years in

Chalite. In general, there has been a decline in harvesting and processing of

pita and a shift towards use of manufactured products such as nylon and

plastic. In the process a new market system is emerging with a defined group

of women who are gaining knowledge in pita harvesting, planting, processing,

and the manufacture and sales of kra, both for utility and for tourists.

Table 6. Comparison of changes in pita use over time

Change in Pita Use Over Time

Past Present

Cultivation and Use of Plant

greater knowledge of cultivation and harvesting of pita; harvested natural stands; harvested more often

less harvesting activity; less overall access to pita; harvest from cultivated not natural stands

Knowledge of Dying and Dye Plants

a few dye plants known; knowledge of dye process high

greater number of dye plants known; fewer women know how to dye

Local Pita Usemost to all bags made from pita; more women made simple bags; little other use known

more women make bags from other sources; fewer women make any bags at all; other uses same

Cultural Pita Use not many ceremonial kra made; few designs known

increase in ceremonial kra making; increase number of designs known

Economics of Pita Use

bartering of simple kra high; some sales to community members; very little sales to outside and little interest

bartering declines, sales increase; difference between "sellers" and "buyers"; increase interest in sales to outside

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The implications of the change in system are significant. With fewer

women harvesting pita, the stand dynamics of colonies of Aechmea magdalenae

could change from many small and widely dispersed colonies of pita to fewer

but larger colonies concentrated in smaller areas. There is some evidence of this

already in the stands harvested by the women of Mesi Chali. I would often see

small colonies of pita scattered in the forest, yet the only stands the women

harvested from were large stands with thousands of individuals. Owners of the

land had planted these stands.

As several women emerge as sellers of pita in Chalite, this improves the

local economy. There is no current local market as all goods sold are brought in

from outside and all goods produced are sold to the outside. Traditionally, only

bartering existed in Chalite, and people are reluctant to sell items for money to

their family and neighbors, especially things that were at one time either given

freely or bartered. Nevertheless, the trends suggest that a market for pita is

emerging. If so, this may increase the value of pita and products made from it.

Bags made from plastic and nylon are also increasing on the market, but

correlations suggest there could be a separate market for bags made from kiga

and bags made from manufactured goods.

A major reason that pita use has increased in recent years after an

apparent decline is the promise of an emerging tourists market. However, this

market does not exist in Panama at this time. There has been an increase in

tourism on Bocas Island (Isla Colón) and places like Panama City and David in

recent years. But unfortunately not enough has occurred to warrant the supply

that is now emerging. I often visited with the women of Pueblo Nuevo. Their

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town is on the Fortuna road, and sits in a prime spot for developing a market

for tourists. There are five women’s groups in Pueblo Nuevo and each women’s

group on any given day has a supply of kra that totals over 200 bags. The

women’s groups have tried for five years to open a market on the road, but have

not succeeded because they have no money to support the start up costs. The

average woman in one of those women’s groups sells one kra a year. This sale is

only because the Japanese development agency known as JICA comes to the

town every three months and takes kra to Panama City. Left to their own

devices, the women would not be selling any kra to tourists.

Many Ngöbe women have been motivated by development organizations

such as JICA, Proyecto Ngöbe-Bugle and Peace Corps. They have relearned the

time consuming process of harvesting pita, extracting fiber, dying with natural

dyes, and making kra with intricate designs. They have put their time and effort

into the prospect of selling to tourists. The development agencies have done

well. The women are proud of their designs and have rekindled pride in the

craft of kra. But the fact remains there is no market for 50,000 Ngöbe women

who need to sell at least one kra a month in order to justify her time and effort.

These changes in pita use over time in Chalite have raised some other

questions concerning local markets for pita fiber and kra, potential for

cultivation of pita, and outside markets for ceremonial kra. In the conclusion

section, I will discuss these questions, relate my findings to previous work, and

offer some recommendations for the future of Aechmea magdalenae in Ngöbe

culture.

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CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSIONS

The Ngöbe women of Bocas del Toro, Panama have used the fiber of the

pita plant, Aechmea magdalenae, for centuries to fashion hammocks, fishing

nets, and bags known as kra. They also used the plant to heal stomach pains

and would occasionally consume its fruit. The items fashioned from fiber were

used to aid in the daily activities of a subsistence lifestyle: gathering food from

the forest, hunting, and fishing to feed their families. A Ngöbe woman would

often live alone with her husband and his family, a day’s walk from neighbors.

