Sweet Potatoes in Polynesia
John Temmen, Geography MA
How did the sweet potato arrive in Polynesia? This seemingly odd question probably has not been brought up at the dinner table, but it represents a mystery in biogeography and maybe even a missing chapter in human history. Sweet potatoes were originally domesticated in Central and South America approximately 4,000 years ago. However, around 1000 A.D., almost 500 years before Columbus set sail for the Americas, these tuberous vegetables made their way into the islands of the Pacific and quickly became a dietary staple. Begging the question, how did they arrive?
Currently, this mystery has two camps. One possibility is that the sweet potatoes arrived via natural processes; the other is human introduction. The latter of which would entail human interactions between the advanced seafaring cultures of Polynesia and the indigenous people of South America. Currently, the available evidence for any cultural exchange is sparse. However, investigating the likelihood of arrival by natural processes may shed some light on whether these exchanges may or may not have taken place.
John Temmen, master’s student, and his advisor Alvaro Montenegro are currently investigating whether the seeds or seed capsules of the sweet potato were capable of making the long journey from South America to the islands of the Pacific without any assistance from their human cultivators. Since sweet potatoes are unable to fly, swim, or otherwise move on their own, it is assumed that they would have been at the mercy of the winds and ocean currents. This voyage could either be made by the seeds themselves on floating vegetation mats or within their buoyant seed capsules. Using climate and oceanographic data, computer simulations are able to build potential trajectories for where these seeds may have drifted. This provides insight into the likelihood of a seed hitting an island, the islands which would most likely be hit, and how long that journey would have lasted. While computer simulations can provide a great deal of insight, the duration of buoyancy and viability also remain unknown variables.
In order to test whether sweet potato seeds and seed capsules are able to remain afloat and viable for the duration of a simulated journey, plastic tubs have been filled with saline water and placed under UV light in the basement of Derby hall. These simple yet novel experiments will reveal two things in the coming months, whether sweet potato seed capsules are able to remain afloat for the required time and if the seeds are able to remain viable after prolonged exposure to saline water. If the seeds or seed capsules are proven not to be hardy enough to endure their simulated journey at sea, it becomes much more likely that prehistoric exchanges between South America and Polynesia took place. However, if these intrepid seeds and capsules prove they have the ability to endure long periods at sea the mystery still remains!
John Temmen joined the Geography department as a Master’s student in Autumn 2019. Prior to becoming a Buckeye, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Minnesota. In addition to his academic endeavors, John has served as an Aircrew member on C-130s in the United States Air Force and worked as a Delta Air Lines flight attendant. Upon finishing his Master’s in Spring of 2021, John plans on applying to the Geography Ph.D. program and pursuing a career in academia.
Sound as a Map Symbol
Nicholas Kinyanjui, Geography MA
Hi, my name is Nicholas Kinyanjui and I am a second-year MA student studying Geography. My research concerns the use of sound as a map symbol in multivariate data scenarios. Maps throughout history have provided essential spatial information for people to navigate their surroundings. Traditionally, maps offer a two-dimensional perspective of a place. But as the amount of information displayed in a map increases, the readability of the map decreases, making it difficult to understand relationships within the data presented. The visual nature of cartography limits the amount of data that can be depicted and imposes unyielding meanings within maps, stepping over other potential perspectives that may exist.
As an avid music listener and occasional DJ, sound has always had a big role to play in my life. Sound presents contextual cues and information about our surroundings from day to day. Sounds inform us of the distance and direction of events that occur around us. These auditory clues help us navigate the 3D world we live in and alert us of changes within our immediate environment. Where maps can get overcrowded and messy in multivariate map scenarios, sound as a map symbol can provide a source of non-visual information as it does in the 3D world through data sonification. Data sonification grants individuals an alternative way of understanding information by hearing data as opposed to just seeing the data. I aim to create a map in virtual reality in which sounds and 3D sound characteristics such as distance and direction can be perceived as we naturally perceive sounds in a 3D world. My goal is to provide users with an interactive 3D sonified mapping experience in virtual reality that can offer an alternative way of exploring and understanding multivariate map data. I also plan to determine which characteristics of 3D sound significantly influence the learning experience of individuals using this application.
In the future, I would like to work with anthropological data to explore how 3D soundscapes and VR environments can be used to recreate the feeling of being in places of the past. Traditional maps lack the feeling of being in a place because of their 2D-ness. The use of virtual reality and sound in map-making could provide an opportunity for the recreation of places through the investigation of past narratives. I would also like to take the concepts I am researching further by developing an AI to create music based on the data being mapped. While I continue my research this summer, I also work for the Friesthler Research team in the College of Social work as a research assistant which has been incredibly helpful for me in reinforcing spatial data analysis skills and learning from other disciplines using geography.
