Medicines in the Kitchen: Gender Roles Shape Ethnobotanical Knowledge in Marrakshi Households

Abstract

Differences in gendered knowledge about plants are contingent on specific cultural domains. Yet the boundaries between these domains, for example food and medicine, are sometimes blurred, and it is unclear if and how gender plays a role in creating a continuum between them. Here, we present an in-depth evaluation of the links between gender, medicinal plant knowledge, and culinary culture in Marrakech, Morocco. We interviewed 30 women and 27 men with different socio-demographic characteristics and evaluated how gender and cooking frequency shape their food and medicinal plant knowledge. We documented 171 ethno-taxa used in Marrakshi households as food, medicine, or both, corresponding to 148 botanical taxa and three mixtures. While no clear differences appear in food plant knowledge by gender, women have a three-fold greater knowledge of medicinal plants, as well as plants with both uses as food and medicine. Women’s medicinal and food plant knowledge increases with their reported frequency of cooking, whereas the opposite trend is observed among men. Men who cook more are often single, have university-level degrees, and may be isolated from the channels of knowledge transmission. This demonstrates that the profound relations between the culinary and health domains are mediated through gender.

Seaweed ethnobotany of eastern Sorsogon, Philippines

“…Female relatives (mothers and grandmothers) were the predominant providers of seaweed knowledge while children were favored as the largest beneficiaries. Our finding are consistent with previous studies (Voeks 2007, Teixidor-Toneu et al 2021. Although seaweed knowledge was conserved and transmitted vertically through family dissemination within families, still, a significant portion of the population withheld what they knew.…”

Long-Term Monitoring of the Traditional Knowledge of Plant Species Used for Culinary Purposes in the Valencia Region, South-Eastern Spain

“…Thus, women account for 59.36% of those interviewed, having a great historical contribution to traditional cuisine, compared to the typical role of men in rural tasks and their low participation in household chores. The results coincide with other studies where women’s medicinal and food provisioning role and related socio-ecological knowledge are still widespread in the Mediterranean basin [ 53 ]. Therefore, in other investigations, similar gendered ethnobiology patterns are detected, concluding that gendered knowledge is highly associated with the division of tasks and responsibilities of people [ 54 ].…”

Short Communication: Utilization of wild plants in medicinal foods for maternal postpartum recovery among the Kasepuhan in rural West Java, Indonesia

“…Other ethnobotanical investigations suggest that gender is a significant variable influencing the distribution of local knowledge concerning medicinal plants (Garibay-Orijel et al 2012;Díaz-Reviriego et al 2016;Smucker and Wangui 2016;Torres-Avilez et al 2016;Alqethami et al 2017;Jones 2022). In certain regions, females are closer to the identification and medicinal uses of local flora than males (Tuler and da Silva 2014;Acosta-Naranjo et al 2021;Teixidor-Toneu et al 2021). In other regions, there are no significant gender differences in plant knowledge (de Santana et al 2022).…”