Living Archaeology

Is that an oxymoron? Perhaps, but I'll let it for my cohort to fight it out. Bad news/Good news: Well, the bad news is I seem to have come down with the dreaded Giardia. Good news is A) it explains why I was so exhausted yesterday (always good to know I'm not that out of shape), and B) I was able to pull it together (sort of) to go an "easy hike" to check out my first and perhaps last rootbridge. This was after all one of the main reasons I came all the way across the country. From the perspective of an environmental anthropologist--an I'd warrant that of various others, it was absolutely fascinating.



These bridges are made from the elastic roots of local Ficus (fig) trees. They have been trained over centuries by the local Khasi people of this area. And they are still continuing to be trained: witness the below photo, which I think shows how bamboo is being used as an armature for the elastic fig roots.



The bridges are incredibly sturdy, not surprisingly, given that the roots fuse together over time.



So why do I find this fascinating? To me A) it's a great example of mutually-transformative human interaction with nature (i.e. the trees is benefited as it can extend its root system, gaining access to more nutrients, and humans are benefited by having safe passage during monsoons (it was a trickle currently); B) to me it also demonstrates the effects of incremental human action over time on the environment. I.e. much like Rome, this root bridge wasn't built in a day. Clearly, it was not an all/nothing situation, and people could have crossed long ago; C) it brings up the old "chicken before the egg" question, i.e. was it a freak coincidence that a villager came across on of these trees that had extended its roots providing safe passage; was it purposeful and autonomous manipulation on the part of these villagers, or maybe my personal theory, as bamboo is a common building material, the fig took advantage of some bamboo that was serving as a bridge, winding its way around the bamboo; villagers, under my theory, didn't remove the vine like roots, and after time realized what incremental growth could lead to: a somewhat flexible yet sturdy bridge that built itself and could withstand monsoon flash floods.

So that's my theory, take it or leave it, or better yet, come here and posit your own!

Another interesting thing that I wanted to mention, related to the bamboo-usage, is how people in villages that are remote from water sources get water: the answer, of course bamboo.



What this reminded me of somewhat was my Grandfather's contraption to create a waterfall in North Carolina's Appalachians (I had once considered something similar in Atlanta, yes Atlanta, to create a local ice-climbing area...and then it got warm the next day). What was amazing to me was how far these bamboo rods ran, and in how many different directions.




This one, for example, probably went at a height of 20 feet for about 200 feet through the forest. And they really weren't dripping, except at the junctions.

These and the root bridges I sum up in one word: ingenuity