The Na’vi are omnivorous hunter-gatherers with some incipient agriculture, including a form of cultivation they call ‘encouragement,’ in which plants are brought together and treated with pheromones and other natural agents, which guide their growth to form useful structures.
For example, a particular epiphytic plant species within the Omatikaya’s Hometree is cultivated and modified with woven material to create single-person, living hammocks that close safely around the sleeper. The Na’vi also cultivate direhorse pitcher plants (left), known as pa’liwll, to attract and feed direhorses and also to collect the sweet nectar for their own consumption.
The Na’vi are not known to engage in anything more than this rudimentary agriculture, as they are able to find everything they need from the surrounding environment. This is reflected in the simple expression “Eywa vayun”, ‘Eywa will provide’. A core part of Na’vi philosophy is meoauniaea which translates as ‘harmony with the natural world’ or ‘living as a child of the Great Mother’.