The DOI matches its Crossref record; 68 of the 68 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 27 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.
Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit
Open accessAbstract
Bananas, perhaps the most recognisable of fruits, are nowhere more genetically diverse than in the southwest Pacific, where parthenocarpic fruit originated according to recent biomolecular evidence. In the wider Indo-Malesian area, homeland of the genus Musa L., understanding the domestication of bananas must include consideration of a much greater range of Musa species than just the few implicated in the parentage of the modern cultivars with seedless fruit. Despite ethnobotanical evidence that the genus has been valued for many more products than the edible fruit, the role of other products in the process of domestication is seldom considered. As well as documenting the development and spread of seedless cultivars, we need to develop models of the fundamental Indo-Malesian practices through which the greater range of species and products, seeds and all, were managed in diverse socio-cultural and environmental circumstances.
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Written from the paper’s full text.
TL;DR
Kennedy argues that research on banana domestication has overfocused on seedless edible fruit, while Indo-Malesian Musaceae were managed for many other products, including fiber, medicine, wrapping, shelter, and ritual. The paper synthesizes ethnobotanical and archaeobotanical evidence to recontextualize banana domestication within broader human–Musaceae interactions.
Key findings
- The genus *Musa* has more than 50 species across the Indo-Malesian region; edible parthenocarpic forms arose in one or two subspecies of *Musa acuminata* in the southwest Pacific, at the eastern edge of the genus’s range, and then spread west into areas where other *Musa* species were already human-modified as “cultiwild.”
- All parts of Musaceae are useful—seedy fruit, inflorescence, leaf, pseudostem, corm, and rhizome—furnishing food, fodder, medicine, domestic materials, shelter, and ritual/ceremonial significance; Table 1 is presented as exemplary, not comprehensive.
- Fiber uses parallel fruiting-banana domestication: *Musa textilis* (abacá) in the Philippines, and bashōfu cloth from *Musa balbisiana* in Okinawa, where the finest kimono length commands more than US$20,000.
- The author argues that equating seediness with wildness is misleading; parthenocarpy is key to fruit edibility, but other desirable traits could also have been vegetatively propagated, so new fruit cultivars may have been an addition to an existing repertoire rather than a replacement.
Methods
- Narrative review and ethnobotanical synthesis, not a primary experimental or quantitative study.
- Draws on published literature and examples across Indo-Malesia, including a table of miscellaneous uses other than seedless fruit; the author states the list is intended to be exemplary and makes no claim to be comprehensive.
- Uses archaeological and ethnobotanical references to argue that human–*Musa* interaction began c. 60,000 years ago in forest-gap environments, but presents no new field data or formal analysis.
Limitations
- The author states that Table 1 is not comprehensive in uses or references, and that African uses of Musaceae are excluded because *Ensete* is native there but *Musa* is not; Polynesia and Micronesia are included because of cultural connections.
- Evident from the text: the argument is largely qualitative and example-based, relying on secondary literature and hypothetical encounters rather than systematic sampling or statistical testing.
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Claims the paper makes
28 Own interpretation · 17 Not checked yet · 3 Own result · 3 No basis given
A result the paper states — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“young women of Fais learn to weave machi”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Conclusion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“In the Trobriands, women continue to produce banana leaf bundles”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Conclusion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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In the paper
“The basic proposition of this paper is that the Musaceae as a whole, like 'cassowaries and kiwis, and big bouquets of roses' (Hays 1991:113), have high ethnobiological salience, independent of forms with edible fruit.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Introduction
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Hays 1991:113
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The plant is not Musa basjoo von Siebold ex Y. Iinuma as is commonly claimed (though that species does produce fiber), but Musa balbisiana Colla (Hendrickx 2007, Stinchecum 2007).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Hendrickx 2007
- Not checked yetcites Stinchecum 2007
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
In the paper
“In the Trobriand Islands, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea, women manufacture bundles and skirts from banana leaves by a laborious process involving scraping over carved wooden boards, producing distinctive decorative imprints, followed by sun-bleaching, drying and storage (K.Lepani pers.comm.)(Figure 8).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > B A C 191
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites K.Lepani pers.comm.
