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The Tropical Oil
Crop Revolution
The Tropical Oil
Crop Revolution
Food, Feed, Fuel, and Forests
Derek Byerlee
Walter P. Falcon
Rosamond L. Naylor
1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Byerlee, Derek, author. | Falcon, Walter P., 1936– author. |
Naylor, Rosamond, author.
Title: The tropical oil crop revolution : food, feed, fuel, and forests /
Derek Byerlee, Walter P. Falcon, and Rosamond L. Naylor.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2017]
Identifiers: LCCN 2016017265 | ISBN 9780190222987 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780190223007 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Oil industries—Tropics. | Oilseed plants—Economic
aspects—Tropics. | Tropical plants—Economic aspects.
Classification: LCC HD9490.A2 B94 2017 | DDC 338.1/73850913—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016017265
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America

C O N T E N TS
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Acronyms and Abbreviations xi
1. The Many Dimensions of the Tropical Oil Crop Revolution 1

2. Oil Palm Production and Supply Chains 17
3. Soybean Production and Supply Chains in the Tropics 66
4. Food Demand for Vegetable Oils 92
5. Demand for Oil Meal for Animal Feed and the Joint Production of Oil 123
6. Biodiesel: A Source of Growth and Uncertainty in Vegetable Oil Markets 135
7. Vegetable Oil Trade and Markets 159
8. Contributions to Growth, Jobs, Food Security,
and Smallholder Development 184
9. Land Use and the Sustainability Challenge 203
10. Conclusions: The Future Will Not Be Like the Past 236
References 243
Index 275
v
P R E FAC E
History often has curious ways of repeating itself—even with respect to studies of food
and agricultural commodities! When Stanford’s Food Research Institute was founded
at Stanford University in 1921, the first series of studies focused on wheat, then the
major traded food grain that was also of special importance to the food security of
the Western world. But soon thereafter, a second series was started on fats and oils.
These commodities were growing in importance in world trade, especially vegetable
oils for the rapidly expanding margarine industry, which was an emerging threat to
producers of traditional fats—mainly butter. The series included books on the marga-
rine industry, the shortening industry, whale oil, coconut oil, inedible animal fats, and
the German “fat plan.” In the preface of the first book, Fats and Oils: A General View,
published in 1928, Alsberg and Taylor noted “the literature dealing with fats and oils is
notably deficient in its economic and statistical aspects, largely because these materi-
als are so diverse in origin and use, and yet to a high degree interchangeable” (p. v).
The importance of different fats and oils has changed greatly since then. What has
not changed is the industry’s remarkable complexity and the lack of in-depth anal-
ysis of global vegetable oil markets. For the past 25 years, oil crops have been, by far,
the most dynamic crops in world agricultural growth, and their impact on land use
and global trade has been profound, yet they have received little attention from agri-
cultural economists. The vast literature on the social and environmental impacts as-
sociated with the expansion of tropical oil crops rarely relates those impacts to the
broader market drivers. We embarked on this book to fill that gap—not just for agri-
cultural economists, but for the wider community of development and environmental
professionals.
Our first objective in this volume is to outline the major supply and demand driv-
ers for the sector to gain a better understanding of why the industry began growing
so rapidly around 1990, especially in the tropics, and to provide a basis for assessing
future prospects. This is no easy task, because the industry is even more complex today
than it was 90 years ago when our colleagues embarked on their studies. A major new
biofuel sector based on vegetable oils has emerged, and the oil meals derived from oil
crops are highly valued in another dynamic sector: intensive livestock. Our second
objective in this book is to link our commodity analysis with the sector’s sustainability
record, especially social outcomes related to smallholder participation and job crea-
tion, and environmental outcomes related to tropical deforestation and conversion of
savannah lands.
vii
viii Preface
We find this in-depth review of the sector to be a fascinating story that is still un-
folding as we write. We fill the gap in the literature in part, but recognize much more
work is needed if analysts are to develop a better understanding of the critical eco-
nomic, social, and environmental tradeoffs in this large and growing sector, and use
that knowledge to design sensible policies for the future.
Derek Byerlee, Wally Falcon, and Roz Naylor
Center on Food Security and the Environment
Stanford University
AC K N O W L E D G M E N TS
Many people have contributed their generous assistance in writing this book by pro-
viding valuable information, interviews, and reviews of draft chapters. We are ex-
tremely grateful to the following persons who are also exonerated from any remaining
errors and omissions: Abdul Halim Ahmad, Nick Alexandratos, Robert Bailis, Elinor
Benami, Joaquim Bento Filho, Bill Burke, Fabio Chaddad, Hereward Corley, Rob
Cramb, Henry Daris, David Dawe, Cees De Haan, Chris Delgado, Dusan Drabik,
Kathleen Flaherty, Rachel Garrett, Joanne Gaskell, Ken Giller, Jeremy Goldhart-
Fiebert, Cheng Hai Teoh, Joseph Hanlon, John Hartmann, Paul Heytens, Mariangela
Hungria, Sri Ison, Tim Johnson, Badrul Ikmal Muhamed Kamil, Valerie Kelly, Eric
Lambin, Neus Escobar Lanzuela, Jim Leape, Kai Lee, Marshall Martin, Chandramohan
Nair, Dimbab Ngidang, Haji Wahid Omar, Mauro Osaki, Suresh Pal, Mark Rosegrant,
Paula Savanti, Jeff Sayer, Don Scott, Frances Seymour, Bhavani Shankar, Mohd Arif
Simeh, Patrick Sujang, Peter Timmer, Jan van Driel, Peter White, David Wilcock,
Anthony Yeow, and Liangzhi You.
When preparing this book we very much appreciated the research assistance pro-
vided by Matt Higgins, the endless work of checking citations and formatting chap-
ters by Elissa Winters, the comprehensive and thoughtful editing provided by Kelly
Cassady, and efficient financial management by Lori McVay.
ix
AC R O N Y M S A N D A B B R E V I AT I O N S
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

CME Chicago Mercantile Exchange
CPO crude palm oil
DUAT Direito de Uso e Aproveitamento dos Terras (usufructuary rights
to land)
EMBRAPA Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Brazilian Agricultural
Research Corporation)
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EU European Union
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAS Foreign Agricultural Service
FCE feed conversion efficiency
FEDEPALMA Federación Nacional de Cultivadores de Palma de Aceite (National
Association of Oil Palm Producers)
FELDA Federal Land Development Authority
FFA free fatty acid
FFB fresh fruit bunch
FGV Felda Global Ventures
GDP gross domestic product
GHG greenhouse gases
GM genetically modified
GMO genetically modified organism
GOPDC Ghana Oil Palm Development Company Ltd.
HCB Huileries du Congo Belge
HVO hydro-treated vegetable oil
IFPRI International Food Policy Research Institute
IPO initial public offering
ISPO Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil
KKPA Koperasi Kredit Primer Anggota (Members’ Primary Credit
Cooperative)
Mha million hectares
MPOA Malaysian Palm Oil Association
MPOB Malaysian Palm Oil Board
MPOC Malaysian Palm Oil Council
Mt million metric tons
xi
xii Acronyms and Abbreviations
NBPOL New Britain Palm Oil Limited

NCRs native customary rights
NES nucleus estate schemes
NGO nongovernmental organization
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
P&C principles and criteria
PNB Permodalan Nasional Berhad (Sovereign Wealth Fund)
PSD Production, Supply, and Distribution (data set)
R&D research and development
RCR resource/cost ratio
RED Renewable Energy Directive
REDD+ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
RFS renewable fuel standard
Rs rupees
RSPO Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
RTRS roundtable on responsible soy
SALCRA Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority
TFR total fertility rate
US United States
US$ US dollar
USAID US Agency for International Development
USDA US Department of Agriculture
WHO World Health Organization
WTO World Trade Organization
1
THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF THE
T R O P I C A L O I L C R O P R E V O LU T I O N
OIL CROPS: THE WORLD’S MOST RECENT

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
Agricultural revolutions that sharply accelerate the growth of global food produc-
tion and transform agricultural systems occur infrequently. During our professional
lives, we have witnessed, participated actively in, and studied the green revolution that
emerged during the 1960s and transformed rice and wheat farming in the developing
world. Unparalleled in its breadth and depth of change, especially in Asia, the green
revolution generated a spate of research, publishing, and debate that continues today.
Less conspicuously but no less controversially, another agricultural revolution has
unfolded during the past two decades. From 1990 to 2010, world production of soy-
bean grew by 220% and production of palm oil1 by 300%, which is more than the in-
crease seen in wheat production during the green revolution and much faster than the
increase in rice production at the time (Figure 1.1, Table 1.1). Like the green revolu-
tion for cereal crops, this more recent revolution largely involves two crops—oil palm
and soybeans—that expanded their shares in their respective crop subsector dramat-
ically (in this case, oil crops). Another trait shared by the two revolutions is that they
have played out mostly in the developing world, although not in Africa.
Despite their similarities, in crucial ways the revolution in oil crops stands in direct
contrast to the green revolution, which embraced tens of millions of producers across
many countries, especially where irrigation was available. The oil crop revolution has
been highly concentrated in a few countries (two for each crop, in fact) and almost
entirely in rain-fed areas. Unlike the green revolution, which was spurred on by rapid
gains in yield, the force behind the oil crop revolution was expansion of crop area. This
key difference originates with the market-driven nature of the revolution in oil crops
compared with the technology-driven nature of the green revolution.
The green revolution was led by small-scale farmers whereas the oil crop revolu-
tion has been led by large-scale farmers and private agribusiness, including huge verti-
cally integrated companies that are the world’s largest farmers. Although the products
of the green revolution served domestic food markets, the products of oil crops have
been exported largely to global markets for multiple uses for food, feed, and biofuels.
1
We use oil, vegetable oil, and edible oil interchangeably in this book, unless oil is designated specifi-
cally as a petroleum product.
1
2 Tropical Oil Crop Revolution
Table 1.1 Contrasts between the green revolution and the revolution in tropical oil crops
Characteristic Green revolution Oil crop revolution
Two decades of most rapid change 1965–1985 1990–2010

