How was rubber first used?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
August 27, 2002
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading—>Click here.
In Mayan cosmology, before humans walked the earth, the lords of Xibalba (underworld) had defeated and dismembered the forces of good. Two sons of a defeated god, Hunahpa and Xbalanque, challenged the Xibalbans to a game with a rubber ball that had belonged to their father. Upon defeating the Xibalbans, the boys went to the Place of the Ball Game Sacrifice and put their father back together.
"And then the two boys ascended this way, here into the middle of the light, and they ascended straight on into the sky, and the sun belongs to one and the moon to the other." (Popul Vuh, the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life, trans. Dennis Tedlock, 1985)
Rubber was an odd substance and highly regarded among the civilizations of Mexico and Central America. In The Maya (Fourth edition, 1987), Michael D. Coe states, "All the Mesoamerican Indians shared a number of traits which were more or less peculiar to them...." One of the traits was, "...a game played with a rubber ball in a special court...." Coe dates the foundation of these cultures "beginning about 3,000 years ago...an Olmec origin."
Rubber was used ritually as incense, to make the large solid game balls (15 pounds or 7 kilograms) and for figurines. It also had practical uses for tubing and waterproofing clothing. The Olmec and later civilizations made rubber from mixing the latex from a member of the Moraceae or mulberry family, Castilla elastica Sessé and the sap from moonflower, Ipomoea alba Linnaeus. (D. Hosler, Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica, MIT)
According to Harold E. Driver (Indians of North America, 1969), "Columbus took samples of rubber to Europe, but the English were apparently the first to put it to practical use erasing pencil marks, hence the word 'rubber'."
The Center for Tropical Forest Science has photographs of the Panama rubber tree (Castilla elastica). To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://ctfs.si.edu/webatlas/findinfo.php?specid=1237&leng=english
Click on the photos links to view parts of the tree.
The Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, has three photographs of the moonflower (Ipomoea alba). To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/images.asp?plantID=2745#
Click on the Images tab, then the thumbnails to enlarge the images.
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
Suggested Reading:
How did rubber trees make a knight? Plants that Changed History - September 10, 2002
What are flowers of benjamin? Plants that Changed History - June 22, 2004
What is Napalm? Plants that Changed History - October 8, 2002
What was the coup of Kew? Plants that Changed History - September 17, 2002
How did rubber shape women's lives? Plants that Changed History - September 3, 2002
Why was rubber a military priority? Plants that Changed History - October 1, 2002
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