The Stories We Tell

Goal: After this lesson you can describe how each culture wrapped its plant in a story, and what those origin narratives ask of us. Subject: English Language Arts | Run time: about 7 minutes

Quick recall

Last time we compared two economic systems. Two quick questions. One: about what share of a retail price reaches the farmer? Only about 5 to 25 percent. Two: which side stands for sharing over scarcity? Traditional economics, best shown by kava governance.

Why this matters

Every plant in this season came wrapped in a story. Not a label, a story, often older than writing. And when you line the stories up, they are not random. Each one tells the people who use the plant what they owe it.

The idea

Look at the range of forms first. Coffee came to us as an oral legend, the goatherd Kaldi noticing his goats dancing after eating the berries. Tea came as philosophical writing, Lu Yu's classic and the Japanese way of tea. Chocolate came as a sacred creation myth, the Popol Vuh, where humans are finally made from corn and cacao (Christenson, 2007). Sugar came as first-person testimony, the witness of formerly enslaved writers like Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince (Equiano, 1789; Prince, 1831). The forest plants came as oral tradition and living Indigenous voice. And kava came as an origin myth, a proverb, and even a navigation tale (Lebot et al., 1992). Now look closer at the origin stories, because they share a shape. In each, the plant gives humanity a gift, and asks something in return. Coffee gives awakening, by accident, and asks attention and gratitude. Cacao gives wholeness, by divine intention, and asks reverence and ceremony (Christenson, 2007). Guayusa gives dream knowledge, from a god's tears, and asks community and sharing (Lewis et al., 2003). Kava gives peace, through a sacrifice, and asks patience and ceremony (Lebot et al., 1992). See the pattern? These are not just charming tales. They are instructions. A culture that tells you the plant was a gift, and that you owe it gratitude or ceremony or sharing, has built a relationship into the story itself. The commodity label tells you a price. The origin story tells you a duty.

Picture it

Picture four cups in a row: coffee, chocolate, guayusa, kava. Over each one floats its story, a dancing goat, a creation from corn, a god's tears, a healing sacrifice. Now notice that under every story is the same small sentence: here is a gift, and here is what you owe for it. The label never says that. The story always does.

Remember this

The fact to carry out: across the season, each plant came wrapped in a story, and the origin myths share a shape, the plant gives a gift and asks something in return (Christenson, 2007; Lebot et al., 1992). A commodity tells you a price; a story tells you a relationship. Learning to hear the story is part of learning to consume with care.

Quick check

Quick check. What do the season's origin stories have in common, beneath their different forms? Each one says the plant gives humanity a gift and asks something in return, gratitude, ceremony, or sharing (Lebot et al., 1992).

Key Takeaways

The season's plants came in many literary forms: oral legend, philosophical text, creation myth, first-person testimony, and oral tradition.
The origin stories share a shape: the plant gives a gift and asks something in return (Christenson, 2007; Lewis et al., 2003; Lebot et al., 1992).
Sugar's literature is different, the first-person witness of enslaved writers, which testifies rather than mythologizes (Equiano, 1789; Prince, 1831).
A commodity label states a price; an origin story states a relationship and a duty.

Sources

Christenson, A. J. (2007). Popol Vuh: The sacred book of the Maya. University of Oklahoma Press.
Equiano, O. (1789). The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano. (Project Gutenberg edition.)
Lebot, V., Merlin, M., & Lindstrom, L. (1992). Kava: The Pacific elixir. Yale University Press.
Lewis, W. H., Kennelly, E. J., Bass, G. N., Wedner, H. J., Elvin-Lewis, M. P., & Fast, D. M. (2003). Ritualistic use of the holly Ilex guayusa by Amazonian Jivaro Indians. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 33(1-2), 25-30.
Prince, M. (1831). The history of Mary Prince, a West Indian slave.