Crops Rice, wheat Soybeans, oil palm
Production increase in developing Rice: 84% Soybeans: 222%
countries in two decades Wheat: 162% Oil palm: 300%
Share of world production growth Rice: 0.86 Soybeans: 0.26
resulting from yield increases Wheat: 0.84 Oil palm: 0.29
Number of producing countries with Many (but not Few (but not Africa)
rapid expansion Africa)
Production conditions Mostly irrigated Mostly rain-fed
Major producers Small-scale Large-scale farmers,
farmers companies, smallholders
Sources of technology and other Public sector Agribusiness
support
Use of genetically modified varieties No Yes for soybeans
Major uses Food Food, feed, biofuels, industrial
uses
Major markets for the large producers Domestic Export
Although the number of producers touched by the oil crop revolution may be small
on a global scale, the products of oil crops reach a high share of the world’s consumers
in some way.
Like the green revolution before it, the revolution in tropical oil crops provokes
controversy. Nearly all the big debates on agricultural and food systems surround
tropical oil crops, including debates over the use of genetically modified organisms
(GMOs), production of food versus biofuels, small-scale farming versus agribusi-
ness, the risks of foreign “land grabs,” monocropping versus diversified cropping
systems, the role of agriculture in promoting healthy diets, and globalization and
its environmental footprint. By far the loudest debate concerns the accusation that
tropical forests in South America and Southeast Asia are destroyed to make way for
oil crops.
Many specific dimensions of the oil crop revolution have been studied, but no one
has developed a holistic synthesis of its origins and outcomes. Our aim in this book is
to step back and review the sector as a whole, considering both the supply-side drivers
and the demand-side drivers (Figure 1.2). We focus on the two most dynamic crops,
oil palm and soybean, and their complex links in markets for vegetable oils. Much of
the literature emphasizes the negative consequences of the oil crop revolution, espe-
cially the environmental costs of the massive changes in land use that accompanied
the spread of oil palm and soybeans in the tropics. Along with these aspects of the
oil crop revolution, we weigh the incomes and jobs the sector provides for millions
70
60
50
Production (Mt)
40
30
20
10
0
1973
1975
1977
1979
1981
1983
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
Year
Palm oils Rapeseed Soybean Sunflower
Figure 1.1 The takeoff in global vegetable oil production, led by soybean oil and palm oil
(including palm kernel oil) is shown. Palm oils include both palm oil and palm kernel oil and are
produced exclusively in the tropics. Nearly all rapeseed and sunflower oil is produced in temperate
regions. Soybean oil is produced in both temperate and tropical regions, but since 1990 soybean
production has shifted decisively toward the tropics.
Source: USDA-FAS PSD.
Demand Drivers Final Uses Oil Crop Products Supply-side Drivers
Livestock - Technology
Oil meal
- Population products - Infrastructure
growth Harvested
- Price incentives
- Income fruit/seed
Cooking oil, - Land policies
- Urbanization Vegetable oil - Institutions
processed foods
Direct food
consumption
Nonfoods
(soap etc)
-Biofuel
mandates
- Incentives Biodiesel
- Petroleum
prices
Development Outcomes
- Nutrition and health
- Incomes, jobs, food security
- Land tenure security for communities
- Deforestation
Figure 1.2 A simplified view of oil crop products and their supply and demand drivers is presented.
Table 1.2 Global statistics on the three major cereal crops and three leading oil crops
Crop Area, 2012 Change in area, Gross value output, Value of exports,
(Mha) 1991–2013 (Mha) 2013 (US$ billion) 2012 (US$ billion)
Cereals
Wheat 219 –12.3 242 54.4
Maize 185 54.1 382 35.5
Rice 165 18.2 429 23.7
Oil crops
Soybeans 112 54.3 131 93.2
Rapeseed 37 18.9 53 24.0
Oil palm 18 12.0 37 42.3a
a
The value of exports includes value added from processing and domestic shipping and handling and
may exceed the value of unprocessed oil palm fruits priced at the farm gate.
Source: Calculated from FAOSTAT.
(which have lifted many out of poverty), and the critical role of vegetable oils in world
food security.
Although for the most part this book analyzes and interprets the recent past, it also
looks to the future. An especially pertinent issue, given that Africa is poised to join
the oil crop revolution in production and consumption, is whether lessons from the
recent experience with oil crops in Asia and Latin America can be applied in Africa to
promote more favorable development outcomes there.
In the remainder of this chapter, we introduce facets of the oil crop revolution vital
for understanding the chapters that follow. Table 1.2 presents some contextual sum-
mary statistics on the three main oil crops and three main cereal crops. Appendix A1.1
provides notes on the data sources used throughout this book.
OIL CROPS HAVE MULTIPLE USES

AND SUBSTITUTIONS
The world oil crop market is not easy to understand, given the multiple crops and
products involved and the numerous pathways to their final use. Two subgroups
of oil crops are generally recognized. Most oil crops are annuals known as oilseeds;
the most important oilseed crop is soybeans, followed by rapeseed, sunflower,
and groundnuts. Oilseed may be consumed directly, but more than 80% of pro-
duction is processed (usually referred to as crushing) into a high-protein meal or
cake and a vegetable oil. The importance of protein meal in relation to oil varies
widely among oilseed crops (Table 1.3). For example, protein meal derived from
soybeans comprises 79% of processed output and two-thirds of the value; the pro-
duction of soybean oil comprises 19% of processed output and about one third
of value.
5 The Many Dimensions of the Tropical Oil Crop Revolution
Table 1.3 Global production of oil crops, oil, and protein meal, 2013/14
Crop or product Meal Oil content Production Processed Meal Oil

content (%) (%) (Mt) (Mt) (Mt) (Mt)
Perennial oil crops

Copraa 33.3 62.5 6.0 6.0 2.0 3.7
Olivesb — — — — — 3.3
Palm oilb — — — — — 58.1
Palm kernelsb 52.9 44.4 15.4 15.4 8.1 6.8
Oilseeds (annuals)
Groundnuts 39.5 32.1 39.2 17.4 6.9 5.6
Rapeseed 58.9 39.8 66.4 62.5 36.8 24.9
Soybeans 78.9 18.6 281.7 237.9 187.8 44.3
Sunflower 44.1 41.6 40.3 36.1 15.9 15.0
Cottonseed 45.8 15.2 44.0 34.2 15.7 5.2
Total — — 449.1 375.3 257.6 161.7
a
Copra is the dried kernel of the coconut, which has a high oil content.
b
Palm oil and palm kernels make up about 20% and 5%, respectively, of the weight of fresh fruit bunches
of oil palm. Oil palm and olive fruit residues have no market value after the oil and kernels have been
extracted.
Source: Computed from USDA-FAS PSD.
The second group of oil crops consists of perennial oil crops; oil palm is the most im-
portant crop in this group, which also includes the olive and coconut crops. These tree
crops are grown primarily for their oil, although they may have important by-products.
Oil palm, for instance, produces both palm oil from the fruit and palm kernel oil from
the nut, and the remaining palm kernel cake is used as protein meal.
Vegetable oils find a wide variety of uses. Most oils are consumed directly as food,
sometimes after further refining (margarine is one example) or are used for cooking
oil. Important shares are used as an ingredient in processed foods, in industrial prod-
ucts other than food (such as soap), as industrial inputs (such as oleochemicals), and
in biofuels. By and large, the main vegetable oils can substitute for each other, with
some exceptions. Olive oil, for example, is assigned much higher value than other
common vegetable oils and is highly preferred in rich countries for food uses. Jatropha
oil, which has received much attention in recent years, is an inedible oil grown ex-
clusively for biofuel. The common vegetable oils also have different fat compositions,
which influence their selection as a cooking oil, their use in processed foods, and their
health effects—a theme to which we return in Chapter 4.
The high protein content of meal from oilseeds (44%–48% in the case of soy-
beans) means the meal is valued for livestock feed. Demand for protein meal is driven
consequently by the consumption of livestock products and the availability of alter-
native sources of protein for animal feed, such as fish meal. However, soybean is the
only oil crop for which the value of the meal (two thirds its value) exceeds that of
the oil. Less than 5% of the value of oil palm products comes from oil meal (palm
kernel meal).
The complexity of the world oil crop sector is tempered to some extent by the
dominance of only two crops in the markets for oilseeds and vegetable oils. Among
oilseed crops, soybeans represent 57% of production and 85% of exports. Among
vegetable oils, palm oil and palm kernel oil together constitute 40% of production
and more than two thirds of exports. Soybean oil is the second most widely traded
vegetable oil, accounting for 13% of vegetable oil exports—a figure that increases to
30% if we include the oil content of exports in the form of unprocessed soybeans.
Among oil meals, soybean meal accounts for two thirds of global production and
76% of exports (aggregating exports of soybeans and soybean meal). During the past
two decades, the dominance of oil palm and soybeans in the oil crops sector has in-
creased significantly.
PRODUCTION OF OIL CROPS IS

SHIFTING TO THE TROPICS
The increasing dominance of oil palm and soybeans in markets for vegetable oils has
been accompanied by an extraordinary shift in the geography of agricultural produc-
tion, with much of it toward the tropics—defined here as lying between 23° N and
23° S latitudes. Since 1970, the area planted for oil crops expanded by a staggering
150 million hectares (Mha) compared with 55 Mha for all cereal crops (FAOSTAT).
Soybeans accounted for half that expansion, and by far the most spectacular growth
was in Brazil and Argentina (Figure 1.3). This trend became apparent after 1970 and
120
100
80
Area (Mha)
60
40
20
0
1970 1990 2014
Rest of world India South America United States
Figure 1.3 Soybean area has risen dramatically in South America.

