The Mi'kmaw chiquebi, the case of the dismissed root

The Miskitu are one of the three indigenous groups of eastern Nicaragua. Their uses of 353 species of plants in 262 genera and 89 families were documented in two years of fieldwork. Included are 310 species of medicinals, 95 species of food plants, and 127 species used for construction and crafts, dyes and tannins, firewood, and forage. Only 14 of 50 domesticated food species are native to the New World tropics, and only three to Mesoamerica. A majority of plant species used for purposes other than food or medicine are wild species native to eastern Nicaragua. Miskitu medicinal plants are used to treat more than 50 human ailments. Most (80%) of the medicinal plants are native to eastern Nicaragua, and two thirds have some bioactive principle. Many medicinal plants are herbs (40%) or trees (30%), and leaves are the most frequently used plant part. Herbal remedies are most often prepared as decoctions that are administered orally. The Miskitu people are undergoing rapid acculturation caused by immigration of outsiders. This study is important not only for documenting uses of plants for science in general, but also because it provides a written record in particular of the oral tradition of medicinal uses of plants of and for the Miskitu. COE and ANDERSON Vo!.17, No.2 un registro escrito en particular de la tradicion oral de usos medicinales de plantas por y para los miskitus. RESUME.-Les Miskitu sont un des trois groupes autochtones de l'est du Nicaragua. Deux annees de recherche ont perm is dinventiorer 353 especes utilisees reparties en 262 genres et 89 families. Les plantes medicinales des Miskitu interviennent dans Ie traitement de plus de 50 maladies humaines. La majorite (80%) des plantes medicinales sent indigenes a l'est du Nicaragua et la plupart (65%) contiennent des principes bioactifs. Ces plantes sont surtout des herbes (40%) ou des arbres (30%) et les feuilles sont l'element Ie plus utilise. Les rernedes abase de plantes sont absorbes surtout sous forme de breuvages. La plupart des plantes comestibles sont cultivees, mais seulement 14 des 50 especes les plus importantes pour les Miskitu sont indigenes aux tropiques du Nouveau Monde et uniquement trois aI'Amerique centrale. L'acculturation des Miskitu augmente rapidement a cause d'une forte immigration. Cette etude est done importante: elle permet de documenter l'utilisation des plantes pour des besoins scientifiques et preserve les connaissances orales relatives a I'exploitation des plantes medicinales par les Miskitu.

ETHNOSCIENTIA, 2022

Los sistemas agroforestales constituyen importantes espacios para la diversidad e involucran conocimientos ecológicos tradicionales en su manejo. En América Latina, por ejemplo en Mesoamérica y Andes existen diversos tipos de sistemas agroforestales representativos de cada región. Estos espacios son huertos familiares y se caracterizan por la presencia de plantas y animales domésticos que coexisten con especies silvestres y que son considerados alimentos. En este artículo mostramos un estudio de los huertos familiares de la región p’urhépecha denominados ekuaros y la zona andina, como es la chakra, documentamos cualitativamente la relación entre la diversidad de alimentos silvestres y la soberanía alimentaria en Mesomaérica y Andes, particularmente entre pueblos p’urhépechas y cayambis. Documentos aspectos de cambio culturaly contribuímos a la discusión sobre los alimentos que se encuentran en un continuo entre lo silvestre y lo domesticado. El trabajo etnográfico realizado mostró tres elementos principales: 1) la diversidad de formas domésticas y silvestres que coexisten en los huertos familiares y forman parte de los sistemas de soberanía alimentaria. 2) el cambio cultural no solo afecta a los huertos familiares de maneras perjudiciales, en algunos contextos ha promovido su diversificación. 3) los alimentos silvestres se encuentran en procesos complejos de domesticación, en estos escenarios es dificil definir las lineas entre lo doméstico y lo silvestre. Concluímos que los estudios sobre alimentos silvestres deben considerar enfoques más amplios para comprender cómo se relacionan con los cambios culturales que se experimentan a escala local.

