Abstract
Native Amazonians traditionally use two methods to feather, or fletch, arrows—they either tie feathers to the shaft or use an adhesive. This paper discusses the latter method, analyzing the use of “black beeswax” arrow cement, derived from an insect product, the wax–resin cerumen of native stingless bees (Meliponini). Such mixtures of beeswax and plant resins, prepared by cooking, have a long history of human use in the Old World: in encaustic painting, beaumontage for furniture repair, sealing waxes, and varnishes for fine musical instruments. This study explores the special properties of meliponine cerumen, containing a resin compound, geopropolis, which makes an excellent arrow cement. Like their Old World counterparts, native Amazonians discovered that cooking a mixture of cerumen and plant resins from bee nests produces an adhesive that dries to a hard finish. We compare both raw and cooked samples of cerumen with infra-red spectroscopy. The wax–resin compound yields adhesive material that is tough, flexible, and has many qualities of both sealing wax and varnish. The Yuquí of the Bolivian Amazon provided the cerumen samples for this analysis, and we describe their methods of preparing and applying arrow cement. We also discuss how social change and globalization negatively affect Yuquí traditional knowledge, which survives, in this case, largely because there is a modest market for bows and arrows in the tourist trade.
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Notes
Bees, along with wasps and ants belong to the order Hymenoptera, and are further classified as Apidae and other families. The Apidae includes the Apis mellifera (the well-known honeybee), the remaining nine Apis species, and the hundreds of species of tropical bees that belong to the Meliponini and have no sting (Michener 2000; Schwarz 1948), most of which inhabit the Amazon Basin and are native to this region. Apis mellifera is an introduced bee species brought to the New World by Europeans for honey production, and although it is a stinging bee, it is known for its gentleness. In 1956, the highly aggressive Apis mellifera scutellata was introduced experimentally to Brazil from Africa because of its purported honey-producing qualities, but the species was accidentally released into the wild where it proliferated in tropical America. These “Africanized” honeybees successfully invaded the Amazon forests, competing with the native Meliponini for resources.
Allan Holmberg, who studied the Sirionó of lowland Bolivia in the early 1940s, is one of the few anthropologists who has commented on the actual preparation and application of meliponine cerumen as an adhesive. He notes:
The only native “chemical industry” is the making of glue from beeswax (iríti). This product is used extensively in arrow-making. The crude beeswax collected from the hive is put in a pot, mixed with water, and brought to a boil. While it is cooking, the dirt and other impurities are removed. The wax is then cooled and coagulated into balls about the size of a baseball. When desired for use, the wax is heated and smeared over the parts to be glued (Holmberg 1969:18).
There also may be an economic reason that Meliponini collect these materials: to make the sticky substance go a little farther. Stingless bees can collect tar or vertebrate excrement to build nests, if nothing else is available, and a few build with mud.
A number of native Amazonian peoples are reported to add additional substances to the cerumen in preparing black beeswax such as charcoal (Clastres 1998; Hill 2006 personal communication), soot (Ribeiro 1988), chicle or gum from Sapotaceae (Chicchón 1992; Dawson 1975; Kensinger 1975; Rabineau 1975; Ribeiro 1988), rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) (Dawson 1975; Kensinger 1975; Rabineau 1975; Vellard 1939), clays heavy in organics (Vellard 1939), and plant resins other than geopropolis (Clastres 1998; Hernández de Alba 1963; Vellard 1939).
The strength and durability of meliponine black beeswax cement are borne out by the following observation:
The sáliva had an adhesive (peramán) made of black wax and vegetable resin prepared with heat. They used it to glue arrow points to the shafts and, according to Gumilla (1745, vol.2), even to mend broken bones! (Hernández de Alba 1963:IV:404).
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Acknowledgments
An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the 5th Annual Meetings of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA), Santa Fe, New Mexico, January 12–14, 2007. The authors would like to express their appreciation to Andrés Campiglia, Stuart Fullerton, P. E. Kolattukudy, John Walker, and Elayne Zorn for their helpful insights, suggestions, and editorial comments during the development of this paper. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers of Human Ecology not only for their careful reading of the manuscript which improved the clarity of the argument, but also for assisting in locating additional useful sources on the topic of “black beeswax.” The authors take final responsibility for any errors of omission or interpretation.
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Stearman, A.M., Stierlin, E., Sigman, M.E. et al. Stradivarius in the Jungle: Traditional Knowledge and the Use of “Black Beeswax” Among the Yuquí of the Bolivian Amazon. Hum Ecol 36, 149–159 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-007-9153-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-007-9153-2