Gaining momentum: Popularization of Epilobium angustifolium as food and recreational tea on the Eastern edge of Europe

Kalle, Raivo; Belichenko, Olga; Kuznetsova, Natalia; Kolosova, Valeria; Prakofjewa, Julia; Stryamets, Nataliya; Mattalia, Giulia; Šarka, Povilas; Simanova, Andra; Prūse, Baiba; Mežaka, Ieva; Sõukand, Renata

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2020.104638

Cited by 28 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Only one interviewee recalled that her mother used this plant spontaneously (made tea) because it had flowers that smelled good. However, Epilobium angustifolium, which has become popular today due to Russian-language literature, was now used by both Estonians and the Seto (see also [64]). Additionally, the use of Taraxacum officinale was not reported in archival texts, and so its use is the result of later literature (ca 1980s).…”

Section: Cross-cultural Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Devil Is in the Details: Use of Wild Food Plants in Historical Võromaa and Setomaa, Present-Day Estonia

Kalle

Sõukand

Pieroni

2020

Foods

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biodiversity needs to be preserved to ensure food security. Border zones create high but vulnerable biocultural diversity. Through reviewing scattered historical data and documenting the current use of wild food plants among people currently living in historical Setomaa and Võromaa parishes, we aimed to identify cross-cultural differences and diachronic changes as well as the role borders have played on the local use of wild plants. The Seto have still preserved their distinctive features either by consciously opposing others or by maintaining more historical plant uses. People historically living in Setomaa and Võromaa parishes have already associated the eating of wild plants with famine food in the early 20th century, yet it was stressed more now by the Seto than by Estonians. Loss of Pechory as the center of attraction in the region when the border was closed in the early 1990s brought about a decline in the exchange of knowledge as well as commercial activities around wild food plants. National support for businesses in the area today and the popularity of a healthy lifestyle have introduced new wild food plant applications and are helping to preserve local plant-specific uses in the area.

show abstract

Section: Cross-cultural Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Devil Is in the Details: Use of Wild Food Plants in Historical Võromaa and Setomaa, Present-Day Estonia

Kalle

Sõukand

Pieroni

2020

Foods

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It turns out that although they were mostly interested in medical properties and occurrence in other parts of the world (or the former USSR), they never actually read it (we do not know, however, if they would actually apply it if somebody was in medical need). This knowledge was, therefore, meant rather as pure information, to be collected but not practised 11 . The authority of the rigid botanical text seemed prevailing.…”

Section: Text and Illustration Poaching Wayfaring Fact-checkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If we want to better understand the processes of knowledge-making, then, we argue, we cannot ignore written sources on plants if these written sources are important to people. Some ethnobotanists (e.g., [5,[7][8][9][10][11]) have already paid attention to knowledge from written sources and showed their importance for LEK of various communities. They, however, did not scrutinize the actual processes of interaction with written texts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How practice in plant collection influences interactions with illustrations and written texts on local plants? A case study from Daghestan, North Caucasus

Kaliszewska

Kołodziejska-Degórska

2020

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: It is only recently that written sources of local knowledge on plants are not being ignored by scholars as not belonging to "traditional" knowledge. Ethnobotanical texts, however, if they at all focus on knowledge from written sources, hardly ever pay any attention to the actual processes of interaction with written texts and illustrations. During our research, we examined people's interactions with texts, illustrations, and herbarium specimens of plants they collect or are familiar with. We focused on a small community of Shiri people in the mountainous village and in the lowland settlements in the Republic of Daghestan, Russia. In the paper, we address the following questions: how do Shiri people interact with illustrations, written text, and herbaria specimens? How is this interaction influenced by the practice of plant collection? What are the methodological implications of the ways people interact with illustrations, texts, and herbaria specimens? Methods: Our research was based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork: co-designing of a booklet showing edible plants people collect in Shiri, semi-structured interviews, and video-recordings, and observing interactions between people and text/illustrations/voucher specimens. Results: We identified three kinds of interactions between individuals and text/illustrations: "text-wayfaring"predominantly a bodily interaction between an individual and illustrations and text; "fact/spelling checking"predominantly discursive and information focused; "between wayfaring and fact-checking"-the mix of the two. Using the idea of textual poaching, as well as the knowledge-making approach, we show that the mode of interaction with text/illustrations influences what is acquired, and how. This process influences readers' LEK. The mere presence of an information in the text available to people does not imply that they will acquire it, make use of it, and change their LEK. Photographs and pressed specimens of locally known plants are often not (or only partly) recognized by the interlocutors. Video-recording is essential for analyzing the above mentioned interactions.

show abstract

“… Sõukand et al., 2013 ; Stryamets et al., 2015 ; Sõukand and Pieroni, 2016 ; Sõukand et al., 2017 ; Pieroni and Sõukand, 2018 ), the people mentioning their use have been very few. Fieldwork carried out in summer 2018, however, showed a comparably wide use of Ivan-chaj in several of the researched sites, especially in the Russian Federation, where around a quarter of the interviewees reported the current use of Ivan-chaj as a recreational tea ( Kalle et al., 2020 ). Significantly, Kalle et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Re-written narrative: transformation of the image of Ivan-chaj in Eastern Europe

Prakofjewa

Kalle

Belichenko

et al. 2020

Heliyon

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this study was to understand the role of viral narratives and the involvement of social media into the invention of tradition. We took as an example the recently highly promoted Ivan-chaj, a tea made from the fermented leaves of willowherb, a plant little known and used in Europe until a few years ago. Relying on a wide variety of sources circulating on the Internet (videos, various texts and visuals) and robust empirical field research results, we used mixed methods to analyze this specific case in order to understand if people adopt new teachings and if their acceptance leads to practical output. The results showed that the new teachings spread quickly, supported by narratives based on a wide variety of interaction points that viralized the message, also causing an economic impact. It is clear that the change of status and the economic success that Ivan-chaj now enjoys is due to the virality of the narrative, which has reshaped the image of Ivan-chaj from an “outcast” imitation and tea substitute into the national healthy drink. Having appeared in Russia, mostly as a Russian cultural marker, the narrative went viral and spread beyond its borders where neighbors have tried in turn to embrace Ivan-chaj as their own cultural marker by proclaiming it a local tradition. Indeed, narratives regarding Ivan-chaj spread easily in countries sharing some linguistic, historical and/or cultural elements with Russia (via the nexus of the Soviet Union).

show abstract

Gaining momentum: Popularization of Epilobium angustifolium as food and recreational tea on the Eastern edge of Europe

Cited by 28 publications

References 35 publications

Devil Is in the Details: Use of Wild Food Plants in Historical Võromaa and Setomaa, Present-Day Estonia

Devil Is in the Details: Use of Wild Food Plants in Historical Võromaa and Setomaa, Present-Day Estonia

How practice in plant collection influences interactions with illustrations and written texts on local plants? A case study from Daghestan, North Caucasus

Re-written narrative: transformation of the image of Ivan-chaj in Eastern Europe

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About