Over the last century, things have changed for the Ngöbe woman.

Increased population pressures have brought the mestizo and Ngöbe

populations of Panama in contact with each other. With this contact came

changes to traditional Ngöbe culture. The introduction to a cash economy has

often left her alone while her husband leaves to work on banana, coffee, or

sugar cane plantations. Manufactured goods such as pots, dishes, and clothing

have been commonplace in Ngöbe culture for over fifty years. Modern

accessories like watches, radios, and beauty products have now entered even

remote Ngöbe villages that do not have road access and still practice many

“traditional” Ngöbe customs more accessible villages have long abandoned. The

Panamanian government has improved efforts to offer aid to Ngöbe, foremost in

the form of schooling. Villages centered around schools, like Chalite, have

replaced traditional kinship hamlets. Efforts to unite the scattered Ngöbe people

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resulted in a religious movement, Mama Chi, and the formation of a semi-

autonomous state, the Comarca Ngöbe-Bugle.

Throughout the last twenty years the use of the pita plant has also

changed in Chalite. There are no accounts today from my informants that any

part of the plant is used other than the fiber. The results of this study show a

there has been a general decrease in knowledge of harvesting and extraction of

pita for fiber. The same is true for the dying process and plants used to dye

pita fiber. This change can be attributed to increased access to substitute

products of manufactured origin, such as nylon string, plastic sacks, and

artificial dyes.

Although fewer women practice the art of kra making, some women are

emerging as specialists in pita extraction, dying of fiber (kiga), and fashioning of

kra. These women have expanded on basic knowledge learned from their

mothers and have learned new designs and dye processes from peers and

development organizations. The renewed interest in kra making has been

sparked by the hope of profiting from sales to tourists.

RECCOMENDATIONS

Forest Dynamics

In the past, every woman had her own little stand of pita to harvest. As

fewer women harvest pita today, these little stands are being cleared away to

plant crops. However, women harvesting pita are doing so on an increasingly

frequent scale and they are encouraging stands to grow. This new stand

structure of fewer but larger colonies of pita could affect the forest canopy in

these areas. The women of Chalite prefer the stands grow in shade, and are not

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likely to clear trees to cultivate the plant. Brokaw (1983) has found on Barro

Colorado island that while denser colonies of pita do inhibit sapling growth, the

canopy is not greatly affected. In an area where land is cleared for agriculture,

like Chalite, the larger colonies of pita may ensure trees are not removed to

plant crops. Ngöbe women are the experts at harvesting pita in Panama, and

their knowledge of their resource should be recognized. All over Latin America,

women are emerging as the source of knowledge in extraction of non-timber

forest products (Martinez-Romero 2004).

However, further increase in extraction and cultivation of pita depends

on market conditions, labor costs, minimum consumption needs, and market

access (Robinson, et.al. 2002). Land use is also a factor. The people in Chalite

currently have a large amount of land per family, and their current cash

economy consists only of pifa, cacao, coffee and rice, all on a small scale

(Slatton, 2004). Excluding market variables, pita cultivation has tremendous

potential in Chalite. However, market variables are the variables of greatest

significance (Tommich 1998).

External Pita Market

In recent years, development organizations such as Proyecto Ngöbe-

Buglé, JICA, and the Peace Corps, have worked with Ngöbe women in an effort

to encourage and promote self-esteem, empowerment, and equality for women

in Ngöbe communities. These efforts in and of themselves are necessary and

have made great strides to curb abuse and abandonment of Ngöbe women and

raise self-esteem (Martenelli 1994). In an effort to provide women with their own

income, these organizations have encouraged Ngöbe women to improve the

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quality of the kra, along with other traditional items to produce for sale to

tourists. Their efforts have succeeded. In many Ngöbe communities, women

have been inspired to relearn a dying craft and to improve upon it. However, in

communities like Chalite, that have little access to markets and little time to

dedicate to the craft, encouraging production gives these women a false sense of

hope.