Source: USDA-FAS PSD.
accelerated around 1990 as Chinese imports sparked a booming global market for
soybeans. In 2014, Brazil surpassed the United States as the world’s largest soybean
exporter.
In Brazil, the soybean crop expanded initially in the more temperate south, but
since 1990 the crop has moved steadily northward into the tropical region called
the Cerrado, replacing natural grasses, scrubland, and pasture. As production in the
Cerrado has expanded northward, it has encroached on the Amazon biome. Today,
the state of Mato Grosso is the largest producer of soybeans in Brazil, and tropical soy-
beans grown north of 23° S latitude account for about three quarters of production.
Soybeans have made additional incursions into tropical areas of northern Argentina,
Paraguay, and Bolivia. A less well-known expansion of soybeans in the tropics oc-
curred in central India, where area has increased from virtually zero in 1970 to around
10 Mha today, although yields remain low (Figure 1.4).
Oil palm is confined entirely to the tropics, within a narrow band from 10° N to
10° S—the zone occupied by a substantial share of the world’s humid tropical forests.
Although oil palm covers a much smaller area than soybeans (16 Mha vs. more than
100 Mha for soybeans), oil palm area has expanded even faster than soybean area,
growing at an average rate of 4.6% annually from 1990 to 2010. Oil palm also made
a major geographic shift from its original production center in Africa, where oil palm
area has changed very little, to Malaysia and Indonesia (Figure 1.5).
In Chapter 2 (on oil palm) and Chapter 3 (on soybeans), we lay out the major driv-
ers of these shifts with respect to agroclimatic suitability, investment in research and
development (R&D), policy incentives, and institutions. We also discuss the evolu-
tion and efficiency of the large agribusiness concerns operating in the new producing
areas for both crops. Eight of the world’s largest agricultural production companies,
< 400 ha 1300 ha 2500 ha >4000 ha
Figure 1.4 The distribution of the soybean area in 2005 is shown. Values represent the total
harvested area in hectares (ha) within each 5-minute cell (about 10 × 10 km, or 10,000 ha at the
equator). Note soybean area in central–west Brazil has intensified sharply since 2005.
Source: You, L., U. Wood-Sichra, S. Fritz, Z. Guo, L. See, and J. Koo. 2014. MAPSPAM. Spatial
Production Allocation Model (SPAM) 2005. Version 2.0. http://mapspam.info (accessed February
2, 2016).
< 300 ha 900 ha 1800 ha >3200 ha
Figure 1.5 The distribution of oil palm area in 2005 is shown. Values represent the total harvested
area in hectares within each 5-minute cell (about 10 × 10 km, or 10,000 ha at the equator). Note that
oil palm area has intensified substantially since 2005 in Indonesia.
Source: You, L., U. Wood-Sichra, S. Fritz, Z. Guo, L. See, and J. Koo. 2014. MAPSPAM. Spatial
Production Allocation Model (SPAM) 2005. Version 2.0. http://mapspam.info (accessed February
2, 2016).
based mostly in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, are involved in oil palm (United
Nations 2009). Sime Darby, a company based in Malaysia, is listed as the largest pro-
ducer, maintaining more than 600,000 ha of plantations and associated large invest-
ments downstream in processing, manufacturing, and marketing. These companies
are now moving beyond Southeast Asia, to Africa in particular. Major energy compa-
nies such as Petrobras and Vale are also entering the industry in Brazil.
In soybeans, the large multinational companies Cargill, Bunge, ADM, Dreyfus,
and the Brazilian-owned Maggi Group have invested heavily downstream in pro-
cessing and shipping logistics. At the same time, the big seed companies, especially
Monsanto, have invested in breeding genetically modified (GM) soybean varieties for
the tropics. Maggi and a host of companies also operate very large farming operations,
many surpassing 100,000 ha, with soybeans as their principal crop.
Successful smallholder production systems also exist for both crops. We examine
these systems in country case studies in Chapters 2 and 3, and in Chapter 8 we pre-
sent business models for further integrating smallholders into oil crop production and
processing.
DEMAND FOR VEGETABLE OILS

AND MEALS HAS BEEN BOOMING
The revolution in tropical oil crops is the result of the booming demand for food,
feed, and biofuels, mostly from emerging middle-income countries. During the past
50 years, world soybean consumption increased 10 times over—from 26 million Mt
to 260 Mt—whereas consumption of palm oil and palm kernel oil increased 25 times
over, starting from about 2 Mt to surpass 50 Mt.
From 1993 to 2012, food uses of vegetable oils in developing countries have ex-
panded at 5.1% annually—more than three times the rate of cereals (OECD-FAO).
Increased consumption of vegetable oils has contributed significantly to food se-
curity, in the sense that it accounts for at least one quarter of the increase in total
food calories in developing countries since 1970.2 A positive income elasticity for
vegetable oils indicates that room remains for further growth in food uses. Per-
capita consumption of vegetable oils in developed countries was 25 kg versus 16.7
kg in developing countries and only 9.7 kg in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 through
2012 (OECD-FAO). Many other drivers and substitutions must also be considered
to understand the dynamics at work here. In Chapter 4, we take up this challenge,
particularly the important roles of domestic pricing and tax policies, and we also
discuss the controversies surrounding the impact of increased consumption of veg-
etable oils on health. The amount of fat consumed is the most important factor for
health, but the type of fat present in vegetable oils must also be taken into account.
Hydrogenated soybean oil is the most important source of trans fats in many diets,
and palm oil has the highest level of saturated fats among vegetable oils. When
palm oil is consumed in its unrefined form, however, as in Africa, it is an excellent
source of vitamin A.
As noted, oil crops produce joint products: oil and meal. Feed use has been the
major driver of demand for oil meals, especially soybean meal. Consumption of live-
stock products, particularly of poultry and pigs in rapidly growing middle-income
countries, led the demand for oil meals to more than double from 1991 to 2014. This
trend was most evident in China, which is now by far the world’s largest consumer of
soybeans. In Chapter 5, we review trends in soybean meal consumption and outline
the determinants of future demand, looking toward 2050.
Vegetable oils are also the principal feedstock for biodiesel. Although data
are incomplete, the OECD estimated that as prices of petroleum-based oil rose,
consumption of vegetable oils for biofuels jumped from only 2.8 Mt in 2003 to
20 Mt in 2012 (OECD-FAO). Biofuels may make up only 13% of vegetable oil
consumption, but they account for nearly half the increase in vegetable oil con-
sumption from 2003 to 2012 (OECD-FAO) (Figure 1.6). To date, most of this
increased consumption has been in the European Union. The large vegetable
oil producers—Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia, and Indonesia—have started to im-
plement mandates and incentives to produce biodiesel as well. The world’s larg-
est biodiesel plant, in Singapore, is fueled in part by palm oil from Malaysia and
Indonesia.
In Chapter 6, we look at the emerging markets for vegetable oil feedstocks for bio-
fuels, which have added to the controversy and scrutiny surrounding tropical oil crops.
Many question whether it makes sense to destroy tropical forests that sequester large
quantities of carbon in the name of producing so-called renewable energy to reduce
2
These estimates, based on FAOSTAT (n.d.), appear to underestimate substantially the food calo-
ries from vegetable oils (Chapter 4).
60
50
Consumption (Mt)
40
30
20
10
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Industrial and other Biofuels Food
Figure 1.6 The increase in global consumption of vegetable oils from a 2005 base level.
Biofuels accounted for nearly half of the increase to 2010 and one third of the overall increase to 2014.
Source: OECD-FAO.
carbon emissions. Others question the wisdom of a food–biofuel tradeoff, especially

given the critical role of vegetable oils in food security among the poor.
Finally, vegetable oils are ingredients in a host of other nonfood products, such as
soap, cosmetics, oleochemicals for industrial use, and lubricants. These uses account
for about 7% of vegetable oil consumption, although this share is probably greater for
palm oil and palm kernel oil.
ASIAN MARKETS ARE DRIVING TRADE

