Key Terms: Kava

Goal: After this lesson you can define the core vocabulary from Episode 6 across all four lenses. Subject: Vocabulary | Run time: about 5 minutes

Your word bank for the Kava episode. Read it quick, out loud if you can. The full glossary lives in the course Resources.

Geography

Piper methysticum (PY-per meh-THISS-tih-kum). The kava plant, a Pacific Island relative of black pepper, grown from cuttings (Lebot et al., 1992).

Kavalactone (KAH-vah-LAK-tohn). The active compound in kava root that produces its calming effect (Singh & Singh, 2002).

Volcanic soil. Mineral-rich soil from eruptions, high in potassium, magnesium, and iron, which boost kava's compounds (Lebot et al., 1992).

Coral atoll. A low island built from coral sand, with soil too shallow to grow kava (Lebot et al., 1992).

Freshwater lens. The layer of rainwater floating on saltwater in an island aquifer, threatened by sea-level rise (Lebot et al., 1992).

Social Studies

Nakamal (nah-kah-MAHL). A kava gathering place and community governance space in Vanuatu (Lebot et al., 1992).

Yaqona (yang-GOH-nah). The Fijian kava ceremony, used for hierarchy and diplomacy (Lebot et al., 1992).

Ava (AH-vah). The Samoan kava ceremony, part of the matai chiefly system (Lebot et al., 1992).

Restorative justice. A justice model focused on repairing harm and rebuilding relationships rather than punishment (Lebot et al., 1992).

Consensus governance. Decision-making that requires broad agreement rather than a simple majority vote (Lebot et al., 1992).

Economics

Cultural tourism. Travel to experience another culture's practices, where a tourist performance can differ from an authentic ceremony (Lebot et al., 1992).

Value-added processing. Transforming and branding a raw material so the community keeps more of the value than raw export gives.

Genetic resource. A stock of crop diversity, like Vanuatu's many kava varieties, worth protecting for both market and culture (Lebot et al., 1992).

English Language Arts

Transformation sacrifice. A narrative in which a person becomes something else, like a plant, so the community can heal (Lebot et al., 1992).

Proverbial compression. Packing maximum meaning into minimum words, as Tongan kava proverbs do (Tongan oral tradition).

Physical description as metaphor. Using a plant's actual form, like the kava root system, to make an argument about people (Lebot et al., 1992).

Sensory-spatial fusion. Fusing sensory knowledge with spatial memory, as when each island's kava flavor marks a navigational point (Carolinian oral tradition).

Deliberate demonstration. Proving a point by doing rather than arguing, as the elder does with badly prepared kava (Fijian oral tradition).

Sources

Lebot, V., Merlin, M., & Lindstrom, L. (1992). Kava: The Pacific elixir. Yale University Press.
Singh, Y. N., & Singh, N. N. (2002). Therapeutic potential of kava in the treatment of anxiety disorders. CNS Drugs, 16(11), 731-743.
Tongan oral tradition (proverbs as commonly recorded).
Carolinian oral tradition (as documented in Pacific maritime ethnography).
Fijian oral tradition (as documented in ethnographic collections).