The problem does not lie solely with accessibility. In the town of Pueblo

Nuevo, located on Fortuna road, the women are in a similar situation. They

have an excess of kra for sale and no market. JICA arrives once a month to pick

up kra and take it to the city in an effort to help create a market. They do not

involve the women in the sales procedure, and the women are not learning how

to market their product. The use of intermediaries to sell these goods is not

sustainable (Martinez-Romero et.al. 2004). This increases the reliance of these

women on the development organization. As these development organizations

instruct the women on how to make their bags “marketable,” the culture

becomes more manufactured and thus no longer true culture at all.

Manufactured culture is not a new concept in the name of marketing

goods to tourists (Jongeward 2001). The problem arises, however, when people

not of that culture are making decisions that change traditions for the culture

in question. Then, empowerment and promotion become empty words as other

forces are manipulating the women. Trying to create a tourist market where one

does not exist in order to help women sell these bags is unrealistic. Both the

Peace Corps and Proyecto Ngöbe-Buglé have realized this and made an effort to

encourage women who wish to seek out a market to do so, but have stopped

efforts to create a market or sell bags for Ngöbe women. During my Peace Corps

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service, the Caciques of the Comarca Ngöbe-Bugle signed an agreement with

volunteers living in Ngöbe communities specifically banning the sale of kra by

Peace Corps volunteers. This agreement was initiated by the Caciques after they

received pressure from women’s groups without Peace Corps volunteers living

in their town who had complained of having no access to markets.

Currently few markets exist in Panama or internationally for these

ceremonial kra. A few tourist shops in Panama City, sixteen hours away from

Bocas del Toro, carry ceremonial kra made by women in Chiriqui Province. Most

of these kra are not made of pita fiber, but fiber of a species of Agave. Another

small outlet is the infrequently visited roadside market in San Felix, Chiriqui,

funded through a project by Proyecto Ngöbe-Bugle. A small potential tourist

market is developing on Isla Colón in Bocas del Toro as this area has

experienced an increase in tourism in the last two years (Visual Adventures

2004; Bocas del Toro, Inc. 2004). However, the Ngöbe compete in these small

markets with artisan works from mestizo Panamanians and Kuna, Emberá, and

Wounaan Indigenous populations. The national tourist market is simply not

sufficient enough to provide economic benefit for all of these groups.

Internationally, the Ngöbe of Panama compete with other indigenous

populations throughout the world that produce a wide variety of hand-crafted

items (Martinez-Romero et.al. 2004, Dean 1998, Jongeward 2001).

Trying to market pita or a product from it on national or international

scale has many challenges. Commercialization of a NTFP is always a challenge

when a product used locally on a small scale moves to production on a large

scale (Neumann and Hirsh 2000). The case of pita is no exception. A national

market exists for pita in Mexico, and currently efforts to cultivate the plant on a

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large scale are in place. However, limitations to the large-scale

commercialization of pita in Mexico are possible fungal attacks with large

colonies, effects of genetic diversity and long-term market potential for the fiber

(Ticktin et. al. 2003). In Panama, these limitations are not issues as the market

and production is limited. However, these potential problems show that focus

on a local market before focusing on a national one may be a better strategy.

Often commercially used NTFPs are overexploited, and environmental concerns

ignored, defeating the purpose for using the NTFP in the first place. Examples of

this are abundant in the Amazon with palm hearts and wild fruit populations

and in the Andes with Cinchona spp., the natural source of quinine, and many

more (Southgate 1998). Ticktin et. al. (2003) recommend that even for Mexico,

harvesting of pita should be treated as a supplement to and not a replacement

of a subsistence lifestyle.

Local Pita Market

In order to assess the potential for the success of a NTFP, factors such as

cultivation, processing, current use and current markets need to be addressed

(Marshall and Schreckenberg 2002). The results of this study address these

issues as they relate to the NTFP Aechmea magdalenae and the Ngöbe women

of a remote village of Bocas del Toro, Panama. Encouraging results show the

emergence of local trade, an extremely important factor in the role of women

and NTFPs. Worldwide, as in Chalite, women receive most to all of their

economic gain through local markets (Tommich 1998, Marshall and Newton

2003). Constraints in transportation and household duties keep women closer

to home.

