This essay explores terms referring to ‘bird (in general)’ in eastern Indonesian languages and considers the extent to which these systematically label a life-form taxon. All belonging to the Central-Malayo-Polynesian group, the languages reveal four ways in which the general category of ‘bird’ is designated: with (1) a reflex of a Malayo-Polynesian protoform reconstructed as *manuk, (2) a descriptive phrase meaning ‘flying animal’, (3) a term originally referring to a particular kind of bird, and (4) a term apparently denoting a more general category of ‘wild creatures’. While the first pattern is exclusive to languages of Timor and the Moluccas (Esser's ‘Ambon-Timor’ group), reflexes of *manuk are also widespread in languages of central and western Flores and Sumba (Esser's ‘Bima-Sumba’ group), where they occur as a specific term for the domestic fowl (Gallus gallus) and in compound names for a number of other ethno-ornithological folk generics. The implications of the pattern are discussed with reference to evolutionary schemes proposed by Berlin and Brown, and to a recent re-interpretation of the protoform *manuk advanced by Blust.

Seaweeds (limu) have a long tradition of human use in Tonga. Low-income families who reside near tidal areas rely almost exclusively on ocean resources for their family's nutritional needs and eat limu as part of their regular diet. However, most Tongans consume limu as a novelty item in their diet, with the exception of times of stress that follow major hurricanes and droughts. Nine taxa of seaweed are eaten in Tonga; however, Caulerpa racemosa is by far the most common species eaten. One specific type of limu, tanga'u (Cladosiphon sp.), is now being commercially harvested in Tonga and sent to Japan. There are no rules or laws establishing a gathering season or restricting the amount of limu that can be harvested. Conservation is practiced primarily on an incidental level in Tonga, meaning that conservation takes place primarily because of other issues. Up until now, limu has been used sustainably. However, with the lack of formal conservation methods, limited research, and recently introduced industrial farming techniques, the future of limu as a sustainable resource is questionable.

This paper describes the significance of the arborescent cycad “tiusinte” to Honduran culture. Dioon mejiae is a wild food that supplements maize-bean diets for an estimated 33,000 indigenous and mestizo Hondurans. Female cones are harvested for their seeds, which are processed and made into tamales, tortillas, and other products. Leaves are used for a variety of Catholic celebrations; minor uses of the leaves and female cone parts also persist. Tiusintes, a common-property resource, are being destroyed by the adverse effects of timber extraction, pastoralism, and swidden agriculture. However, traditional tiusinte protection schemes are still practiced, and these may provide the germ of a more comprehensive conservation policy for the species.

Given the cultural importance of palms it might be assumed that, like other starch staples, they would be internally diverse genetically, yielding large numbers of cultivars reflected in lexical polytypy. This article explores why this does not appear to be so for sago palms (Metroxylon sagu), managed by the Nuaulu of Seram, eastern Indonesia. The economic and cultural significance of the sago palm for the Nuaulu, as for much of Maluku and lowland New Guinea, is immense; but the extent to which humans have managed it has been underestimated, it once being widely accepted that reliance on sago was inversely correlated to the development of conventional agriculture. Nuaulu spend about 32 percent of their total subsistence effort engaged in sago extraction. However, given its overall significance as food, in work budgets, as a multi-purpose natural product, and in cultural imagery, the level of formally codified genetic diversity is low. The hypothesis is examined that managed sago palms do not readily lend themselves to the generation of a large number of stable cultivars, and that this is related to modes of reproduction, longevity and single lifetime flowering, and to extensive reliance on vegetative propagation and forms of tenure and husbandry.

Black slug (Arion ater L.) is a common gastropod in forested areas of Sweden. In pre-industrial Swedish society and up to the beginning of the 20^th century, slugs were used as a regular or temporary source for grease to lubricate wooden axle-trees. Although the custom is mentioned in written records from the 18^th century, it is an otherwise almost undocumented practice. However, through an advertisement in a popular nationwide radio program, it was possible to record contemporary oral statements about this practice from a few decades ago. It seems to have been a widespread practice to substitute or improve the tar as cart grease with slugs in the older days. These animals, a freely available resource for everyone, were often gathered by children. The practice survived as long as the wooden carts and wagons were used, for example, in transporting hay. The study demonstrates that it is still possible to gather information about older practices in highly modernized societies, utilizing mass media as a way to reach informants.

Modern increases in mercury levels in Arctic marine mammals have important implications for people who consume these resources as part of a traditional diet. This paper establishes estimates of dietary exposure to mercury from the consumption of beluga whales for the historic (pre-Euroamerican contact) and modern Mackenzie Delta Inuit populations. For the historic populations, beluga intake was estimated from reconstructions of the pre-Euroamerican traditional diet, using archaeological and ethnographic data, while mercury levels in consumed flesh were estimated from beluga teeth recovered from archaeological sites. For modern populations, beluga consumption was estimated from recent dietary surveys, while mercury levels in consumed flesh were measured directly in harvested whales. Despite higher mercury levels in modern beluga, the estimated average exposure to mercury from the consumption of beluga is 15–73 µg Hg/person/day for historic Inuit populations compared to only 2–12 µg Hg/person/day for modern Inuit populations. This result is due to the higher average daily consumption of beluga whale flesh among historic Inuit populations and may have placed these populations at greater risk for toxic mercury exposure than modern populations. Nevertheless, as a result of the recent increases in environmental mercury levels, mercury exposure remains a significant health issue for modern community members with diets particularly rich in marine mammals.