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This study examines the degree to which knowledge of traditional plant medicine is gendered among communities settled near Chapada Diamantina National Park in eastern Bahia state, northeast Brazil. Employing a quantitative analysis of a sample plant pharmacopoeia, I focus on the relationship between gender, age and the socioeconomic impacts of globalization in this tropical region. Results indicate that women are more familiar with both the field identities and the medicinal values of the local flora than are men. This division is pronounced among older participants (30–80 years) who represent a reservoir of medicinal plant knowledge that is in danger of disappearing. I suggest that this heightened understanding among women is due to historical gender divisions of space and labour; the inherently high potential for medicinal plant identification and collection in anthropogenic habitats; and the role of women as primary healthcare givers for the family.

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SUMMARYStudy of the ecological and economic effects of invasive species has paralleled their progressively pervasive influence worldwide, yet their cultural impacts remain largely unexamined and therefore unrecognized. Unlike biological systems, where the ecological consequences of biological invasions are primarily negative, from an ethnoscientific standpoint, invasive species' impacts on cultural systems span a range of effects. Biological invasions affect cultural groups in myriad, often unpredictable and at times contradictory ways. This review groups case studies into a conceptual matrix suggesting three categorically different cultural impacts of invasive species. Culturally impoverishing invasive species precipitate the loss or replacement of culturally important native species and their associated cultural practices. Culturally enriching invasive species augment cultural traditions, through their inclusion in lexicons, narratives, foods, pharmacopoeias and other tangible and intangible ends. Culturally facilitating invasive species can provide continuity and reformulation of traditional ethnobiological practices. An understanding of the processes by which invasive biota become culturally enriching, facilitating, or impoverishing can contribute to articulating interdisciplinary programmes aimed at simultaneously conserving biological and cultural diversity.

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