Inventing a herbal tradition: The complex roots of the current popularity of Epilobium angustifolium in Eastern Europe

Sõukand, Renata; Mattalia, Giulia; Kolosova, Valeriia; Stryamets, Nataliya; Prakofjewa, Julia; Belichenko, Olga; Kuznetsova, Natalia; Minuzzi, Sabrina; Keedus, Liisi; Prūse, Baiba; Simanova, Andra; Ippolitova, Aleksandra; Kalle, Raivo

doi:10.1016/j.jep.2019.112254

Cited by 35 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…On one hand, scholars as far back as the 19th century realized that there is an influence of written sources on "traditional knowledge" [3]. On the other hand, many ethnobotanists who work in communities with little access to written sources, still try to separate the knowledge from written sources from "pure" TK ( [4], [5], and critique of this position by Vermeylen et al [6]). Such a practice may be, of course, goal determined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some ethnobotanists (e.g. [7], [8], [5], [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%

“…[6]). In those communities which have had extensive contact with written sources, the mixing of various sources of knowledge is obvious (global interconnections make it even more visible [16], [5]). The second controversy regarding bringing written materials to the community comes from the idea that the researcher should avoid influencing the community (if it is even possible).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

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

Preprint

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 analysing the above mentioned interactions.Conclusions In ethnobotanical research, it is important to pay more attention to people’s interaction with their sources of knowledge, including text and illustrations. The discursive part of LEK is more easily influenced by written sources. The practice of plant collection is not as easily influenced. Ethnobotanists function in a particular context and are embedded in discourses oriented towards conservation of bio-cultural diversity that value heritage as such, so it is important to be aware of one’s positionality. A methodology that relies on showing pressed specimens or photographs to interlocutors may be a very misleading way of collecting ethnobotanical data.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…On one hand, scholars as far back as in XIX century realized that there is an influence of written sources on "traditional knowledge" [1]. On the other hand, however, many ethnobotanists who work in communities with little access to written sources, still try to separate the knowledge from written sources from "pure" TK ( [2], [3] and critique of such position by Vermeylen et al [4]). Such practice may be, of course, goal determined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If we, however, want to understand better the processes of knowledge making then, we argue, we cannot ignore written sources on plants, if they are important to people. Some ethnobotanists (for example [5], [6], [3], [7], [8]) have already paid attention to knowledge from written sources and showed the importance of written sources in 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? Case study from Daghestan, North Caucasus

Kołodziejska-Degórska

Kaliszewska

2020

Preprint

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. However, usually ethnobotanical texts, if they at all focus on knowledge from written sources, they do not pay 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 amount of practice in plant collection influences reading of the texts about plants and looking at illustrations? 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-recording 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 individual and illustrations and text; “fact/spelling checking” – predominantly discursive and information focused; “between wayfaring and fact checking” – the mix of the two above. Using the idea of textual poaching as well as knowledge making approach we show that the way of interacting influences what is acquired from the text/illustrations and how. This process influences reader’s LEK. The mere presence of the 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. Video-recording is essential for analysing the above interactions. Conclusions In ethnobotanical research it is important to pay more attention to people’s interaction with their sources of knowledge, including text and illustrations. Discursive part of LEK is more easily influenced by written sources. Practice of plant collection is not as easily influenced.

show abstract

Metabolomics Application in Herbal Medicine

Wang

Zhang

Sun

et al. 2021

Mass Spectrometry‐Based Metabolomics in Clinical and Herbal Medicines

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Inventing a herbal tradition: The complex roots of the current popularity of Epilobium angustifolium in Eastern Europe

Cited by 35 publications

References 22 publications

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

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

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

Metabolomics Application in Herbal Medicine

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About