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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.

This contribution presents information about the history of introduction, establishment, and local appropriation of Eurasian fruit trees—species and varieties of the genera Prunus and Citrus—from 15th century in two rural areas of Northern Argentina. By means of an ethnobotanical and ethnohistorical approach, our study was aimed at analysing how this process influenced local medicine and the design of cultural landscape that they are still part of. As a first step, local diversity, knowledge, and management practices of these fruit tree species were surveyed. In a second moment, medicinal properties attributed to them were documented. A historical literature was consulted referring to different aspects on introduction of peaches and citric species into America and their uses in the past. The appropriation of these fruit-trees gave place to new applications and a particular status for introduced species that are seen as identitary and contribute to the definition of the communities and daily life landscapes. Besides, these plants, introduced in a relatively short period and with written record, allow the researcher to understand and to design landscape domestication, as a multidimensional result of physical, social, and symbolic environment.