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There has been an emergence of a small local market for simple kra.

There are some women who dedicate time to the harvesting of pita and making

kra and some women who have abandoned these practices. The women who

have abandoned the craft are part of families that depend less on the forest for

food and subsistence, supplementing forest crops with income from plantation

work and the sale of agricultural goods to outside markets. This trend is also

occurring in other regions where extraction rates of non-timber forest products

by families depends on amount of money received from other sources

(Pattanayak and Sills 2001, Marshall and Newton 2003). These women still use

simple kra, and with their disposable income can afford to pay small amounts

of money to purchase the bags from others in the community. This market

system is a new concept for the people of Chalite, as almost all items bought

with money are brought from outside the community and all items sold are sold

outside the community. The Ngöbe have an aversion to selling products to each

other, because for so long barter and gifting of items was expected by cultural

norms (Young 1971). The emergence of this local market could have beneficial

results for Chalite and other communities like it by promoting a local economy.

In this way, the community could reduce some of its reliance on outside income

to support its members, especially women, whose only current source of income

relies on the sale of kra.

Pita fiber is now also being bought and sold in the community of Chalite,

as fewer women have access to or knowledge about the plant and the

cultivation of it. The buying and selling of pita fiber, known locally as kiga,

could contribute to this growing local economy in Chalite, and women who

cultivate the fiber could see considerable economic gain. However, it is

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premature to think of commercial cultivation of pita by the Ngöbe of Panama.

Access to external markets has increased the use of cheap manufactured

materials in place of pita in Chalite. Research by Godoy, et al. (1995) and

others show that as access to manufactured goods increases, reliance on

natural forest products decreases, and this trend is evident in my findings.

However, some women in this study displayed a preference for pita fiber and

dyes extracted from plants. This preference could be the result of direct and

indirect influence by environmentalists, conservationists and development

organizations who have told the Ngöbe it is better to use products extracted

from the forest. When asked directly about preferences, in fact, the women in

this study often gave the reason “because that is what the tourists like.” There

is a difference between promotion of stewardship of the forest and its resources

among groups who already value the forest, but forcing groups into land

stewardship will not benefit those groups in the long run.

The balance between preservation of natural resources and promotion of

society has to be addressed by all people that work with indigenous

populations. In his work Brosius (1997) discusses implications of this

misrepresentation of indigenous people’s concerns in Borneo. Influence by

environmentalists has led to a change in perspective of deforestation by

indigenous populations. As a result, indigenous groups have stopped

deforestation efforts based on a system of values that is not their own, efforts

that could prove detrimental to advancing their population.

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Pita fiber is a strong, durable fiber that has been used for centuries for

many purposes throughout Central and South America (Ticktin 2002, Levi-

Strauss 1950). Kirby (1963) compares Aechmea magdalenae fiber to fibers from

around the world and concludes that “Quite obviously, therefore, the fibre

would have considerable possibilities if it could be produced on a commercial

scale at an economic price.” In Mexico, commercial cultivation of pita has

increased recently due to a demand for the fiber to embroider leather goods

(Ticktin and Johns, 2002).

Market structures and processes are one of the biggest constraints in the

development of NTFPs (Tommich 1998, Godoy et al 1995). This study has

addressed some of the issues involved in the marketing of pita and ceremonial

kra in Chalite and in Panama as a whole. Extensive research on market trends

and analysis for these products needs to be done. It should be done before

further development efforts to improve production of ceremonial kra. If a market

is not found for ceremonial kra on a sufficient scale for Ngöbe women, other

potential uses of Aechmea magdalenae should be further explored. The

emergence of a local pita and simple kra market has strong potential to

supplement the subsistence economy of Ngöbe women.

As with all potential resources, before developing markets it is necessary

to identify current uses and the factors influencing these uses. Ethnobotanical

field research plays an important role in this examination. This study

specifically sought to define the current use of A. magdalenae among Ngöbe

indigenous women in an effort to promote its potential. With further research, I

feel the Ngöbe women of Chalite could benefit from the continued and increased

use of this plant.

