Myrtle Island Industry and Economy Brainstorming
Apr 5, 2020 6:21:35 GMT
Lyndis Valcove, orpheus, and 1 more like this
Post by min on Apr 5, 2020 6:21:35 GMT
[attr="class","graves"] Note: This isn't official
I usually like to have some type of real-world inspiration for lots of things, and Myrtle Island strikes me as... kind of like random Pacific Island.
So I googled Polynesian stuff and got the follow stuff on industry and other things:
I usually like to have some type of real-world inspiration for lots of things, and Myrtle Island strikes me as... kind of like random Pacific Island.
So I googled Polynesian stuff and got the follow stuff on industry and other things:
Production and technology
Fishing
The sea provided most of the protein in the traditional Polynesian diet. Fishing was done by individuals, with spear, line, or net, and also by groups. In the latter case, large numbers of men sometimes spread and hauled in huge nets in bays or lagoons and at other times drove fish toward shore, where they could be captured in nets held in shallow water. In some Polynesian societies (the Marquesas and Samoa, for example), specialists directed the mass fishing efforts and the elaborate religious rituals that went along with them. Sea mammals such as porpoises and whales were also taken.
Polynesians did not confine their fishing exploits to coastal waters, for they were equally at home on the high seas and explored for miles in all directions. The people of Easter Island, for example, were known to fish at Sala y Gómez reef, a journey of some 300 miles (500 km). Good fishing waters were located by visual reference to land bodies or by dead reckoning. Line fishing to depths of 90 feet (27 metres) was not uncommon. School tuna were taken in large quantities on the high seas by means of shiny pearl-shell lures with bone points. The flesh of sharks and rays was a delicacy.
Mollusks and crustaceans were important as food, and mollusk shells were made into a wide variety of tools and ornaments. Clams, cowries, and various snails and conches were collected, generally by women and children, along the reefs or shorelines and in shallow waters. Shrimps were captured with fine nets, while lobsters were collected by men who dived to pry their spiny prey loose from underwater crannies. The octopus was enticed from its hiding place by an ingenious lure made of leopard cowrie shells. Various types of seaweeds and algae were also collected and were highly prized for their salty taste. There was, in short, nothing edible in the sea that was not food for the Polynesians.
Gardening
Although Polynesians were mariners above all, they were also devoted to horticulture and arboriculture, producing the staples of the Polynesian diet and most of their condiments in gardens and groves. The major native crops were yams (Dioscorea species), taro (Colocasia esculenta), breadfruit (Artocarpus communis), bananas (Musa species), sugarcane (Saccharum species), coconuts (Cocos nucifera), and Tahitian chestnuts (Inocarpus edulis). These crops achieved different levels of importance in various Polynesian societies, depending on cultural factors and environmental conditions. The Hawaiians, for example, relied heavily on taro, building extensive irrigation systems to grow the variety that requires muddy soil and planting the “dry” variety in the uplands. Breadfruit was not of great importance in Hawaii, but in the Marquesas and Tahiti it was the major staple, although taro was by no means neglected. In these islands breadfruit was allowed to become overripe and was then beaten into a pulp, wrapped in hibiscus-leaf bundles, and stored in large, well-drained pits in the ground. This stored breadfruit paste would ferment but remain edible and nutritious for years, its sour taste being highly prized for imparting flavour to the rather bland fresh breadfruit paste.
The most important Polynesian food plants were tropical cultigens that could not survive in the colder climates of Easter Island (subtropical) and New Zealand (temperate). On Easter Island, for example, legends maintain that the earliest settlers brought germinating coconuts but that the plants subsequently died. This deprived the Rapa Nui not only of a variety of condiments and a rich source of vitamins but also of the coconut leaves that were used elsewhere in Polynesia for thatch and baskets and of the husk fibres that were used to make fishing line and netting. In New Zealand not only the coconut but also the breadfruit, yam, and banana were unsuccessful. The radically different flora and fauna of New Zealand, however, offered foods that partially replaced those that the climate would not support.
As with the coconut, most food plants in Polynesia also provided materials for other purposes. The breadfruit tree furnished wood for the hulls of dugout canoes, and the milky sap of the fruit itself was used in caulking the gaps between the planks of larger canoes. The black mud of the taro patches was used to stain wood and stone carvings. The pandanus fruit was highly prized as a kind of chewing gum, as well as a major component of floral necklaces and headpieces, to which it contributed its strong and pleasant colour. Pandanus leaves, when bleached, became the raw material for weaving fine mats. The candlenut was used for torches. Its oil was a cathartic, and its wood furnished certain canoe parts.
Material culture
Traditional Polynesian technology relied for the most part upon five substances: wood, stone, vegetable fibre, shell, and bone. Canoes, houses, domestic utensils, weapons, religious sculpture, and a host of other incidental tools were fashioned from wood with stone or shell adzes; stone-flake knives; files made of coral, sea urchin, or rough stone; and drills of bone, stone, or shell. Fine carving was done with stone, shell, or animal teeth, particularly those of rats or sharks. Fine-grained basalt stone was the hardest material available to Polynesians and was used to produce a variety of adzes.
The components of complex items were skillfully fitted together and lashed with cordage made from various types of vegetable fibre, such as hibiscus bark, pandanus-leaf fibre, coconut fibre, or banyan bark. Huge double-hulled canoes, 100 to 150 feet (30 to 45 metres) in length, were built of numerous small wooden components held together only by fitting and lashing, yet they were able to withstand the pounding of wind and waves for thousands of miles.
Vegetable material also furnished a major source of clothing in the form of the beaten bark (tapa) of the paper mulberry tree or the banyan. This material was pounded out into small sheets that could then be assembled to produce loincloths, capes, skirts, and headdresses. Items made from bark cloth were decorated by painting and watermarking and by attaching feathers, shells, animal teeth, and other ornaments. Finely woven mats were also used as apparel in western Polynesia.
