Jod horticultural belief, knowledge and practice: incipient or integral cultivation?

This paper describes the Jod horticultural system, including belief, knowledge and practice aspects. The horticulturalpractices of the Jod were previously characterized as ‘incipient cultivation’ but such practices were poorly described anddocumented. The antiquity of cultivation among this group is suggested by the prominence and significance of horticulturalproducts and techniques in myth and ritual. Our field observations uncovered a fairly sophisticated system of plantmanagement in swiddens, house gardens, trail gardens and natural forest gaps. An inventory of 67 cultivated plant specieswas documented, of which 36 are utilized for food, 20 for magical or medicinal purposes, and 11 for technology. The Jod prolong the productive phase of their gardens for five years or more through successive planting-harvesting-replantingoperations. Jod swiddens display an elaborate polycultivated appearance and they possess at least five principal crops:plantain/banana, maize, yams, sweet potato, and sweet manioc. Another distinctive feature is the extensive use of naturalgaps in the forest canopy as cultivation zones. The results of this study suggest that while Jod horticultural practice iswell integrated with a nomadic, foraging-dependent lifestyle, nevertheless this system does not deserve to be labeled as‘incipient’ and instead is more integral than was recognized previously.