The People in the Trees

APPENDIX

TIMELINE

1924: Norton Perina born in Lindon, Indiana

1933: Mother dies

December 1945: Sybil dies

1946: Father dies

May 1946: Graduates from Hamilton College

June 1950: Graduates from Harvard Medical School

June 21, 1950: Lands in Ivu’ivu (end of lili’uaka)

Late November 1950: Returns home from Ivu’ivu; begins work in a lab at Stanford University

Spring 1951: Begins first experiments with opa’ivu’eke. Group A consists of 50 mice of 15 months of age; 50 percent are given the opa’ivu’eke; the other 50 percent are the control group. Group B consists of 100 newborn mice (50 percent control, 50 percent given the opa’ivu’eke).

April 1951: Publishes paper on the opa’ivu’eke in the Annals of Herpetology

July 1951: Begins third experiment. Group C consists of 200 mice of 15 months of age; 50 percent are given the opa’ivu’eke; the other 50 percent are the control group.

December 1953: Publishes paper in the Annals of Nutritional Epidemiology (the so-called “Eternity Claim” paper)

March 1954: Adolphus Sereny begins his experiment replicating Group C of Perina’s experiments

April 1956: Sereny readies his paper for publication

September 1956: Sereny’s paper is published in the Lancet

February 1957: Returns to Ivu’ivu

May 1957: Discloses to Sereny the mice’s deterioration

January 1958: Returns to Ivu’ivu. Publishes paper discussing subsequent mental deterioration from consumption of opa’ivu’eke in the Annals of Nutritional Epidemiology.

February 1958: Returns to Stanford; ceases contact with Paul Tallent

1960: Runs own lab at National Institutes of Health

End of 1961: Returns to Ivu’ivu; Tallent disappears

1968: Adopts first child, Muiva Perina

1970: Ronald Kubodera begins work in Perina’s lab at NIH

1974: Wins Nobel Prize in Medicine

August 13, 1980: Adopts Victor Owen Perina

March 1995: Arrested

December 1997: Sentenced to 24 months in prison

February 1998: Begins serving sentence at the Frederick Correctional Facility

GLOSSARY OF SELECTED U’IVUAN WORDS

Note: Vowels in U’ivuan are pronounced as they would be in Japanese or Spanish.

E: Yes, or general greeting (hello, good morning, etc.)

Ea: Look (used as a command)

Eke: Animal

Eva: What is it?

Hawana: Many

He: I am (precedes an adjective)

Ho’oala: White man

Ka’aka’a: A now outlawed medicinal practice

Kanava: A tree; relation of the manama. Home of the vuaka

Ke: What? (Used as a response)

Lawa’a: A large fern resembling a Monstera

Lili’aka: Literally, “small sun”; equivalent to our summer and considered the most pleasant season (100 days)

Lili’ika: The Ivu’ivuan siesta; begins directly after the midday meal and lasts through most of the afternoon. On U’ivu, lili’ika was banned by King Tuima’ele in 1930, under the missionaries’ influence.

Lili’uaka: Literally, “small rain,” equivalent to our spring (100 days)

Ma: When preceding a word and followed by a glottal stop, an honorific (see below). Literally means “my” or “mine.”

Ma’alamakina: The traditional U’ivuan spear all males are given upon reaching fourteen o’anas

Makava: A tree that used to grow on U’ivu and now mostly grows on Ivu’ivu

Male’e: Hut

Manama: A tree with an edible fruit resembling a mango

Moa: Food

Mo’o: Without

No’aka: A coconutlike fruit; its shells are used as bowls by the islanders; more commonly known on U’ivu as uka moa, or “hog food”

O’ana: The U’ivuan year; 400 days

Ola’alu: The prehistoric U’ivuan hieroglyphic alphabet; rarely used in modern times

Tava: A cloth resembling kapa made from pounding palm leaves into a fiber

U’aka: The hottest season, equivalent to our autumn (100 days)

‘Uaka: The traditional wet season, equivalent to our winter; lasts for 100 days

Uka: Hog

Umaku: Sloth fat; used as a lubricant and a polish

Vuaka: A primitive micromonkey; considered a delicacy. Hunted to near extinction on U’ivu