In Chapter 7, we unite the supply and demand sides of the market for vegetable oils,
beginning with an analysis of the extraordinary growth in international trade in oil-
seeds and oils, which has even surpassed growth in consumption. The analysis of trade
flows is complicated by the joint production of oil and protein meal. Soybeans may
be exported unprocessed and then crushed in the importing country, or they may be
processed in the producing country and the oil and protein meal exported in various
proportions. Argentina, for example, sets incentives to process soybeans domestically
and then exports most of the oil and meal. Brazil, on the other hand, has a large do-
mestic market for vegetable oils and exports much more meal than oil. China sets
incentives to import soybeans and process them locally into oil and meal. Indonesia is
the world’s major exporter of vegetable oils (from oil palm), but also a large importer
of soybean meal.
The analysis of trade can be taken to another level by considering the export of
value-added products. For instance, in seeking to avoid the high domestic transport
costs of exporting soybeans, Brazil has become the world’s largest exporter of poultry
meat produced from soy meal. Argentina similarly pursues a strategy of adding value
by processing soy oil into biodiesel for export.
Given these complexities, and considering only the first-stage processed products
(oil and meal), we can discern several major trends. First, soybeans and palm oil are
among the most valuable agricultural commodities traded worldwide (Table 1.2). For
more than a century, wheat was the most valuable traded commodity; but, in 2002, soy-
bean exports overtook wheat and are now about one third more valuable than wheat
exports. The export value of palm oil and palm kernel oil has increased even more rapidly
to reach third place, and it also appears likely to exceed the value of wheat exports in the
near future.
Second, a few developing countries drive the trade increasingly in oil crops on
both the export and the import sides. During the past 50 years, first Malaysia and then
Indonesia captured dramatically the market for palm oil from West and Central Africa,
and now these two countries account for about 90% of the world market (Figure 1.7).
The United States dominated soybean exports historically, but by 2013, Brazil and
Argentina—which entered the market only during the 1970s—exported almost
double the US exports of soybean products, and Brazil’s became the world’s largest
exporter (Figure 1.8).
On the import side, the European Union has given way to Asia, led by India and
China, as the major driver of world trade in oil crops. India produces barely any palm
oil, yet it has become the world’s largest palm oil consumer. Soybean exports have
shifted dramatically to China and other emerging economies of Asia, especially since
the mid 1990s (Figure 1.9). Increasing demand from China has been a major driver of
the Brazilian soybean revolution (Figure 1.10).
100
90
80
70
World exports (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1961
1964
1967
1970
1973
1976
1979
1982
1985
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
Rest of world Indonesia Malaysia Africa
Figure 1.7 Malaysia and, more recently, Indonesia have captured the market share overwhelmingly
for palm oil exports. Note that palm kernel oil and cake are included.
Source: FAOSTAT.
100
90
80
70
World exports (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1961
1964
1967
1970
1973
1976
1979
1982
1985
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
Rest of world Argentina Brazil United States
Figure 1.8 Brazil and Argentina have captured the market share decisively for soybean exports. Note
that soybean meal and soybean oil are included.
Source: FAOSTAT.
100%
90%
80%
70%
Percent of world imports
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1961
1964
1967
1970
1973
1976
1979
1982
1985
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
Rest of world Rest of Asia China India EU
Figure 1.9 Asia, especially India and China, is the world’s major palm oil importer. Note that palm
kernel oil and cake are included.
Source: FAOSTAT.
One of our tasks in Chapter 7 is to untangle further the origins of these large shifts
in trade flows. Obviously, the changing demand patterns detailed in Chapters 4 through
6 play a large role, along with policy incentives, in determining the direction and type
100
90
80
70
World imports (%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1961
1964
1967
1970
1973
1976
1979
1982
1985
1988
1991
1994
1997
2000
2003
2006
2009
2012
Rest of world Rest of Asia China Japan European Union
Figure 1.10 Chinese imports have been the major driver of soybean markets since 1995. Note that
soybean meal and oil are included.
Source: FAOSTAT.
of product shipped. Given the instability in world markets for tropical oil crops, a major
debate addressed in Chapter 7 is whether it is wise for a country to depend heavily on
imports to meet demand for this major food staple. The dominance of palm oil in world
markets may accentuate price instability, because oil palm is a perennial crop and little
flexibility exists in the short run to adjust supply to market conditions.
An even bigger challenge of Chapter 7 is to apply our understanding of price dis-
covery in world vegetable oil markets, especially our understanding of how futures
markets and stock holdings have created efficient markets and integrated them glob-
ally. Our final task in Chapter 7 is to bring the elements of supply and demand together
to provide an outlook for vegetable oil markets in 2050. Our projections indicate a
sharp slowing of demand. Given reasonable assumptions on yield growth and area
expansion, future market demand should be provisioned without an increase in real
prices (quite possibly with declining prices), and with only modest area expansion.
TRADEOFFS BET WEEN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND

ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES CAN BE MINIMIZED
In Chapter 8, we turn our attention to the economic impacts of the tropical oil crop
revolution. The rise of major new industries in relatively poor and sparsely settled re-
gions can create new poles of economic development, generating employment along
entire value chains. Other potential benefits are likely to include those arising from
investments in infrastructure, the introduction of new technology to local popula-
tions, and the generation of tax revenues and foreign exchange. Even such seemingly
obvious contributions are often debated. For example, the Brazilian soybean industry
claims to have created 1.4 million jobs, including 250,000 producers (Brown-Lima et
al. 2010), yet other observers conclude the high levels of mechanization accompany-
ing the soybean expansion led to a loss of jobs in the Cerrado (Schlesinger 2004). In
Indonesia, the fact that production of rice, the staple food, has virtually disappeared
from many oil palm-producing areas raises questions about impacts on local food
security and the vulnerability of producing regions to volatility in world prices of
vegetable oils.
Another controversial issue in assessing impacts is the dominance of agribusi-
ness companies and large commercial farms in producing soybeans and oil palm
in the major exporting regions of the tropics. One interpretation of these devel-
opments is that they represent the “modernization” of backward areas; another is
that they represent the inexorable advance of industrial monocropping. Yet, we have
good countervailing examples of smallholder participation in these value chains,
and there is considerable potential to deepen their participation. For instance,
smallholders are at the center of oil palm production in Thailand, the world’s third-
largest palm oil producer. In India, millions of smallholders grow soybeans as a cash
crop. Could African countries courting investment in the oil crop sector build on
these experiences to spread the benefits of such investments? One of the big issues
is how to manage the sparsely populated savannah of Africa, where the potential for
crop expansion resembles that of the Cerrado of Brazil three decades ago. Could
this African “sleeping giant” develop a dynamic commercial soybean sector based
on small and medium-size farms (World Bank 2009)?
The massive changes in land use associated with tropical oil crops have far-reaching
social and environmental impacts, which we discuss in Chapter 9. Without a doubt,
oil crop area has often increased at the expense of natural areas; oil palm in particular
has replaced tropical forests of high conservation value and peatlands that sequester
large amounts of carbon. Companies in the oil crop sector often have been accused
of “land grabs” that displace local people and remove their livelihoods. From a tech-
nical viewpoint, an apparently logical solution would be to raise yields to save land, yet
this approach—associated so closely with the father of the green revolution, Norman
Borlaug, that it is known as the Borlaug hypothesis (Borlaug 2007)—has been chal-
lenged. Some argue that increasing yields will only increase the profitability of oil
crops and promote even faster expansion at the forest margin (Kaimowitz and Smith
2001). Even if the Borlaug hypothesis holds, technical solutions alone are not likely
to save tropical forests. Institutions, especially those governing land and forest re-
sources, require much attention. In Chapter 9, we review a number of global and local
approaches to strengthen institutions that intersect with tropical oil crops, such as
land rights, governance of forest resources, private standards and roundtables, and the
emerging program, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD+). Brazil’s recent success in arresting deforestation induced by soybean ex-
pansion, along with the recent commitments by large palm oil trading companies to
zero deforestation, suggest that the social and environmental footprint of tropical oil
crops can be minimized.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Chapter 10 integrates our findings from previous chapters to provide a forward view of
the oil crop sector. Although we see the “revolutionary” pace of change abating some-
what, the growth in food demand in late-developing countries, especially in Africa,
and a projected 50% increase in demand for vegetable oils for biofuels for the next
decade (OECD-FAO) will keep oil crops in the spotlight. A major question issue to
which we return is Africa’s potential to participate in a sustainable and equitable way
in the future growth of the sector.
We also consider which policies are needed to reduce the tradeoffs between
growth, poverty reduction, and the environment that have characterized the tropical
oil crop revolution to date. Global players such as international agencies, consumer
groups, multinational companies, and civil society are already attempting to chart a
more sustainable course for the sector. Ultimately, however, the local players will be
the ones who implement policies on the ground. They must be convinced the sector’s
sustainable development is good business for them and for the future.
We aspire to win–win outcomes for sustainable development, but as pragmatists
we understand the real world entails messy tradeoffs. Our final theme in this book is
how to improve the management of such tradeoffs. We end by giving a cautiously op-
timistic outlook that future development of the sector can provide balanced outcomes
for inclusive economic development, food security, and the environment.
APPENDIX A1.1: A NOTE ON DATA SOURCES

