Ethnobotany and Biocultural Diversities in the Balkans

Pieroni, Andréa; Quave, Cassandra L.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-1492-0

Cited by 40 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…communis, Matricaria chamomilla, Betula pendula Roth.). The most often mentioned species are in line with those mentioned in similar studies in South Tyrol (Petelka et al, 2022) or in the neighbouring Province of Trento (Cavalloro et al, 2022) and, for example, in the Transylvanian or Balkan region (Živković et al, 2020;Quave and Pieroni 2014;So ukand and Pieroni, 2016). According to the interviewees, South Tyrol is witnessing the mainstreamed popularization of certain medicinal plants ("the glorious 20"; e.g., I1, I9) and its marketing.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Understanding old herbal secrets: The renaissance of traditional medicinal plants beyond the twenty classic species?

Scherrer

Zerbe

Petelka³

et al. 2023

Front. Pharmacol.

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The use of traditional medicinal plants plays an important role especially in remote rural and marginalized landscapes at different latitudes. In the development of nature conservation strategies based on local knowledge and sustainable resource management, medicinal herbs have been hypothesized to be cultural key stone species. Environmental education is a crucial driver for fostering environmental literacy and preserving local knowledge across generations. We conducted semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Autonomous Province of Bozen-South Tyrol (N Italy) to gain insights into, and reflections on, the cultural value of traditional medicinal plants and their interplay within the local landscape, nature conservation and their role in environmental education and knowledge transfer across generations. We also used a combination of purposive and snowball sampling to identify relevant actors. The different voices collected in the study clearly highlight the role of medicinal herbs in healthcare, for cultural identity of local communities and demonstrate a growing commercial market niche that maintains the local economy and services, including widespread offers related to environmental education, that have not, unfortunately, been used yet in the formal curricula of local schools. The latter is crucial for a holistic approach taking medicinal plants as an ideal vehicle to connect especially children with nature and history of South Tyrol, strengthening health education and overall environmental literacy, including species knowledge. However, the revival of herbal medicine and related knowledge do not prevent the continuous loss of local traditional knowledge regarding medicinal plants, recipes and use. More species and their uses are being forgotten due to superficialisation of knowledge and of mainstreaming and homogenization of the global market of herbal medicine. Safeguarding the natural and cultural treasures of South Tyrol for future generations is in the hands of the local communities.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Understanding old herbal secrets: The renaissance of traditional medicinal plants beyond the twenty classic species?

Scherrer

Zerbe

Petelka³

et al. 2023

Front. Pharmacol.

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“…In Central Europe, the nineteenth-and early twentieth-century use of plants by peasants, both for food and medicine, was well studied (e.g., [6,[19][20][21][22]). On the other hand, in the south of Europe fewer such studies were made [23][24][25]. A notable exception to this is Croatia, with interesting ethnobotanical data published at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A century of changes in wild food plant use in coastal Croatia: the example of Krk and Poljica

et al. 2016

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The aim of this study was to document the use of wild foods in two locations in the coastal part of Croatia -on the island of Krk and in the Poljica area, near Split. We chose these places as they have historical data on plant use (1900 and 1903 respectively). We carried out 67 interviews in Poljica and 55 interviews in Krk to estimate the current use and knowledge of wild foods. Altogether, 80 species of wild food and herbal tea species of plants were recorded in Poljica and 76 in Krk. On average, 13.2 species were listed by per interview in Poljica, including 7.1 species of wild vegetables, and in Krk 14.6 species, including 7.9 species of wild vegetables. Out of the list of plant names recorded in the past, in Krk, we identified 82% of the taxa and in Poljica 86%.

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“…It is well known that plant additives are used in the preparation of lacto-fermented foods, which are considered healthy foods, for use during winter, and this is considered typical for the Balkan population [8,11,35]. It was reported that a red variety of Raphanus spp.…”

Section: Edible Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of the previous studies were mainly aimed at medicinal and edible plants and traditional handicrafts [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and shed new light on existing ethnological and anthropological data. Some studies investigated small ethnic groups living in more or less isolated communities and provided new and very important data about the characteristics, storage, and transfer of the region's traditional knowledge [6,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. These not only addressed the specific features of the region, but also contributed to the understanding of complex historical and social processes that by far exceed the limitations of the mechanical documentation of botanical data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk food and medicinal botanical knowledge among the last remaining Yörüks of the Balkans

2017

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The present study examines the current lifestyle of the last remaining Balkan Yörüks, a small and isolated group found within the Republic of Macedonia, and the modern representatives of an important portion of the Balkan nomads. The aim of this study was to document knowledge concerning local wild food plants and wild and cultivated medicinal plants, and to compare the Yörük ethnobotany with that of similar, more or less isolated ethnic groups occurring in the Balkan region (Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Turkey) in order to assess how cultural adaptation processes may have affected Yörük plant folklore. We conducted this study by means of detailed, semi-structured interviews with 48 key informants.Sixty-seven plant taxa were recorded from 55 genera, based on the compilation of more than 150 reports relating to medicinal, food, forage, ornamental, and dye plants, as well as some elements relating to animals and minerals. Our field study data show several major ethnic boundary markers that contribute to the homogeneity of the community and also distinguish it sufficiently from the surrounding society: (i) well-isolated locality; (ii) local dialect and endogamy; (iii) casual clothing worn by women; (iv) ceremonial jewelry: a necklace of cloves (Syzygium aromaticum); (v) Sempervivum marmoreum as an only ornamental plant which also has a medicinal use; and (vi) Mentha spicata as the dominant culinary herb, which has a medicinal use too. Comparison of the collected ethnobotanical data with that of similar, more or less isolated ethnic groups in the Balkan region shows that overlapping taxa include mainly plants whose fresh fruit are used; both nuts as well as edible greens. These plants are simultaneously used for medicinal purposes too, as home remedies, but in very different ways to other ethnic groups.Yörüks represent a remarkable cultural group in the Balkans. This community has nomadic traditions, but nowadays the people have a settled lifestyle. Traditional knowledge remains strong and is retained within a well-defined cultural boundary.

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Ethnobotany and Biocultural Diversities in the Balkans

Cited by 40 publications

References 71 publications

Understanding old herbal secrets: The renaissance of traditional medicinal plants beyond the twenty classic species?

Understanding old herbal secrets: The renaissance of traditional medicinal plants beyond the twenty classic species?

A century of changes in wild food plant use in coastal Croatia: the example of Krk and Poljica

Folk food and medicinal botanical knowledge among the last remaining Yörüks of the Balkans

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