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APPENDIX

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THE 104 VARIABLES EXTRACTED FROM INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND ANALYZED USING PEARSON’S CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS

Variable Number Variable Description

Average or Percent Response

1 Age of respondent 34

2 Respondent born in Chalite 27%

3 Number of years respondent has lived in Chalite 19

4 Number of children 5

5 Number of boys 3

6 Number of girls 2

7 Number of People in living in house 8

8 Male present in respondent’s house 91%

9 Husband is head of household 73%

10 Number of houses owned 2

11 House has water access 55%

12 Receives money from outside the town 55%

13 Member of family receives pension 36

14 Number of minutes walk to farm 31

15 Has a sixth grade education 18%

16 Able to read and write 18%

17 Speaks Spanish 64%

18 Husband has sixth grade education 73%

19 Husband reads and writes 73%

20 Husband speaks Spanish 91%

21 Member of house with beyond a sixth grade education 27%

22 Number of pigs owned 1

23 Number of chickens owned 7

24 Number of ducks owned 2

25 Number of dogs owned 1

120

Variable Number Variable Description

Average or Percent Response

26 Number of cats owned 1

27 Number of cows owned 1

28 Number of turkeys owned 1

29 Plants beans in farm 9%

30 Plants corn in farm 18%

31 Plants coffee in farm 45%

32 Plants yams in farm 82%

33 Plants manioch in farm 55%

34 Plants cacao in farm 45%

35 Plants pineapple in farm 55%

36 Plants fruit trees in farm 64%

37 Plants vegetables in farm 55%

38 Plants medicinal plants in farm 9%

39 Collects medicinal plants from forest 45%

40 Sells farm products 45%

41 Hours spent working on farm 8

42 Hours spent making kra 12

43 Hours spent gathering wood 6

44 Hours spent gathering other plants 4

45 Plants pita in farm 64%

46 Pita grows natural in farm 18%

47 Pita grows in the forest 9%

48 Number of minutes to walk to pita colony 25

49 Pita grows under trees 82%

50 Know how to harvest pita 91%

51 Own fishing net made from pita 73%

52 Use pita as rope 91%

53 Use a pita hammock 27%

54 Make simple kra 91%

121

Variable Number Variable Description

Average or Percent Response

55 Sell simple design kra 54%

56 Number of simple design kra sold last year 0.91

57 Buy kra made from kiga 36%

58 Makes plastic kra 73%

59 Sells plastic kra 36%

60 Number of plastic kra sold last year 1

61 Buys plastic kra 45%

62 Buys other products made from kiga 18%

63 Barters with kiga 27%

64 Sells kiga 55%

65 Keeps money from kra and kiga sales 82%

66 Know how to dye kiga 55%

67 Knows dye plants 64%

68 Plants dye plants 18%

69 Dye plants grow natural in farm 55%

70 Make ceremonial kra 73%

71 Number of designs known 3

72 Number of ceremonial kra made last year 4

73 Number of ceremonial kra sold last year 2

74 Learned to make kra from mother 91%

75 Learned to make kra from grandmother 9%

76 Learned designs from mother 55%

77 Learned designs from grandmother 9%

78 Learned designs from Mesi Chali members 36%

79 Learned designs from PNB 9%

80 Learned to dye from mother 27%

81 Learned to dye from Mesi Chali members 27%

82 Learned to dye from PNB 9%

83 Learned dye plants from mother 27%

122

Variable Number Variable Description

Average or Percent Response

84 Learned dye plants from Mesi Chali members 18%

85 Learned dye plants from PNB 9%

86 Mother planted pita 73%

87 Pita grew natural in mother's farm 27%

88 Age when first learned to make kra 11

89 Mother makes designs 45%

90 Number of designs mom knows 0.7

91 Mother sold kra outside community 27%

92 Mother sdold kra inside community 64%

93 Mother bought kra 27%

94 Mother makes plastic kra 45%

95 Mother sells plastic kra 36%

96 Mother buys plastic kra 18%

97 Mother barters plastic kra 9%

98 Mother sells kiga 64%

99 Mother buys kiga 36%

100 Mother keeps money from sales 45%

101 Mother knows how to dye kiga 63%

102 Mother knows dye plants 63%

103 Dye plants grow natural in mother's farm 45%

104 Daughter knows how to make kra 55%