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APOLOGIES to the hammock. It always seemed an object of
indolence—a garden metaphor for idle hours spent
horizontal, swinging in a breeze.
Au
contraire.
The
simple sling has survived for more than 1,000 years
because it has been a workhorse and comfort for millions
who have used it as a bed, birthing table, cradle,
sofa—even as a final resting place. In some cultures,
the hammock has accompanied individuals from cradle to
grave. The first hammocks were made in Central America
centuries ago by people who pounded the bark of the
hamak tree and wove it into a hanging haven. Later, they
switched to sisal and fabric, which were softer and more
comfortable.
By the
late 1400s, when Columbus dropped anchor in the
Americas, hammocks were in regular use. By night, they
were beds. By day, they fulfilled the family’s other
furniture needs. Fascinated by this humble multipurpose
item, Columbus tried it, pronounced it good and brought
hammocks home to Europe.
In the
1500s, Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez documented the
customs and culture of Central America’s indigenous
peoples. “The Indians sleep in a bed they call an
hamaca,” he wrote, describing the design as a net
with twine strings at both ends that could be hung at
any height. “They are good beds and clean,” he added,
and portable enough for small children to carry. They
kept sleeping families off the earth floors of their
huts, where snakes, spiders and other creatures wandered
through.
When
hammocks arrived in Europe, they became staple beds for
sailors. The trend lasted for centuries, through the
1940s and World War II, when US warship crews slept in
string hammocks often stacked vertically to accommodate
more sleepers in less space. US soldiers in the Pacific
were issued jungle hammocks that had protective mosquito
nets.
A fever
for hammocks as outdoor furniture hit the United States
in the late 1800s, when homeowners decided they were the
height of fashion for garden and porch. The addition of
wooden spreaders to keep hammocks flat and easier to use
came in the 1900s. Distinctive variations have emerged
throughout South and Central America, depending on
climate. Mesh or net hammocks provide a ventilated bed
in warm areas. Thick cotton or wool hammocks are found
in colder ones. In 1996 James Bogan—professor at the
Missouri University of Science and Technology, poet and
frequent traveler to Brazil—wrote that even today,
residents of the Amazon call their hammocks “old
mother,” a reference to the way hammocks seem to embrace
and envelop sleepers in comforting arms.
“Born in
the jungle by the shores of a river, the newborn sleeps
his first sleep in the hammock as his grandfather will
sleep his last,” Bogan wrote in an essay. “Then, as is
our ancient custom, we bury the dead lying down in their
own hammock. We are born, we live, we love, we die in
the hammock.”
The
hammock lives on, Bogan said by phone from his home in
Rolla, Missouri, “because no one’s ever invented
anything better. And no one ever will.” |