The analysis of the oil crop sector is complicated by the availability of several data
sources and major discrepancies among them. The three major data sources are as
follows:
1. FAOSTAT: This is the main statistical data base of FAO and our preferred data
source on the supply side. This database from the FAO has complete data for
all oil crops and countries. One caveat is that major discrepancies exist between
FAOSTAT data and national data for important producers, especially for oil palm.
Another is that, on the consumption side, only food and “other utilization” are in-
cluded, and the share of “other utilization” seems implausibly large for many impor-
tant countries, possibly because of the difficulty with allocating cooking oil to food
consumption and waste (Chapter 4). On a global basis, FAOSTAT gives a share of
48% to “other utilization” in 2011 for the nine major oils combined at a global level
compared with 25% for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data set.
2. USDA-FAS PSD. Production, Supply, and Distribution (PSD) data set of the USDA
Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS): This data set covers the major oilseeds (soy-
beans, rapeseed, sunflower, groundnuts, and cottonseed) and oil crops (copra and
oil palm) for all important producing and consuming countries. It provides a break-
down to food uses and nonfood uses, but does not separate biofuels. Nor does it
provide area and yield data for oil palm. Most computations in this book rely on
this data set, especially on the consumption side, where we found the reported food
and nonfood uses much more plausible than for FAOSTAT and more consistent
with national statistics.
3. OECD-FAO: The OECD-FAO data set has coverage similar to the USDA-FAS PSD
data set, but it provides a more disaggregated breakdown by food, biofuel, feed, and
industrial uses. The estimates for food and nonfood uses are consistent with the
USDA-FAS PSD, but are at wide variance with FAOSTAT, despite the involvement
of the FAO in both data sets. We use this data set to report biofuel use. Note that
it provides aggregate data on utilization for all vegetable oils combined and not for
individual vegetable oils.
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question as to the function and purpose of that strange
Mesopotamian institution of temple-prostitutes. But, leaving this latter
alone for the moment, we find explicit testimony in Herodotus to the
fact with which we are immediately concerned. In describing the
great temple of Bel at Babylon,265.1 he asserts, on the authority of
his “Chaldean priests,” that the deity chose as his nightly partner
some native woman, who was supposed to pass the night on the
couch with him, and who was obliged to abstain from all other
intercourse with men; and he compares a similar practice of belief
found in the temple of Zeus in Egyptian Thebes, and in the oracular
shrine of Apollo at Patara in Lycia. Now Herodotus’ trustworthiness
in this matter has been doubted by Assyriologists;265.2 nevertheless,
a phrase used in the code of Hammurabi concerning a holy woman
dedicated to temple service, calling her “a wife of Marduk,” seems to
give some colour to the Herodotean statement.265.3 Only, this term
might have merely a spiritual-symbolic significance, like the
designation of a nun as “the bride of Christ”; for the original
Babylonian documents have supplied as yet, so far as I am aware,
no evidence of a woman fulfilling the rôle of Belit, the wife of Bel.
As regards the adjacent religions, the idea that a mortal might
enter into this mode of communion with the divinity was probably an
ancient heritage of the Phrygian religions, for it crops up in various
forms. The priest of Attis was himself called Attis, and, therefore,
probably had loving intercourse with the goddess, and the later
mysteries of Kybele extended this idea and offered to every votary
the glory of a mystic marriage;266.1 it was the unconscious stimulus
of an immemorial tradition that prompted the Phrygian heresiarch
Montanus to give himself out as the husband of the Virgin Mary.266.2
It also appears as a fundamental tenet of the Sabazian mystery and
of the Hellenistic-Egyptian Hermetic theosophy. The simple ritual-
fact, namely, that a woman serves as the bride of the god, could
probably be traced far afield through many widely distant peoples.
According to Sahagun,266.3 the human sacrifices of the Mexicans
had sometimes the purpose of sending away a woman victim into
divine wedlock. In pre-Christian Sweden we find a priestess
generally regarded as the wife of the god Freyr, and enjoying
considerable power from the connection.266.4 Similar examples can
be quoted from modern savage communities. Therefore if we find
the same institution in the Mediterranean, we shall not think it
necessary to suppose that it was an import from Babylon or from any
Semitic people. As regards the Minoan worship, it is legitimate at
least to regard the legend of Pasiphaë and her amour with the bull-
god as an unfortunate aetiologic myth distorting the true sense of a
ritual in which a mortal woman enjoyed this kind of divine
communion, and here again we should mark a religious affinity
between Crete and Phrygia. And it is likely that the idea was not
unfamiliar to the Hellenes, though the record of it is scanty and
uncertain. According to the early Christian fathers, the inspiration of
the Pythia of Delphi was due to a corporeal union with Apollo akin at
least to—if not identical with—sexual intercourse. Of more value is
Herodotus’ definite assertion that the priestess of Patara gained her
inspiration by her nuptial union with Apollo. In the rare cases where
the cult of a Hellenic god was administered by a priestess we may
suspect that a ἱερὸς γάμος was part of the temple-ritual; in the two
examples that I have been able to find, the cults of Poseidon at
Kalaureia and of Heracles at Thespiai, the priestess must be a
maiden, as on this theory would be natural.267.1 The maiden-
priestesses of the Leukippides, the divine brides of the Dioskouroi at
Sparta, were themselves called Leukippides; in all probability
because they were their mortal representatives in some ceremony of
holy marriage.267.2 But the most salient and explicitly recorded
example is the yearly marriage of the Queen-Archon at Athens with
Dionysos, the bull-god, in the feast of Anthesteria, the significance of
which I have discussed elsewhere.267.3 It seems that the Queen by
uniting her body with the god’s, unites to him the whole Athenian
state and secures its prosperity and fruitfulness; this historic fact may
also explain the myth of the union of Althaia, Queen of Kalydon, with
the same god. Finally, let us observe that nothing in any of these
Hellenic records suggests any element of what we should call
impurity in the ritual; we are not told that these holy marriages were
ever consummated by the priest as the human representative of the
god; or that the ceremony involved any real loss of virginity in the
maiden-priestess. The marriage could have been consummated
symbolically by use of a puppet or image of the deity. We may
believe that the rite descends from pre-Homeric antiquity; the ritual
which the Queen-Archon performed might naturally have been
established at the time of the adoption into Athens of the Dionysiac
cult, and there are reasons for dating this event earlier than 1000
B.C.268.1
We now come to a very difficult and important question concerning
the position of women in the old Mesopotamian temple-ritual. Our
first document of value is the code of Hammurabi, in which we find
certain social regulations concerning the status of a class of women
designated by a name which Winckler translates doubtfully as
“God’s-sisters,” regarding it, however, as equivalent to consecrated,
while Johns translates it merely as “votary.”268.2 At least, we have
proof of a class of holy women who have certain privileges and are
under certain restrictions. They were the daughters of good families
dedicated by their fathers to religion; they could inherit property,
which was exempt from the burden of army-tax; they could not
marry, and were prohibited from setting-up or even entering a wine-
shop under penalty of death. It is something to know even as much
as this about them, but we would very gladly learn more. Is it to their
order that the personage described as “the wife of Marduk”269.1
belongs, who has been considered above? Is it from among them
that the priestesses of Ishtar were chosen, who interpreted the
oracles of the goddess?269.2 It seems clear that a father could
dedicate his daughter to any divinity, that their position was
honourable, and that they are not to be identified with the temple-
prostitutes of Babylon or Erech, who excited the wonder and often
the reprobation of the later Greek world. This peculiar order of
temple-harlots is also recognised—according to some of the best
authorities269.3—in Hammurabi’s code, where they are mentioned in
the same context with the “consecrated” or the “God-sisters,” and yet
are clearly distinct from them; another clause seems to refer to male
prostitutes (§ 187). Certain rules are laid down concerning their
inheritance of property, and concerning the rearing of their children, if
they had any, who might be adopted into private families. Evidently
these “Qadishtu” were a permanent institution, and there is no hint of
any dishonour. There may be other references in Babylonian
literature to these temple-women; in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the
courtesan who won over Eabani evidently belongs to the retinue of
Ishtar of Erech.
From these two institutions we must distinguish that other, for
which Herodotus is our earliest authority:269.4 according to his
explicit statement, once in her lifetime every Babylonian woman,
high or low, had to stand in the temple-precincts of the goddess
Mylitta—probably a functional appellative of Ishtar, meaning “the
helper of childbirth”—and to prostitute herself to any stranger who
threw money into her lap and claimed her with the formula, “I invoke
the goddess Mylitta for you.” Herodotus hastens to assure us that
this single act of unchastity—which took place outside the temple—
did not afterwards lower the morality of the women, who, as he
declares, were otherwise exemplary in this respect. But he is
evidently shocked by the custom, and the early Christian and
modern writers have quoted it as the worst example of gross pagan
or Oriental licentiousness. Some devoted Assyriologists have tried to
throw doubt on the historian’s veracity:270.1 the wish is father to the
thought: and it is indeed difficult for the ordinary civilised man to
understand how an ancient civilisation of otherwise advanced
morality could have sanctioned such a practice. But Herodotus’
testimony ought not to be so impugned; nor is it sufficient evidence
for rejecting it that no reference to the custom which he describes
has been found hitherto in the cuneiform literature. Strabo merely
repeats what Herodotus has said; but independent evidence of some
value is gathered from the apocryphal Epistle of Jeremias:270.2 “The
women also with cords about them sit in the ways, burning bran for
incense; but if any of them, drawn by some that pass by, lie with
them, she reproacheth her fellow that she was not thought as worthy
as herself, nor her cord broken.” The context is altogether religious,
and this is no ordinary secular immorality; certain details in the
narrative remind us of Herodotus, and make it clear that the writer
has in mind the same social usage that the historian vouches for.
This usage may be described as the consecration to the goddess of
the first-fruits of the woman’s virginity before marriage; for, though
Herodotus does not explicitly say that it was a rite preliminary to
marriage, yet the records of similar practices elsewhere in Asia
Minor assure us on this point.
We have now to begin the comparative search in the adjacent
regions, keeping distinct the three types of consecration which I have
specified above, which are too often confused.271.1
The first type has its close analogies with the early Christian,
mediaeval, and modern conventual life of women. The code of
Hammurabi presents us with the earliest example of what may be
called the religious sisterhood; the Babylonian votaries were
dedicated to religion, and while the Christian nuns are often called
the brides of Christ, their earliest prototypes enjoyed the less
questionable title of “God’s-sisters.” We find no exact parallel to this
practice in ancient Greece; from the earliest period, no doubt, the
custom prevailed of consecrating individual women of certain
families as priestesses to serve certain cults, and sometimes chastity
was enforced upon them; but these did not form a conventual
society; and usually, apart from their occasional religious duties, they
could lead a secular life. In fact, the monastic system was of Eastern
origin and only reached Europe in later times, being opposed to the
civic character of the religion of the old Aryan states.
The second class of consecrated women served as temple-harlots
in certain cult-centres of Asia Minor. We cannot say that the custom
in all cases emanated from Babylon; for there is reason to think that
it was a tradition attaching to the cult of the goddess among the
polytheistic Semitic stocks. We have clear allusions in the Bible to
temple-prostitution practised by both sexes in the Canaanite
communities adjacent to the Israelites, who were themselves
sometimes contaminated by the practice.272.1 We hear of “hierodouli”
among the pagan Arabs,272.2 of women “of the congregation of the
people of Astarte” at Carthage,272.3 of numbers of dedicated slave
women in the cult of Aphrodite at Eryx,272.4 which was at least semi-
Semitic; and it is likely that some of these at least were devoted to
the impure religious practice. As regards non-Semitic worships, it is
only clearly attested of two, namely, of the worship of Mā at Comana
in Pontos,272.5 and of Aphrodite Ourania in Corinth.272.6 In these
cases we have the right to assume Semitic influences at work; for we
do not find traces of this practice in the ancient cult of Kybele; and
Ma of Cappadocia and Pontus, who had affinities with her, was partly
contaminated with Anahita, a Persian goddess, who had taken on
Babylonian fashions. Nor can we doubt that the practice gained
recognition at Corinth in post-Homeric times through its Oriental
trade; for it was attached to the cult of Aphrodite Ourania, whose
personality, partly at least, was identical with that of the Semitic
goddess. The practice survived in Lydia in the later period of the
Graeco-Roman culture. For a woman of Tralles, by name Aurelia
Aemilia, erected a column with an inscription that has been
published by Sir William Ramsay,273.1 in which she proclaims with
pride that she had prostituted herself in the temple service “at the
command of an oracle,” and that her female ancestors had done
likewise. Finally, we may find the cult-practice reflected in certain
legends; in the legend of Iconium, for instance, of the woman who
enticed all strangers to her embraces and afterwards slew them, but
was herself turned to stone by Perseus, and whose stone image
gave the name to the State.273.2
The other custom recorded by Herodotus of Babylon, the
consecration of the first-fruits of virginity to the goddess before
marriage, which I have considered as distinct from the foregoing,
may often have been combined or confused with it; for the temple-
harlotry, carried on for some considerable period, might be
occasionally a preliminary to marriage. The most exact parallels to
the Babylonian custom are found in the records of Byblos, Cyprus,
and the Syrian Heliopolis or Baalbec. Lucian attests the rule
prevailing at Byblos, that in the festival of Adonis women exposed
themselves for purchase on one single day, and that only strangers
were allowed to enjoy them; but that this service was only imposed
upon them if they refused to cut off their hair in lamentation for
Adonis.274.1 Similarly the Byzantine historian Sozomenos declared
that at Heliopolis (Baalbec), in the temple of Astarte, each maiden
was obliged to prostitute herself before marriage, until the custom
and the cult were abolished by Constantine.274.2 The statements
about Cyprus, though less explicit, point to the same institution:
Herodotus, having described at length the Babylonian practice,
declares that it prevailed in Cyprus also, and Justin274.3 that it was a
