Abstract:We present a comparative study on the use of wild honeys produced by insects of the order Hymenoptera in the Criollos (of mixed origin) and Polish populations in the northern part of the province of Misiones, Argentina. The principal questions of the study are: do different types of honey exist that are used for both nutritional and medicinal purposes or on the contrary: do exclusively nutritional and/or medicinal honeys exist? When used medicinally, are these honeys involved in the cure or prevention of similar ailments? The previous report of the use of complex drugs consisting of honey and medicinal plants or other products, led us to inquire about alternative or complementary roles among the sapid and medicinal properties of honeys in these blends. This question is approached from the local understanding of the role of honey in the preparation of medicines, treatments and prevention of common diseases in the area. This study is based partly on the results of two larger projects in progress in the mentioned areas.We prepared an open-ended questionnaire and worked with 16 Polish settlers, and with 23 Criollos farmers. The honeys of two species: bee (Apis mellifera) and yateí (Tetrogonisca angustula) obtained the greatest number of reports within alimentary and medicinal categories of use. They were also employed as functional and medicinal food. In general terms, we found a similar corpus of traditional medical knowledge for both populations. The relation between phytotherapy and zootherapy is evident for Criollos and Polish groups. Nevertheless, they show differences in forms of preparation and administrations. Criollos reported the use of greater number of plant species and more combinations of complex remedies.

Honey-based mixtures used in home medicine by nonindigenous population of Misiones, Argentina. Medicinal mixtures are an underinvestigated issue in ethnomedical literature concerning Misiones, one of the most bioculturally diverse province of Argentina. The new culturally sensitive politics of the Provincial Health System is a response to cultural practices based on the medicinal use of plant and animal products in the home medicine of the local population. Honey-based medicinal formulas were investigated through interviews with 39 farmers of mixed cultural (Criollos) and Polish origins in northern Misiones. Fifty plant species and 8 animal products are employed in honey-based medicines. Plants are the most dominant and variable elements of mixtures. Most of the mixtures are food medicines. The role of honey in more than 90% of formulas is perceived as therapeutic. The ecological distribution of taxa and the cultural aspects of mixtures are discussed, particularly the European and American influences that have shaped the character of multispecies medicinal recipes.

BackgroundNot long ago Eugene Hunn suggested using a combination of cognitive, linguistic, ecological and evolutionary theories in order to account for the dynamic character of ethnoecology in the study of folk classification systems. In this way he intended to question certain homogeneity in folk classifications models and deepen in the analysis and interpretation of variability in folk classifications. This paper studies how a rural culturally mixed population of the Atlantic Forest of Misiones (Argentina) classified honey-producing stingless bees according to the linguistic, cognitive and ecological dimensions of folk classification. We also analyze the socio-ecological meaning of binomialization in naming and the meaning of general local variability in the appointment of stingless bees.MethodsWe used three different approaches: the classical approach developed by Brent Berlin which relies heavily on linguistic criteria, the approach developed by Eleonor Rosch which relies on psychological (cognitive) principles of categorization and finally we have captured the ecological dimension of folk classification in local narratives. For the second approximation, we developed ways of measuring the degree of prototypicality based on a total of 107 comparisons of the type “X is similar to Y” identified in personal narratives.ResultsVarious logical and grouping strategies coexist and were identified as: graded of lateral linkage, hierarchical and functional. Similarity judgments among folk taxa resulted in an implicit logic of classification graded according to taxa’s prototypicality. While there is a high agreement on naming stingless bees with monomial names, a considerable number of underrepresented binomial names and lack of names were observed. Two possible explanations about reported local naming variability are presented.ConclusionsWe support the multidimensionality of folk classification systems. This confirms the specificity of local classification systems but also reflects the use of grouping strategies and mechanisms commonly observed in other cultural groups, such as the use of similarity judgments between more or less prototypical organisms. Also we support the idea that alternative naming results from a process of fragmentation of knowledge or incomplete transmission of knowledge. These processes lean on the facts that culturally based knowledge, on the one hand, and biologic knowledge of nature on the other, can be acquired through different learning pathways.