Eighteenth Century Terminology of Delaware Indian Cultivation and Use of Maize

When the Delaware, along with other Indians on or near the Atlantic Coast of North America, made their first contacts with the Whites, they had long been planters and consumers of maize, or Indian corn. Hence, it is not surprising to find in Zeisberger's Dictionaryl a great many terms pertaining to agriculture on both the aboriginal and the acculturational levels. A semantic analysis of such terms may reasonably be expected to offer essential clues to some basic facts of Delaware Indian culture. This study will restrict itself to aboriginal conditions. General Terms. The basic prerequisite for agriculture anywhere is a stretch of arable land, the flatter the better. Zeisberger's Dictionary lists a composite term, hakli(87; hacki),z under the heading ground, Germ. Erdboden. Most likely, hakcarries a basic connotation of plane (geometrical); that is, two-dimensional extension; while -ii (-ee, -e) is a determinant affix denoting incidence of (condition indicated), with a dual connotation of place where and time when. Thus, the composite meaning of hak/li is place where (just then) a plane condition occurs; that is: arable soil (generic). There further is listed, under the heading bottom land, a non-initial, *-hak/am/iik/ew (27; wulakamike), a term evidently signifying soil (with consideration of quality). It permits of

Linguistics · Political science · Terminology · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Philosophy

• Permanent vs. shifting cultivation in the Eastern Woodlands of North America prior to European contact

  Open Access•W E Doolittle•Agriculture and Human Values•2004

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