Today’s traditional plant uses of the Anishinaabek (A’-nish-enaa-beck’) American Indian culture of the Northern Great Lakes region were documented and interpreted through botanical and cultural frameworks. The Ojibway, Odawa, and Potawatomi tribes all consider themselves Anishinaabek, “the good people,” in their own language dialects and were known as the “People of the Three Fires”. Here I examined a broad range of plant usage, including medicinal plants, utility plants, ceremonial plants, and food plants. I assessed the current status (post WWII) of traditional plant use within seven communities and compared that to the most recent research (1910-1933). The sample population consisted of 31 male and female elders and middle aged ceremonial leaders of both reservation and non-reservation communities of Anishinaabek living in Michigan, Wisconsin, and southern Ontario. Using ethnographic methods, I compared the retention of knowledge among the seven American Indian communities, and assessed the overall status of traditional plant knowledge of the Anishinaabek Indians through the historical periods. The botanical and cultural data was interpreted through the framework of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and ethnoecology. ii I identified modifications of plant use, as well as retained practices in one of the largest North American Indian cultures. The plant families that were most utilized according to folk species: Rosaceae (10%), Ericaceae (6.7%), Asteraceae (5.6%), Pinaceae (5.6%), Solanaceae (4.4%), and Salicaceae (4.4%). The largest use category for the 90 species discussed by the 31 informants was medicinal plants (57.8%), followed by utility plants (41.1%) and food plants (41.1%), and finally ceremonial plants (27.8%). The use values of the medicine wheel plants: sweet grass (93.5%), cultivated tobacco (90.3%), white cedar (83.9%), and prairie sage (61.3%). The medicine wheel plants were used by the inhabitants of the Great Lakes region dating back at least into the Middle Woodland period (200 B.C-400 A.D). The conclusions contributed to the discussions in political ecology and symbolism in ethnoecology. The research has implications for the environmental policy of the Northern Great Lakes region.

2020

During the seventeenth century in the Mohawk Valley, European trade goods became commonplace. However, little is known about how colonialism impacted Mohawk agricultural practice and foodways. This thesis presents paleoethnobotanical findings from ten Mohawk archaeological sites ranging from the Middle Woodland to the Early Historic period that demonstrate change and persistence in foodways, and medical practices associated with European influences. Similarities and differences in Mohawk macrobotanical remains are examined through density and ubiquity analyses. These findings reflect marginal changes in traditional food preferences and elucidate colonialism experienced by the Haudenosaunee of the Northeastern United States after the arrival of Europeans. Furthermore, this research contributes to broader understandings of colonial influences on the region and the continuity of this influence into contemporary Mohawk culture.

This paper will review evidence from the Huaracane site of Yahuay Alta that demonstrates its residents produced chicha de molle in both public/ceremonial and domestic contexts during the early Middle Horizon. Although, production of this beverage, which is closely associated with Wari identity, implies close interaction with Wari colonists, the evidence suggests that this beverage was incorporated into existing Huaracane practices. The rejection of Wari consumption practices and material culture indicates that even though there was cultural exchange between the Wari and Huaracane, the community at Yahuay Alta actively maintained a relatively traditional cultural identity in the face of colonization.

Starchy Foodways, 2020

The foodways approach to archaeobotanical investigation is used in this dissertation for reconstructing lost and forgotten lifeways. Food is a social lubricant that deeply engages with identity. As such, understanding culinary practices contributes towards inferring elements of group identity. The deep history of the Greater Caribbean is rich with culinary practices. Through different forms of plant management, the foundations for diverse and distinct culinary practices were created that the Europeans started to exploit in 1492 and afterwards spread across the world. In this research, microbotanical residues (starches) were recovered from different types of presumed plant-related artifacts excavated in three geographic regions: the northwestern Dominican Republic, the Bahama archipelago, and central Nicaragua. Four case studies from five archaeological sites were examined. The first case study is a residue analysis of shell and limestone artifacts from the archaeological site LN-101 (cal. 1088 ± 68 CE) on Long Island, Commonwealth of The Bahamas. This case study contributes the first examination of limestone tools and the first certain identification of manioc (cassava) in the Bahama archipelago. The second case study is a starch analysis of shell artifact samples from three archaeological sites: El Flaco (cal. 1309 ± 81 CE) and La Luperona (cal. 1352 ± 60 CE) in the northwestern Dominican Republic, and Palmetto Junction (cal. 1391 ± 41 CE) on Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands. This case study provides additional evidence for the use of exogenous plants in the northern Caribbean and recognizes culinary practices according to which certain plants were pre-cooked before being processed further using bivalve shells. In the third case study, the recovered material remains derived from the same sites, but the artifacts represent fired clay griddles. This case study provides the first evidence of manioc being prepared on such griddles in the insular Caribbean. The fourth case study expands the scope of this dissertation to mainland Nicaragua. From unique finds of pottery griddle fragments at the Barillas site (cal. 1261 ± 37 CE) in central Nicaragua, it challenges preconceived views of ancient foodways in the region. These results invalidate the preconception that griddles were tools used exclusively for the production of maize tortillas in pre-Hispanic Central America, which helps explicate associations drawn between ethnic identities and culinary practices. Overall, this dissertation creates a more refined insight into how starchy culinary practices varied in the Greater Caribbean prior to the advent of European invasions.

