Ethnobotany

The ethnobotany, Richard Evans Schultes, working in Amazonia (~1940s).

Ethnobotany studies the relationships between human groups and their plant environment, that is, the use and exploitation of plants in different cultural spaces and over time. According to Alcorn (1995) ethnobotany is the study of plant-human relationships included in dynamic ecosystems, with natural and social components. In other words, it is the study of the use of plants in context.

Etymology and object of ethnobotany

The word ethnobotany comes from the Greek roots εθνος (ethnos), people or race, and βοτάνη (botáne), herb.

This discipline defines the role of plants in human societies; studies the interaction of human groups with plants: their use to make their instruments and tools, to protect themselves (homes, clothing), feed themselves, heal from diseases, communicate with their peers (papers, inks, tattoos, fabrics), as well as their association in social life (rituals, games, music, etc).

It is part of ethnobiology and includes:

• ethnopharmacology, which deals with the traditional use and effects of natural substances with biological activity (both plants and animals and medicinal minerals) and
• ecoethnobotany, which studies the interaction of human conglomerates with the vegetable world and its balance with the environment.

Sciences auxiliary to ethnobotany are economic botany, sustainable agriculture, and ethics.

Her fields of research include: ethnoecology, anthropology, traditional agriculture, cognitive ethnobotany, material culture, traditional phytochemistry, paleoethnobotany.

It is related to disciplines such as history, linguistics, sociology, geography, philosophy, ethnology, genetics, pharmacology, agronomy, horticulture, among others.

The traditional use of some plant species has given rise to true scientific specializations such as bamboos and fungi (ethnomycology).

History

The term "ethnobotany" It was coined in 1895 by the American botanist John Williams Harshberger, but the history of the field begins much earlier. In the year 77 AD. C., the Greek physician-surgeon Dioscorides published & # 34; De Materia Medica & # 34;, a catalog of 600 Mediterranean plants in which he recorded information on how the Greeks used them, especially for medical purposes. This illustrated herbarium contained information on how and where each plant had been taken, whether or not they were poisonous, their current use, and whether or not they were edible (and even included recipes). Dioscorides emphasized the economic potential of plants. For many generations, students learned and studied from this herbarium, but it was not until the Middle Ages that they entered the field.

In 1542, Renaissance artist Leonhart Fuchs set the tone for a return to field study with the publication of his catalog "De Historia Stirpium featuring 400 native plants from Germany and Austria.

John Ray (1686-1704) provided the first definition of "species" in his & # 34; Historia Plantarum & # 34;: a species is a group of individuals that, through reproduction, produce new individuals similar to themselves.

In 1753 Charles Linnaeus wrote "Species Plantarum", which included information on 5,900 plants. Linnaeus is famous for inventing the Binomial Naming Method, in which all species (mineral, plant, or animal) take two names from (genus, and species).

The 19th century reached the zenith of botanical exploration. Alexander von Humboldt collected data from the New World and Captain Cook's voyages brought collections and information on the plants of the South Pacific. At that time, the systematization of most of the botanical gardens began, such as the Jardin des Plantes in Paris (founded in 1640), the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew, in England, among others.

Between 1860 and 1890, Edward Palmer collected crafts and botanical specimens from the peoples of western North America and Mexico. The value of the abundant collection of data from him allowed to substantiate the so-called "aboriginal botany"; o Study of all the ways in which the aborigines of the world use or take advantage of plants: food, medicines, textiles, ornamentation, decoration, etc.

However, the first studies with the indigenous perspective of the plant world were those of the German doctor Leopold Glueck, at the end of the XIX century, during his stay in Sarajevo. His work on the use of plants in the traditional medicine of rural Bosnian villages, written in 1896, is considered the first modern work on ethnobotany.

In the first two decades of the XX century, the investigations of Matilda Cox Stevenson appeared on Zuni plants (1915), Frank Cushing Foods of the Zuni (1920), Keewaydinoquay Peschel Anishinaabe Mushrooms (1998) and the focus team of Wilfred Robbins, JP Harrington, and Barbara Freire-Marreco Plants of the Tewa People of New Mexico (1916).

The origins of ethnobotany in America

The emergence of Ethnobotany in the New World is related to the development of Botany and Anthropology as sciences. With the discovery of the New World, in 1492, several plants of economic value began to be identified, based on the knowledge of the natives. The contribution of chroniclers such as Fernández de Oviedo, Francisco Hernández, P. José Acosta, Bernabé Cobo, and travelers, such as Mutis, Humboldt, Bonpland, D´Orbigny, Gay, during the XVI century was significant.

Ethnobotany and Applied Botany in Argentina

The first contributions in Applied Botany were carried out from the field of agronomy by Parodi, in the 1930s. In the following decade, they were those carried out by Armando Theodoro Hunziker and in the 1960s, those of Raúl Martinez Crovetto.

In 1963, Dr. Genoveva Dawson "Kewpie", coined the term Applied Botany, at the suggestion of Dr. Ángel L. Cabrera, thus giving rise to the chair of the same name, at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Museum of La Plata.

In the 1970s, Ethnobotany and Archaeobotany were established as scientific disciplines.

In 1976, Anthropology graduate Héctor D'Antoni defended the first doctoral thesis in archaeobotany.

Modern ethnobotany

At the turn of the 20th century, the field of ethnobotany underwent a radical turn from crude data-gathering to a methodological and conceptual reorientation. This is also the beginning of academic ethnobotany.

Currently, ethnobotany requires a wide variety of knowledge: botanical training for the identification and preservation of plant specimens, anthropological training to understand cultural concepts regarding the perception of plants, linguistic training, at least sufficient as a to transcribe native terms and understand native morphology, syntax, and semantics. Knowledge in all these areas is not necessary for a single ethnobotanist; It is usually made up of a team.

But perhaps one of the greatest scientists in this area was Richard Evans Schultes, father of modern ethnobotany, who together with the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann wrote a book that laid the foundations for the study of the pharmacological properties of many plants and even hallucinogenic mushrooms for ritual use.

This book was Plants of the Gods: Origins of Hallucinogen Use, published in 1979, where he studied plants such as ololiuqui, mushrooms of the Psilocybe genus, peyote, Ipomoea and even Mandrake among many more from both a scientific and anthropological point of view.

But Schultes' great concern was the danger that this discipline is running as the planet's ecosystems and the ancestral customs of certain human groups are in danger.

Currently many ethnobotanists are creating Germplasm banks as an effective way to conserve the diverse plant genetic resources.

Since 1980, ethnobotany has received important contributions from ecology, understood as the science of the complex relationships between living beings and their environment (Hurrell, 1987; Albuquerque & Hurrell, 2010; Hurrell & Albuquerque, 2012)

Biodiversity of maize in Jujuy, Argentina.

Currently, there is a tendency for ethnobotanical studies to strengthen community development, their regional economies and promote the conservation of cultural biodiversity.

Amanita muscariaA fungus of known hallucinogenic properties.

Methodology of the study of the uses of plants

• Hypothesis statement
• Planning a job to test them
• Bibliographic research, observation and field work.
• Statistics and surveys: sampling and data analysis design
• Interpretation of results and hypothesis check.
• Results presentation

Ethnomycology

Although many consider mushrooms to be in another realm, this science has a common origin with ethnobotany and the importance of many fungi and mushrooms in ancient cultures, mainly of shamanic tradition, should not be ruled out either.

Ethnomycology has its origins in the investigations carried out by the American banker Roger Gordon Wasson in the Sierra de Huautla Jiménez in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico in the year 1959. The theoretical and methodological contributions of this character were so important that they marked the genesis of a new line of study in ethnobiology.