custom of the Cyprians “to send their virgins before marriage on
fixed days to the shore, to earn their dowry by prostitution, so as to
pay a first-offering to Venus for their virtue henceforth (pro reliqua
pudicitia libamenta Veneri soluturas).” The procession to the shore
may indicate the rule that intercourse was only allowed them with
strangers,274.4 and nothing points to prolonged prostitution. It is
probably the same rite that the Locrians of the West vowed to
perform in honour of Aphrodite in the event of deliverance from a
dangerous war.275.1 But in the worship of Anaitis at Akilisene in
Armenia, according to Strabo,275.2 the unmarried women served as
temple-harlots for an indefinite time until they married; and Aurelia
Aemilia of Tralles may have been only maintaining the same ancient
ritual in Lydia. In these two countries, then, it seems as if there had
been a fusion of two institutions that elsewhere were distinct one
from another, harlot-service for a prolonged period in a temple, and
the consecration of each maiden’s virginity as a preliminary to
marriage.
Such institutions mark the sharpest antagonism between the early
religious sentiment of the East and the West. Of no European State
is there any record, religious or other, that the sacrifice before
marriage of a woman’s virginity to a mortal was at any time regarded
as demanded by temple ritual. Such a rite was abhorrent to the
genuine Hellenic, as it was to the Hebraic, spirit; and only in later
times do we find one or two Hellenic cult-centres catching the taint of
the Oriental tradition: while such legends as that of Melanippos and
Komaitho and the story of Laokoon’s sin express the feeling of horror
which any sexual licence in a temple aroused in the Greek.275.3
It is imperative to try to understand the original purpose or
significance of the Semitic and Anatolian rites that we have been
dealing with. To regard them as the early Christian and some
modern writers have done, as mere examples of unbridled Oriental
lust masquerading in the guise of religion, is a false and unjust view.
According to Herodotus, the same society that ordained this sacrifice
of virginity upon the daughters of families maintained in other
respects a high standard of virtue, which appears also attested by
Babylonian religious and secular documents. Modern anthropology
has handled the problem with greater insight and seriousness; but
certain current explanations are not convincing. To take the rite
described by Herodotus first, which is always to be distinguished
from the permanent institution of “hierodulai” in the sense of temple-
harlots: Mannhardt, who was the first to apply modern science to the
problem, explained it as a development of vegetation-ritual.276.1
Aphrodite and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, represent vegetation, and
their yearly union causes general fertility; the women are playing the
part of the goddess, and the stranger represents Adonis! The
Babylonian rite, then, is partly religious μιμησις, the human acting of
a divine drama, partly religious magic good for the crops. But in spite
of Mannhardt’s great and real services to science, his vegetation-
theory leads him often astray, and only one who was desperately
defending a thesis would explain that stranger, a necessary
personage in the ritual at Babylon, Byblos, Cyprus, and Baalbec, as
the native god. There is no kind of reason for connecting the
Babylonian rite with Tammuz, or for supposing that the women were
representing the goddess,277.1 or that their act directly influenced the
crops, except in the sense that all due performance of religious
ceremonies has been considered at certain stages of belief as
favouring the prosperity of the land. Sir William Ramsay, in his Cities
and Bishoprics of Phrygia,277.2 would explain the custom as
preserving the tradition of the communism of women before regular
marriage was instituted. Dr. Frazer, who has dealt more fully with the
question, accepts this explanation,277.3 as he also accepts
Mannhardt’s in full; and, while he associates—as I think, wrongly—
the Babylonian rite with general temple-prostitution, he adds a third
suggestion, prompted by his theory of kingship: the king himself
might have to mate with one or more of the temple-harlots “who
played Astarte to his Adonis”:277.4 such unions might serve to
maintain the supply of human deities, one of whom might succeed to
the throne, and another might be sacrificed in his father’s stead
when religion demanded the life of the royal man-god. I do not find
this theory coherent even with itself; and, like the others, it fails to
explain all the facts, and, on the other hand, it imagines data which
are not given us by the records.
That state of communism when sexual union was entirely
promiscuous is receding further and further into the anthropological
background: it is dangerous to predicate it of the most backward
Anatolian State in any period which can come into our ken. When
the Byzantine Sokrates gravely tells us that the men of Heliopolis
had their wives in common, he does not know what he is saying. And
if this sacrifice of virginity before marriage was a recognition of the
original rights of all the males of the community, why did not some
representative of the community take the virginity, the priest or some
head-man? This ill-considered sociologic hypothesis shipwrecks on
that mysterious stranger.278.1
Prof. Westermarck, in his Origin and Development of the Moral
Ideas,278.2 regards the Mylitta-rite as intended to ensure fertility in
women through direct appeal to the goddess of fertility, and he
explains the formula which the stranger uttered—ἐπικαλέω τοι τὴν
θεὸν Μύλιττα—as signifying generally “May the goddess Mylitta
prosper thee.” Obviously the phrase, “I invoke the goddess for thee,”
could as naturally mean, “I claim thee in the name of the goddess,”
the stranger basing his right to the woman on this appeal. But his
general theory appears not so unsound as those which have just
been noted.
The comparative method ought to help us here; and though we
have no exact parallel, as far as I am aware, recorded of any people
outside the Mediterranean area to the Babylonian custom, we find
usages reported elsewhere that agree with it in one essential.
Lubbock quotes instances from modern India of the rule imposed
upon women of presenting themselves before marriage in the temple
of Juggernaut for the purpose—as he implies—of offering up their
virginity, though no such custom is recorded in the Vedic period of
religion;278.3 cases also are chronicled of the rule prevailing among
uncultured or semi-cultured tribes that the medicine-man or the
priest should take the virginity of the bride before the marriage
ceremony.279.1 These are probably illustrations of the working of the
same idea as that which inspired the Babylonian custom. Marriage
involves the entering upon a new state; change of life is generally
dangerous, and must be safeguarded by what Van Gennep has
called “rites de passage”; more especially is the sexual union with a
virgin dangerous and liable to be regarded with awe by primitive
sentiment; before it is safe to marry her, the tabu that is upon her
must first be removed by a religious act securing the divinity’s
sanction for the removal; just as the ripe cornfield must not be
reaped before religious rites, such as the consecration of first-fruits,
have loosened the tabu upon it: we may believe that Hellenic
marriage ritual secured the same end as the Babylonian by what
seems to us the more innocent method of offering the προτέλεια. So
the Babylonian safeguards the coming marriage by offering the first-
fruits of his daughter to the goddess who presides over the powers
and processes of life and birth. Under her protection, after appeal to
her, the process loses its special danger; or if there is danger still, it
falls upon the head of the stranger.279.2 For I can find no other way of
accounting for his presence as a necessary agent, in the ritual of at
least four widely separate communities of Semitic race: this
comparative ubiquity prevents us explaining it as due to some
capricious accidental impulse of delicacy, as if the act would become
less indelicate if a stranger who would not continue in the place
participated in it.
In his essay on the question, Mr. Hartland explains the Babylonian
rite as belonging to the class of puberty-ceremonies; nor would this
account of it conflict with the view here put forth, if, as he maintains,
primitive puberty-ceremonies to which girls are subjected are usually
preliminary to the marriage which speedily follows.280.1 But puberty-
ceremonies are generally performed at initiation-mysteries, and none
of the rites that we are considering appear to have been associated
with mysteries except, perhaps, at Cyprus, where the late record
speaks of mysteries instituted by Kinyras that had a sexual
significance, and which may have been the occasion of the
consecration of virginity that Justin describes;280.2 but the institution
of mysteries has not yet been proved for any purely Semitic religion.
In any case, Mr. Hartland’s statement does not explain why the loss
of virginity should be considered desirable in a puberty-ceremony or
as a preliminary to marriage.
The significance of the action, as I have interpreted it, is negative
rather than positive, the avoidance of a vague peril or the removal of
a tabu rather than the attainment of the blessing of fertility, as Dr.
Westermarck would regard it. And this idea, the removal of a tabu,
seems expressed in the phrase of Herodotus281.1 by which he
describes the state of the woman after the ceremony—
ἀποσιωσαμένη τῇ θεῷ; and the parallel that I have suggested, the
consecration of the first-fruits of the harvest to remove the tabu from
the rest of the crop, is somewhat justified by the words of Justin
already quoted—“pro reliqua pudicitia libamenta Veneri soluturas.”
As regards the other institution, the maintenance of “hierodoulai” in
temples as “consecrated” women, “kadeschim,” unmarried, who for a
period of years indulged in sexual intercourse with visitors, the
original intention and significance of it is hard to decide. We may be
sure that it did not originate in mere profligacy, and the inscription of
Tralles shows that even in the later Roman period it had not lost its
religious prestige.281.2 Such a custom could naturally arise in a
society that allowed freedom of sexual intercourse among young
unmarried persons—and this is not uncommonly found at a primitive
level of culture—and that was devoted to the worship of a goddess
of sexual fertility. The rituals in the temples of Ishtar of Erech, Anaitis
of Armenia, Mā of Comana, must have been instituted for some
national and social purpose; therefore Mr. Hartland’s suggestion, that
the original object of the Armenian rite was to give the maidens a
chance of securing themselves a suitable husband by experience,
seems insufficient. Dr. Frazer’s theory, that connects the institution
with some of the mystic purposes of kingship,282.1 floats in the air; for
there is not a particle of evidence showing any relation between
these women and the monarch or the royal harem or the
monarchical succession or the death of a royal victim. A simpler
suggestion is that the “hierodoulai,” or temple-women, were the
human vehicles for diffusing through the community the peculiar
virtue or potency of the goddess, the much-coveted blessing of
human fertility. Thus to consecrate slaves or even daughters to this
service was a pious social act.
The significance of the facts that we have been examining is of the
highest for the history of religious morality, especially for the varied
history of the idea of purity. We call this temple-harlotry vile and
impure; the civilised Babylonian, who in private life valued purity and
morality, called the women “kadistu,” that is, “pure” or clean in the
ritualistic sense, or as Zimmern interprets the ideogram, “not
unclean.”282.2 In fact, the Mediterranean old-world religions, all save
the Hebraic, agreed in regarding the processes of the propagation of
life as divine, at least as something not alien or abhorrent to
godhead. But the early Christian propagandists, working here on
Hebraic lines, intensified the isolation of God from the simple
phenomena of birth, thereby engendering at times an anti-sexual
bias, and preparing a discord between any possible biological view
and the current religious dogma, and modern ethical thought has not
been wholly a gainer thereby.
The subject that has been discussed at some length is also
connected with the whole question of ritual-purity and purification.
The primitive conception of purity had at an early stage in its
evolution been adopted by higher religion; and the essential effect of
impurity was to debar a person from intercourse with God and with
his fellow-men. Hence arises a code of rules to regulate temple-
ritual. So far as I am aware, the Babylonian rules for safeguarding
the purity of the shrines were not conspicuously different from the
Greek or the Hebraic.283.1 The taint of bloodshed and other physical
impurities was kept aloof; and it is in the highest degree probable
that the function of the “hetairai” was only performed outside the
temple, for Herodotus specially tells us that this rule was observed in
the Mylitta-rite. The cathartic methods of East and West agree in
many points. The use of holy water for purifying purposes was
known to the early Greeks.283.2 It was still more in evidence in the
Babylonian ritual: the holy water of the Euphrates or Tigris was used
for a variety of purposes, for the washing of the king’s hands before
he touched the statues, for the washing of the idol’s mouths,283.3
perhaps also for baptism. For we hear of some such rite in a hymn to
Enlil translated by Dr. Langdon284.1—the line that he renders “Son
whom in the sacred bowl she baptized,” seems to refer to a human
child. Ablution was prominent also in the exorcism-ritual, and the
“House of Washing” or “House of Baptism” was the centre of a liturgy
that had for its object deliverance from demons.284.2 The whole State
was at times purified by water.284.3 And in all this ritual the water
must itself be of a peculiar purity—rain-water, for instance,284.4 or the
water of the Euphrates, whence came probably the Water of Life that
was kept in Marduk’s temple with which the Gods and the Annunaki
washed their faces, and which was used in the feast of the Doom-
fixing.284.5 According to the Babylonian view ordinary water was
naturally impure (we may well believe that it was so at Babylon,
where the river and canals were so pressed into the service of man),
and a person incurred impurity by stepping over a puddle or other
unpurified water.284.6 The Greek did not need to be so scrupulous,
for most water in his land was naturally pure, being spring or brook;
yet in his cathartic rules we find often that only a special water was
suitable for the religious purpose, running water especially, or sea-
water, or in a particular locality one sacred fountain only.284.7 But
though it was to him as to most peoples, the simple and natural
means of purification, he did not apply it to such various cathartic
purposes as the Babylonian. Nor as far as we can discover had he
developed in old days the interesting rite of baptism: we hear of it
first in the records of the fifth century, and in relation to alien cults
like that of the Thracian goddess Kotytto.285.1
Equally prominent in the cathartic ritual of Mesopotamia was the
element of fire: in the prayer that followed upon the purification-
ceremonies we find the formula, “May the torch of the gleaming Fire-
God cleanse me.”285.2 The Fire-God, Nusku, is implored “to burn
away the evil magicians,”285.3 and we may believe that he owes his
development and exalted position as a high spiritual god to the ritual
use of fire, just as in the Vedic religion did Agni. The conception of
fire as a mighty purifying element, which appears in the Old and New
Testaments and in Christian eschatology, has arisen, no doubt, from
the cathartic ritual of the ancient Semites. Doubtless also the
spiritual or magic potency of this element was known in ancient
Europe: it is clearly revealed in the primitive ceremonies of the old
German “Notfeuer,” with which the cattle, fields, and men were
purified in time of pestilence.285.4 And there are several indications of
its use in Greek cathartic ritual; a noteworthy example is the
purification of Lemnos by the bringing of holy fire from Delos;285.5 the