Economic Botany, 1977

The ethnobotany of the Paumari Indians was studied because their plant uses are fast being forgotten with the encroachment of western culture..4 brief description of some of the common plants used in everyday life and of their food crops is given. The two narcotic snuffs made from Tanaecium nocturnum (Bignoniaceae) and Virola elongata (Myristicaceae) are described in some detail. A list of medicinal and poisonous plants is also given.

Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 1996

Background: Knowledge about wild edible plants (WEPs) has a high direct-use value. Yet, little is known about factors shaping the distribution and transfer of knowledge of WEPs at global level and there is concern that use of and knowledge about WEPs is decreasing. This study aimed to investigate the distribution, transmission and loss of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) concerning WEPs used by a Mayan community of Guatemala and to enumerate such plants. Methods: The case study was carried out in a semi-isolated community where part of the population took refuge in the mountains in 1982–1985 with WEPs as the main source of food. Major variables possibly determining knowledge and therefore investigated were socio-demographic characteristics, distance to and abundance of natural resources and main source of knowledge transmission. A reference list of species was prepared with the help of three key informants. Information about the theoretical dimension of knowledge was gathered through free listing and a questionnaire survey, while practical skills were assessed using a plant identification test with photographs. All villagers older than 7 years participated in the research (n = 62 including key informants). Results: A total of 44 WEPs were recorded. Theoretical knowledge was unevenly distributed among the population, and a small group including very few informants (n = 3) mentioned, on average, three times more plants than the rest of the population during the free listing. Practical knowledge was more homogeneously distributed, key informants recognising 23 plants on average and the rest of the population 17. Theoretical and practical knowledge increased with age, the latter decreasing in the late phases of life. Knowledge about WEPs was transmitted through relatives in 76% of the cases, which led to increased knowledge of plants and ability to recognise them. Conclusions: The WEP survey may serve as a reference point and as a useful compilation of knowledge for the community for their current and future generations. This study shows that the elder and the refugees living in the area for longer time know more than others about WEPs. It also shows the important role of knowledge transmission through relatives to preserve TEK.

Economic Botany, 1975

Abstract The termwisakon, recorded among Southeastern Algonquian Indians in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, frequently has been iden tified as one of several plant species. However, it appears thatwisakon referred not to any particular plant species but to a general category of substances that included both plant and nonplant materials. The misunderstanding illustrates some of the problems and procedures involved in the exchange and integration of botanical information by Europeans and Indians in the early ...

Southern California Quarterly

This article explores Indigenous food exchange patterns prior to Afroeurasian colonization and continuing today. It calls for the application of historical inquiry into early foodways-production, consumption, exchange, ecological adaptation-in the quest for solutions to looming global challenges of food justice, climate change, health, population, etc.

Researchers have often equated ethnobotanical knowledge collected through interview questions with actual uses of plants, but knowledge and uses of plants might or might not move in lockstep. Using data from 132 adults living in two villages of a foraging-farming society in the Bolivian Amazon, the Tsimane´, we compare ethnobotanical knowledge with uses of wild and semi-domesticated plants. Villages differed in proximity to the market town and in dependence on forest resources. We find that people in the more remote village knew and used more plants than did people in the accessible village. We also find that individual ethnobotanical knowledge correlates positively with uses of plants in the pooled sample and in the isolated village, but not in the village with less dependence on forest resources. Researchers could use the gap between ethnobotanical knowledge and actual uses of plants to study erosion of ethnobotanical knowledge.

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Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2015

Magical charm plants – used to ensure good luck in hunting, fishing, agriculture, love and warfare – are known among many Amerindians groups in the Guianas. Documented by anthropologists as social and political markers and exchangeable commodities, these charms have received little attention by ethnobotanists, as they are surrounded by secrecy and are difficult to identify. We compared the use of charm species among indigenous groups in the Guianas to see whether similarity in charm species was related to geographical or cultural proximity. We hypothesized that cultivated plants were more widely shared than wild ones and that charms with underground bulbs were more widely used than those without such organs, as vegetatively propagated plants would facilitate transfer of charm knowledge.