Home furnishings consisted mainly of vegetable material in the form of mats for sleeping and sitting, as well as for protection from the weather, and of baskets for holding personal belongings and food. Coconut shells and bottle gourds provided handy, durable containers.
Fishing
The sea provided most of the protein in the traditional Polynesian diet. Fishing was done by individuals, with spear, line, or net, and also by groups. In the latter case, large numbers of men sometimes spread and hauled in huge nets in bays or lagoons and at other times drove fish toward shore, where they could be captured in nets held in shallow water. In some Polynesian societies (the Marquesas and Samoa, for example), specialists directed the mass fishing efforts and the elaborate religious rituals that went along with them. Sea mammals such as porpoises and whales were also taken.
Polynesians did not confine their fishing exploits to coastal waters, for they were equally at home on the high seas and explored for miles in all directions. The people of Easter Island, for example, were known to fish at Sala y Gómez reef, a journey of some 300 miles (500 km). Good fishing waters were located by visual reference to land bodies or by dead reckoning. Line fishing to depths of 90 feet (27 metres) was not uncommon. School tuna were taken in large quantities on the high seas by means of shiny pearl-shell lures with bone points. The flesh of sharks and rays was a delicacy.
Mollusks and crustaceans were important as food, and mollusk shells were made into a wide variety of tools and ornaments. Clams, cowries, and various snails and conches were collected, generally by women and children, along the reefs or shorelines and in shallow waters. Shrimps were captured with fine nets, while lobsters were collected by men who dived to pry their spiny prey loose from underwater crannies. The octopus was enticed from its hiding place by an ingenious lure made of leopard cowrie shells. Various types of seaweeds and algae were also collected and were highly prized for their salty taste. There was, in short, nothing edible in the sea that was not food for the Polynesians.
Gardening
Although Polynesians were mariners above all, they were also devoted to horticulture and arboriculture, producing the staples of the Polynesian diet and most of their condiments in gardens and groves. The major native crops were yams (Dioscorea species), taro (Colocasia esculenta), breadfruit (Artocarpus communis), bananas (Musa species), sugarcane (Saccharum species), coconuts (Cocos nucifera), and Tahitian chestnuts (Inocarpus edulis). These crops achieved different levels of importance in various Polynesian societies, depending on cultural factors and environmental conditions. The Hawaiians, for example, relied heavily on taro, building extensive irrigation systems to grow the variety that requires muddy soil and planting the “dry” variety in the uplands. Breadfruit was not of great importance in Hawaii, but in the Marquesas and Tahiti it was the major staple, although taro was by no means neglected. In these islands breadfruit was allowed to become overripe and was then beaten into a pulp, wrapped in hibiscus-leaf bundles, and stored in large, well-drained pits in the ground. This stored breadfruit paste would ferment but remain edible and nutritious for years, its sour taste being highly prized for imparting flavour to the rather bland fresh breadfruit paste.
The most important Polynesian food plants were tropical cultigens that could not survive in the colder climates of Easter Island (subtropical) and New Zealand (temperate). On Easter Island, for example, legends maintain that the earliest settlers brought germinating coconuts but that the plants subsequently died. This deprived the Rapa Nui not only of a variety of condiments and a rich source of vitamins but also of the coconut leaves that were used elsewhere in Polynesia for thatch and baskets and of the husk fibres that were used to make fishing line and netting. In New Zealand not only the coconut but also the breadfruit, yam, and banana were unsuccessful. The radically different flora and fauna of New Zealand, however, offered foods that partially replaced those that the climate would not support.
As with the coconut, most food plants in Polynesia also provided materials for other purposes. The breadfruit tree furnished wood for the hulls of dugout canoes, and the milky sap of the fruit itself was used in caulking the gaps between the planks of larger canoes. The black mud of the taro patches was used to stain wood and stone carvings. The pandanus fruit was highly prized as a kind of chewing gum, as well as a major component of floral necklaces and headpieces, to which it contributed its strong and pleasant colour. Pandanus leaves, when bleached, became the raw material for weaving fine mats. The candlenut was used for torches. Its oil was a cathartic, and its wood furnished certain canoe parts.
Material culture
Traditional Polynesian technology relied for the most part upon five substances: wood, stone, vegetable fibre, shell, and bone. Canoes, houses, domestic utensils, weapons, religious sculpture, and a host of other incidental tools were fashioned from wood with stone or shell adzes; stone-flake knives; files made of coral, sea urchin, or rough stone; and drills of bone, stone, or shell. Fine carving was done with stone, shell, or animal teeth, particularly those of rats or sharks. Fine-grained basalt stone was the hardest material available to Polynesians and was used to produce a variety of adzes.
The components of complex items were skillfully fitted together and lashed with cordage made from various types of vegetable fibre, such as hibiscus bark, pandanus-leaf fibre, coconut fibre, or banyan bark. Huge double-hulled canoes, 100 to 150 feet (30 to 45 metres) in length, were built of numerous small wooden components held together only by fitting and lashing, yet they were able to withstand the pounding of wind and waves for thousands of miles.
Vegetable material also furnished a major source of clothing in the form of the beaten bark (tapa) of the paper mulberry tree or the banyan. This material was pounded out into small sheets that could then be assembled to produce loincloths, capes, skirts, and headdresses. Items made from bark cloth were decorated by painting and watermarking and by attaching feathers, shells, animal teeth, and other ornaments. Finely woven mats were also used as apparel in western Polynesia.
Home furnishings consisted mainly of vegetable material in the form of mats for sleeping and sitting, as well as for protection from the weather, and of baskets for holding personal belongings and food. Coconut shells and bottle gourds provided handy, durable containers.