This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Winnowing is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
Wind winnowing is an agricultural method developed by ancient cultures for separating grain from chaff. It is also used to remove weevils or other pests from stored grain. Threshing, the separation of grain or seeds from the husks and straw, is the step in the chaff-removal process that comes before winnowing.
In its simplest form it involves throwing the mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery. Techniques included using a winnowing fan (a shaped basket shaken to raise the chaff) or using a tool (a winnowing fork or shovel) on a pile of harvested grain.
Contents |
In China
In Ancient China the method was improved by mechanisation with the development of the rotary winnowing fan, which used a cranked fan to produce the airstream.[1] This was featured in Wang Zhen's book the Nong Shu of 1313 AD. This technique was not adopted in Europe until the 1700s, when winnowing machines used a 'sail fan'.[2]
In Greek culture
The winnowing-fan (liknon) featured in the rites accorded Dionysus and in the Eleusinian Mysteries: "it was a simple agricultural implement taken over and mysticised by the religion of Dionysus," Jane Ellen Harrison remarked.[3] Dionysus Liknites ("Dionysus of the winnowing fan") was wakened by the Dionysian women, in this instance called Thyiades, in a cave on Parnassus high above Delphi; the winnowing-fan links the god connected with the mystery religions to the agricultural cycle, but mortal Greek babies too were laid in a winnowing-fan.[4]. In Callimachus' Hymn to Zeus, Adrasteia lays the infant Zeus in a golden liknon;[5] her goat suckles him and he is given honey.
In the New Testament
In the Gospel according to Matthew 3.12, a sentence introduces the separation of wheat and chaff (good and bad) by "His winnowing fan is in his hand" (American Standard Bible translation).
In the United States
The development of the winnowing barn allowed rice plantations in South Carolina to increase their yields dramatically.
See also
References
- ^ The Question of the Transmission of the Rotary Winnowing Fan from China to Europe: Some New Findings, Hans Ulrich Vogel, 8th International Conference on the History of Science in China
- ^ Broadcasting and winnowing, Antique Farm Tools
- ^ Harrison, Prolegomean to the Study of Greek Religion, 3rd ed. (1922:159).
- ^ Karl Kerenyi, Dionysus: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life (1976:44).
- ^ The translation "cradle" loses the image.
 |
This agriculture-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 18 September 2008, at 21:28.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Winnowing".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.