Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Perhaps the limited information on mosses in nineteenth-century anthropology is rooted in the fact that most of the observers of indigenous communities were upper-crust gentlemen. They focussed their studies on what they could see. And what they could see was conditioned by the world they came from. Their notebooks bulged with records of the pursuits of men; hunting, fishing, and making tools. When moss once appeared in a weapon, as wadding behind a harpoon tip, it was described in considerable detail. Then, just at the point when I’m ready to give up the search, I find it. A single entry. You can almost see the blush in the brevity of the statement: “Moss was in widespread use for diapers and sanitary napkins.” Imagine the complex relationships that lie behind that one entry, reduced to a single sentence. The most important uses of mosses, roles that reflect their best gifts, were everyday tools in the hands of women. Somehow I’m not surprised that the gentlemen ethnographers did not delve into the details of baby care, particularly the unglamorous but inescapable issue of diapers. And yet what could be more fundamental to the survival of a family than the well-being of babies? In this time of disposable diapers and antiseptic baby wipes, it’s hard to envision infant care without this technology. If I try to imagine carrying an infant on my back all day without benefit of diapers, I don’t like the image that comes to mind.