plainSingle case- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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In the paper
“Recognition of the usefulness of Musaceae was part of the basis of Sauer's (1952) hypothesis that agriculture in Southeast Asia began with the vegetative propagation of fiber and dye plants, followed by perennial food plants.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Sauer 1952
plainstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The edibility of traditional and modern fruit cultivars traces back to parthenocarpic forms that arose in one or two subspecies of Musa acuminata Colla in the southwest Pacific, at the eastern extremity of the range of that species and of the genus (Carreel et al. 2002, Perrier et al. 2009).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Introduction
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Carreel et al. 2002
- Not checked yetcites Perrier et al. 2009
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The very widespread use of Musa species for fiber has certainly led in some places in directions that parallel those of fruiting bananas, with clonal reproduction of selected forms as well as planting from seed.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
boostedstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It follows that the vegetatively propagated parthenocarpic bananas from the eastern edge of Malesia spread west into a world in which other Musa species had already been subject to the manipulations of humans, for uses including medicine, fiber, wrapping material and ritual, as well as food.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Introduction
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: unclear — It is unclear why the paper says it holds.
- Rests on an assumption: The widespread documented uses of Musaceae are likely to reflect practices of ancient times.
In the paper
“As vegetatively propagated parthenocarpic land races spread west through the area of other Musa species, they were involved in complex hybridizations that produced many new land races with virtually seedless fruit (see Perrier et al. 2009).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Perrier et al. 2009
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
- It may state two separate claims as one. 14
- Probably not a substantial claim. 8
A result the paper states — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In India, banana stems are processed for fiber and exported to Nepal, where knitting yarn is spun for sale in the West, marketed in craft shops as 'banana silk'.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Conclusion
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In the Philippines, abacá production, no longer important for rope, supports a burgeoning craft industry.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Conclusion
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The cost of Okinawan bashōfu escalates.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Conclusion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Disturbance is an integral part of the dynamic growth cycle of the rainforest, providing niches for understory plants such as Musaceae (Argent 1979, Whitmore 1984).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Argent 1979
- Not checked yetcites Whitmore 1984
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“There are more than 50 Musa species (Constantine 1999-2008, Häkkinen & Väre 2008), most of which are large perennial tropical herbs, mainly of lowland areas with high temperature and humidity.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Introduction
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Constantine 1999-2008
- Not checked yetcites Häkkinen & Väre 2008
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A statement the paper makes itself — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These valuables are produced and exchanged only by women, and their labour in turning banana leaves into 'women's wealth' is central to women's control of the timeless cosmological domain which ensures the continuation of Trobriand social identity.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > B A C 191
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“It is highly likely that early humans were especially drawn to forest gaps and may have increased their extent (Groube 1989).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Groube 1989
hedgedstates a possible cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A statement the paper makes itself — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Popularized in Japan by a Japanese craft movement as an emblem of an idealized Okinawan past, the finest bashōfu cloth produced in Okinawa now commands high prices in mainland Japan -more than US$20,000 for a kimono length.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A statement the paper makes itself — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“All parts of the plant are useful, including seedy fruit, inflorescence, leaf, pseudostem, corm and rhizome; they furnish food, fodder, medicine, domestic materials and shelter.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Their role counterbalances the power of men in the quotidian world, to seek renown through the famous kula exchanges (Weiner 1976(Weiner , 1980)).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > B A C 191
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Weiner 1976
- Not checked yetcites Weiner 1980
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The distortion is completely explicable, given that Simmonds' enormous contribution to cytogenetic research on banana edibility was aimed at the improvement of fruiting bananas.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
boostedstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“In the Philippines, production of Musa textilis Née (Manila hemp, abacá), almost certainly a complex cultigen rather than a genuine wild species, was increased by Spanish decree in the mid-eighteenth century, and developed to industrial scale under later American and Japanese occupations, with production spreading to other countries (Hendrickx 2007, Purseglove 1975, Simmonds 1962).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Hendrickx 2007
- Not checked yetcites Purseglove 1975
- Not checked yetcites Simmonds 1962
hedgedstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A statement the paper makes itself — it cites no source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“For example, bashōfu cloth produced in Okinawa Prefecture was sent as tribute to China in the late sixteenth century, and is now a strong marker of a resurgent Okinawan identity (Figure 7).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
boostedstates an association- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: fails — The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Nevertheless, it encourages ignorance, or amnesia, about other important aspects of the long history of entanglement of people and Musaceae.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: fails — It may be too vague to check against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
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Probably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Plants also have ritual and ceremonial significance.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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Probably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Malesia retains the highest diversity of land races, and nowhere are these more diverse than in Papua New Guinea (see Kennedy 2008, n.d. for further discussion and references).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Kennedy 2008
- Not checked yetcites Kennedy n.d.
