In the Realm of Rubber - The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha - page 212

Spruce also described the use of the oil extracted from the seeds for lighting, and an-
otherprocessingtechnique(onealsousedformanioc)ofplacingabasketwiththeboiled
pulp and seed in the river for three days and then eating it “as is.” and reported its “re-
sembling cream cheese in appearance and taste.” This parallel between processing tech-
niques for manioc and Hevea is quite suggestive, since these ways of removing cyano-
genic acids are not obvious or simple, and without them the food is very toxic.
Seibert suggested that the seed size and oil of Hevea paucifilia (which is an upland
specieslargelyfoundontheRioNegro)actuallymadeitthepreferreddomesticate when
food was the point. As populations moved their shifting cultivation plots or gardens and
trekked along trade routes, the tree, grown for its nuts, cross-pollinated with many wild
species along clearings, creating “hybrid swarms” through genetic introgression of do-
mesticated or semi domesticated Hevea with wild types. In addition, Seibert pointed out
the common association of Heveas with Brazil nut, cacao, and peach palm. Beyond the
genetics, Anderson and Seibert argued that Hevea was domesticated or semi-domestic-
ated on the grounds of what are now taken as more or less regular practices in indigen-
ous landscape management for useful species: selection of seeds for large size, planting
in agricultural fallows, manipulation of fallows, movement of plant materials over large
areas,plantinginforestgaps,manipulationofforestsitesforoligarchicspecies,planting
(and testing) of plants in dooryard gardens, and natural or manipulated hybridization. 41
A species that was useful to eat, for lighting oil, for fish bait, for waterproof latex, and
as bird lures for macaws (prized as pets and for feathers) does not seem that strange as a
candidate for domestication, although perhaps socialization is the better term. The elab-
orateknowledgeofdetoxificationofseedsandtheincorporationof Hevea intorituallife
also suggest considerable historical and cultural intimacy with the plant.
Schultes, whose experience was in the Northwest Amazon, largely in Colombia
(which was mostly caucho territory), was having none of this: he argued that indeed
there were planted trees, as described by Seibert and Anderson, but that these were not
planted by Indians but caboclos (Amazonian backwoodsmen), who used Hevea seed
only when famine threatened (italics in the original). Schultes spoke of the “innate aver-
sion” to destroying any rubber tree, even though they were not tapped on the Rio Negro
where he studied this question. Schultes' historical ecology of Amazonia focused on the
wild and the mystically primitive. In his view, natives in the Colombian Amazon nev-
er collected from home sites because they preferred collecting on pleasant treks to wild
groves. 42 The pleasure might indeed be in the camping trip but also in cultural memory
and visiting ancestral sites. Trekking to wild groves through forests is a widespread nat-
ive practice and usually involves going to former villages, former ceremonial sites, and
areas “planted by the ancestors,” reviewing history by using landscapes as a mnemonic
device, and monitoring territories. 43 These treks also involve the movement of a great