curious Attic ritual of running with the new-born babe round the
hearth, called the Amphidromia, may have had a similar
intention;286.1 even the holy water, the χέρνιψ, seems to have been
hallowed by the insertion of a torch;286.2 and in the later records fire
is often mentioned among the usual implements of cleansing.286.3
The Eleusinian myth concerning Demeter holding the infant
Demophon in the flame to make him immortal was suggested
probably by some purificatory rite in which fire was used. Finally, the
fire-ordeal, which was practised both in Babylonia and Greece,286.4
may have been associated at a certain period with the cathartic
properties of fire. Nevertheless, the Hellenic divinities specially
concerned with this element, Hestia and Hephaistos, had little
personal interest in this ritual, and did not rise to the same height in
the national theology as Nusku rose in the Babylonian.
We might find other coincidences in detail between Hellenic and
Assyrian ritual, such as the purificatory employment of salt, onions,
and the sacrificial skin of the animal-victim.286.5 One of the most
interesting phenomena presented by the cathartic law of old
Babylonia is a rule that possessed an obvious moral value; we find,
namely, on one of the cylinders of Gudea, that during the period
when Gudea was purifying the city the master must not strike the
slave, and no action at law must be brought against any one; for
seven days perfect equality reigned, no bad word was uttered, the
widow and the orphan went free from wrong.287.1 The conception
underlying this rule is intelligible: all quarrelling and oppression,
being often accompanied with bloodshed and death, disturbs the
general purity which is desired to prevail; and I have indicated
elsewhere a similar law regulating the conduct of the Eleusinian
mysteries and the Dionysiac festival at Athens, both ceremonies of
cathartic value,287.2 and I have pointed out a similar ordinance
observed recently by a North-American Indian tribe, and formerly by
the Peruvians; to these instances may be added the statement by
Livy,287.3 that in the Roman “lectisternia,” when a table with offerings
was laid before the gods, no quarrelling was allowed and prisoners
were released, and the historian gives to the institution of the
lectisternia a piacular significance.
We must also bear in mind certain striking differences between the
Hellenic and the Babylonian cathartic systems. In certain purification-
ceremonies of Hellas, those in which the homicide was purged from
his stain, the washing with the blood of the piacular victim was the
most potent means of grace.287.4 We may find analogies in Vedic,
Roman, and Hebraic ritual, but hitherto none have been presented
by the religious documents of Babylon, where, as has been already
pointed out, scarcely any mystic use appears to have been made of
the blood of the victim.288.1 Again, the Babylonian purification
included the confession of sins, a purgation unknown and apparently
unnatural to the Hellene;288.2 and generally the Babylonian, while
most of its methods, like the Hellenic, are modes of transference or
physical riddance of impurity, had a higher spiritual and religious
significance; for it includes lamentations for sin and prayers to the
divinity that are not mentioned in the record of any Greek “katharsis.”
A long ritual-document is preserved containing the details of the
purification of the king:288.3 certain forms agree with the Hellenic, but
one who was only versed in the latter would find much that was
strange and unintelligible both in the particulars and in general
atmosphere. We discern an interesting mixture of magic and religion.
The gods are partly entreated, partly bribed, partly constrained; and
at the end the evil is physically expelled from the palace. The purifier
puts on dark garments, just as the ministers of the underworld-
deities did occasionally in Greece. The king himself performs much
of the ceremony, and utters words of power: “May my sins be rent
away, may I be pure and live before Shamash.” The ordering of the
cathartic apparatus is guided partly by astrology. It is curious also to
find that every article used in the process is identified by name with
some divinity: the cypress is the god Adad, the fragrant spices the
god Ninib, the censer the god Ib, etc.; and the commentary that
accompanies the ritual-text explains that these substances compel
the deities thus associated with them to come and give aid.
In fact, the differences between East and West in this religious
sphere are so important that we should not be able to believe that
the cathartic system of Greece was borrowed from Babylonia, even if
the points of resemblance were much more numerous and striking
than they are. For it would be possible to draw up a striking list of
coincidences between Hellenic and Vedic cathartic rites, and yet no
one would be able on the strength of it to establish a hypothesis of
borrowing.
In any case, it may be said, the question of borrowing does not
arise within the narrow limits of our inquiry, which is limited to the
pre-Homeric period, since all Greek “katharsis” is post-Homeric. The
latter dictum is obviously not literally true, as a glance through the
Homeric poems will prove. Homer is aware of the necessity of
purification by water before making prayer or libation to the gods:
Achilles washes his hands and the cups before he pours forth wine
and prays to Zeus,289.1 Telemachos washes his hands in sea-water
before he prays to Athena289.2; and there is a significant account of
the purification of the whole Achaean host after the plague;289.3 as
the later Greeks would have done, the Achaeans throw away into the
sea their λύματα, the infected implements of purification, wool or
whatever they used, that absorbed the evil from them. But it has
been generally observed that Homer does not appear to have been
aware of any need for purification from the stain of bloodshed or
from the ghostly contagion of death. It is true that Odysseus purifies
his hall with fire and sulphur after slaying the suitors, but we are not
sure that the act had any further significance than the riddance of the
smell of blood from the house. Sulphur is there called κακῶν
ἄκος,290.1 “a remedy against evil things”; but we cannot attach any
moral or spiritual sense to κακὰ, nor is Homeric κάθαρσις related, as
far as we can see, to any animistic belief. There is one passage
where Homer’s silence is valuable and gives positive evidence;
Theoklumenos, who has slain a man of his own tribe and fled from
his home, in consequence approaches Telemachos when the latter
is sacrificing and implores and receives his protection: there is no
hint of any feeling that there is a stain upon him, or that he needs
purification, or that his presence pollutes the sacrifice.290.2 All this
would have been felt by the later Greek; and in the post-Homeric
period we have to reckon with a momentous growth of the idea of
impurity and of a complex system of purification, especially in regard
to homicide, leading to important developments in the sphere of law
and morality which I have tried to trace out on other occasions.290.3
But Homer may well be regarded as the spokesman of a gifted race,
the Achaeans, as we call them, on whom the burden of the doctrine
of purification lay lightly, and for whom the ghostly world had
comparatively little terror or interest. Besides the Achaeans,
however, and their kindred races there was the submerged
population of the older culture who enter into the composition of the
various Hellenes of history. Therefore the varied development in the
post-Homeric period of cathartic ideas may be only a renaissance, a
recrudescence of forces that were active enough in the second
millennium. Attica may have been the home where the old tradition
survived, and cathartic rites such as the Thargelia and the trial of the
axe for murder in the Bouphonia have the savour of great antiquity.
May not the Minoan religion of Crete have been permeated with the
ideas of the impurity of bloodshed and the craving for purification
from sin? For at the beginning of the historic period Crete seems to
have been the centre of what may be called the cathartic mission;
from this island came Apollo Delphinios, the divine purifier par
excellence, to this island the god came to be purified from the death
of Python; and in later times, Crete lent to Athens its purifying
prophet Epimenides.291.1 If we believe, then, that the post-Homeric
blood-purification was really a recrudescence of the tradition of an
older indigenous culture, we should use this as another argument for
the view that the Greece of the second millennium was untouched or
scarcely touched by Babylonian influence. For, as we have seen,
purification by blood or from blood appears to have been wholly alien
to Babylonian religious and legal practice.
The ritual of purification belongs as much to the history of magic
as religion. Now, the student of religion is not permitted to refuse to
touch the domain of magic; nor can we exclude its consideration
even from the highest topics of religious speculation. Some general
remarks have already been made291.2 concerning the part played by
magic both in the worship and in the social life of the peoples that we
are comparing. Any exact and detailed comparison would be fruitless
for our present purpose; for, while the knowledge of early Babylonian
magic is beginning to be considerable, we cannot say that we know
anything definite concerning the practices in this department of the
Hellenic and adjacent peoples in the early period with which we are
dealing. From the Homeric poems we can gather little more than that
magic of some kind existed; and that Homer and his gifted audience
probably despised it as they despised ghosts and demons. It is only
by inference that we can venture to ascribe to the earliest period of
the Greek race some of the magic rites that are recorded by the later
writers. It would require a lengthy investigation and treatise to range
through the whole of Greek ritual and to disentangle and expose the
magic element which was undoubtedly there, and which in some
measure is latent in the ritual of every higher religion yet examined.
By way of salient illustration we may quote the ceremonies of the
scapegoat and the φαρμακός,292.1 modes of the magic-transference
of sin and evil; the strewing of sacred food-stuff that is instinct with
divine potency over the fields in the Thesmophoria; the rain magic
performed by the priests of Zeus Lykaios;292.2 we hear at Kleonai of
an official class of “Magi” who controlled the wind and the weather by
spells, and occasionally in their excitement gashed their own hands,
like the priests of Baal;292.3 such blood-magic being explicable as a
violent mode of discharging personal energy upon the outer objects
which one wishes to subdue to one’s will. Another and more thrilling
example of blood-magic is the process of water-finding by pouring
human blood about the earth, a method revealed by an old legend of
Haliartos in Boeotia about the man who desired water, and in order
to find it consulted Delphi, and was recommended by the oracle to
slay the first person who met him on his return; his own young son
met him first, and the father stabbed him with his sword; the
wounded youth ran round about, and wherever the blood dripped
water sprang up from the earth.293.1 No one will now venture to say
that all these things are post-Homeric; the natural view is that they
were an inheritance of crude and primitive thought indigenous to the
land. Many of them belong to world-wide custom; on the other hand,
some of the striking and specialised rites, such as the blood-magic
and the ritual of the φαρμακός, are not found at Babylon.
But before prejudging the question, some salient and peculiar
developments of Babylonian magic ought to be considered. One
great achievement of Mesopotamian civilisation was the early
development of astrology, to which perhaps the whole world has
been indebted for good and for evil, and which was associated with
magic and put to magic uses. Astrological observation led to the
attachment of a magic value to numbers and to certain special
numbers, such as number seven. Whether the Judaic name and
institution of the Sabbath is of Babylonian origin or not, does not
concern our question. But it concerns us to know that the seventh
days, the 14th, the 21st, and 28th of certain months, if not of all,
were sacred at Babylon, and were days of penance and piacular
duties when ordinary occupation was suspended.293.2 We can
discern the origin of the sanctity of this number: the observation of
the seven planets, and the division of the lunar month into four
quarters of seven days. The early Greeks, doubtless, had their
astrological superstitions, as most races have had; the new moon is
naturally lucky, the waning moon unlucky; but no one can discover
any numerical or other principle in the Hesiodic system, which is our
earliest evidence of Hellenic lucky and unlucky days. His scheme is
presented in naïve confusion, and he concludes humorously, “one
man praises one day, one another, and few know anything about
it.”294.1 His page of verse reflects the anarchy of the Greek
calendars; and we should find it hard to credit that either Hesiod or
the legislators that drew up those had sat attentively at the feet of
Babylonian teachers. But a few coincidences may be noted. Hesiod
puts a special tabu on the fifth day of the month; in fact, it is the only
one in his list that is wholly unlucky, a day when it would seem to be
best to do nothing at all, at least outside the house, for on this day
the Erinyes are wandering about.294.2 Now, a Babylonian text
published by Dr. Langdon contains the dogma that on the fifth day of
Nisan “he who fears Marduk and Zarpanit shall not go out to
work.”294.3 This Babylonian rule is the earliest example of what may
be strictly called Sabbatarianism, abstinence from work through fear
of offending the high god. Such would probably not be the true
account of Hellenic feeling concerning the “forbidden days,” which
were called ἀποφράδες or μιαραί.294.4 The high god had issued to
the Hellene no moral commandment about “keeping the Sabbath-
day holy”; his reluctance to do certain work on certain days rested on
a more primitive sentiment concerning them. Thus it was unlucky
both for himself and the city that Alcibiades should return to the
Piraeus when the Plynteria were going on; for this latter was a
cathartic ceremony, and evil influences were abroad. Nor, as
Xenophon declares, would any one venture to engage in a serious
work on this day.295.1 Nor were these μιαραὶ ᾑμέραι, like the seventh
days of the Babylonian months, necessarily days of gloom when
offended deities had to be propitiated; on the contrary, the day of
Χόες was a day of merry drinking and yet μιαρά: in fact, we best
understand the latter phrase by translating it “tabooed,” rather than
“sad” or “gloomy.”295.2
Another coincidence that may arrest attention is that in Hesiod’s
scheme the seventh day of the month was sacred because Apollo
was born on it; and throughout the later period this god maintains his
connection with the seventh day, also apparently with the first, the
fourteenth, and the twentieth of the month.295.3 This almost coincides
with the Sabbatical division of the Babylonian months. But we cannot
suppose that in Hellas these were days of mortification as they were
in the East; else they would not have been associated with the bright
deity Apollo.
Such dubious coincidences, balanced by still more striking
diversities, are but frail supports for the hypothesis of race-contact.
In Babylonian thaumaturgy nothing is more significant than the
magic power of the Word, whether spoken or written: and the Word,
as we have noted, was raised to a cosmic divine power and
possessed inherent creative force.295.4 This is only a reflection upon
the heavens of the human use of the magical or mesmeric word or
set of words. This use of them is found, indeed, all round the globe.
What seems unique in the Mesopotamian culture is that religion,
religious literature, and poetry should have reached so high a pitch
and yet never have risen above or shaken off the magic which is its
constant accompaniment. Men and gods equally use magic against
the demons; the most fervid hymn of praise, the most pathetic litany,
is only part of an exorcism-ritual; and so inevitably does the shadow
of magic dog religion here that Dr. Langdon is justified in his
conjecture296.1 that in a great hymn to Enlil, which contains scarcely