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The problem with this formulation is the shift of attention away from all useful aspects of Musaceae except edible fruit.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
Probably not a substantial claim.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“The use of banana fiber in textile production is widespread in the Asia-Pacific region, and such textiles are often highly valued (Figure 9) (Fraser-Lu 1988, Hamilton 2007, Hendrickx 2007, Jolly 1992, Rubinstein & Limol 2007, Weiner 1986).”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > B A C 191
What the sources say
- Not checked yetcites Fraser-Lu 1988
- Not checked yetcites Hamilton 2007
- Not checked yetcites Hendrickx 2007
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: unclear — It is unclear whether the paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Modern industries, whether on a huge scale, like the growing of Cavendish bananas for world trade, or the high value but small-scale production of bashōfu cloth in Okinawa, have grown from very deep roots.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Conclusion
plainstates a cause- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
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It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These examples show that Indo-Malesian uses of Musaceae other than edible fruit are neither minor, nor necessarily secondary to production of the fruit.”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Conclusion
plain- Asserted: passes — The authors put it forward as true.
- Checkable: passes — It can be checked against evidence.
- Load-bearing: passes — The paper’s conclusions depend on it.
- Based: passes — The paper gives a reason why it holds.
It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: The examples given stand for the full range of non-fruit Musaceae uses in the Indo-Malesian region.
The paper relies on this without support.
The widespread documented uses of Musaceae are likely to reflect practices of ancient times.
“Given that such uses are widespread and probably reflect ancient practices, it is likely that human selective pressures have affected other aspects of the plants besides the edibility of fruit.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Parthenocarpy is essential for making fruit edible.
“While parthenocarpy is the key to edibility of fruit”
The paper relies on this without support.
The examples given stand for the full range of non-fruit Musaceae uses in the Indo-Malesian region.
“These examples show that Indo-Malesian uses of Musaceae other than edible fruit are neither minor, nor necessarily secondary to production of the fruit.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Fibers isolated from banana pseudostem are used as a raw material in traditional clothes and handicraft production [47].”
From Potential Valorization of Banana Production Waste in Developing Countries: Bio-Engineering Aspects (2024) · cites this paper as [47]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.
Rated minor: it would not touch a result — a value no result rests on, a p-value that stays on the same side of the significance level, or a conflict that is clerical, resolved elsewhere in the paper, or outside its own findings.
In the paper
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
“For the sake of brevity, I have somewhat arbitrarily excluded African uses of Musaceae”
§ Bananas and People in the Homeland of Genus Musa: Not just pretty fruit > Ecology and Ethnobotany of Indo-Malesian Musaceae
“whole plant object of veneration, symbol of plenty, metaphor for human mortality, totem edible Musa cvs India, Madagascar, Malaysia, New Caledonia, PNG”
Citations
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“…Christensen 2002 Clothing leaves dried, shredded for skirts, capes, loin-cloths many spp/cvs PNG, Vanuatu Deacon 1934, Malinowski 1935, Powell 1976, Weiner 1976 pseudostem fiber for skirts, skin for belts many spp/cvs Hawaii, PNG Nelson et al. 2006, Powell 1976 Textiles pseudostem, petiole fiber…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kennedy, J.
- Affiliations
- Australian National University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Kennedy, Jean
- Venue
- Ethnobotany Research and Applications
- Publisher
- Ilia State University
- Published
- 2009-07-30
- Volume
- 7
- Pages
- 179
- ISSN
- 1547-3465 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2133542954
- Semantic Scholar
- 90c1175b9f3a3ef17df275643eab45bbdd2f7c93
- Cited by
- 110
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- Ethnobotany Research and Applications (publishedVersion)
- ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
- ScholarSpace (University of Hawaii at Manoa) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Banana Cultivation and Research
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Plant Names and Ethnobotany
- Keywords
- Musa, parthenocarpy, seedless fruit, ethnobotany, Southwest Pacific
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