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1. The Many Dimensions of the Tropical Oil Crop Revolution 1

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

NBPOL New Britain Palm Oil Limited

OIL CROPS: THE WORLD’S MOST RECENT

Characteristic Green revolution Oil crop revolution

Two decades of most rapid change 1965–​1985 1990–​2010

Palm oils Rapeseed Soybean Sunflower

Demand Drivers Final Uses Oil Crop Products Supply-side Drivers

OIL CROPS HAVE MULTIPLE USES

Crop or product Meal Oil content Production Processed Meal Oil

Perennial oil crops

PRODUCTION OF OIL CROPS IS

Rest of world India South America United States

Figure 1.3 Soybean area has risen dramatically in South America.

< 400 ha 1300 ha 2500 ha >4000 ha

< 300 ha 900 ha 1800 ha >3200 ha

DEMAND FOR VEGETABLE OILS

Industrial and other Biofuels Food

carbon emissions. Others question the wisdom of a food–​biofuel tradeoff, especially

ASIAN MARKETS ARE DRIVING TRADE

Rest of world Indonesia Malaysia Africa

Rest of world Rest of Asia China India EU

TRADEOFFS BET WEEN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, AND

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

APPENDIX A1.1: A NOTE ON DATA SOURCES

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Two decades of most rapid change 1965–1985 1990–2010

carbon emissions. Others question the wisdom of a food–biofuel tradeoff, especially