Renegotiating situativity: transformations of local herbal knowledge in a Western Alpine valley during the past 40 years

Abstract

Background Mountain environments are fragile socio-ecological systems and the conservation of their biological and cultural diversities— seen as co-evolving, strongly intertwined entities—represents a crucial issue for fostering their sustainability. Very few ethnobiological studies have assessed in the mountainous regions of Europe how local botanical knowledge, which represents a vital portion of the local environmental knowledge (LEK), changes over time, although this may be quintessential for a better understanding of the factors influencing how knowledge and practices are shaped, eroded, or even re-created. Methods In the current study, we compared the gathering and use of local medicinal plants in the Upper Sangone Valley, Western Italian Alps, Piedmont (NW Italy) as described in a field study conducted in the mid-seventies and published in 1977 and those arising from field research that we conducted in the spring of 2015 and 2018, during which time ethnobotanical and ethnomycological information concerning both folk medicinal and wild food uses was obtained via 47 in-depth open and semi-structured interviews with community members. Results In total, one hundred thirty folk taxa represent the past and present medicinal and wild food plant/mushroom heritage of the Sangone Valley: 26 herbal taxa were recorded 40 years ago only; 68 herbal and wild food taxa have been recorded in the current study only; and 36 herbal taxa have been continuously used during the last 40 years. There were no remarkable quantitative differences between the two diachronic medico-ethnobotanical datasets, but the qualitative differences were substantial. The gathering and use of some medicinal plants growing in meadows, forests and higher mountain environments (i.e. Arctostaphylos, Filipendula, Hepatica, Larix, Laserptium, Picea, Polygonatum, Primula, Tussilago and Veronica spp.) disappeared, whereas the collection of plant genera growing in more anthropogenic environments or possibly promoted via popular books and media has been newly introduced (i.e. Aloysia, Apium, Brassica, Crataegus, Epilobium, Fumaria, Geranium, Juniperus, Melissa, Rubus, Rumex, Sedum, Silybum, Taraxacum and Vaccinium spp.). Conclusion The findings show a renegotiation of the situativity that for centuries forged the embeddedness of local communities in their natural environments, probably heavily informed in the past by prevalent pastoralist and forest-centred activities and thus by a deeper knowledge of higher mountain and forest environments. The re-arrangement of a more domestic and more “globalized” herbal knowledge system was possibly inspired by new urban residents, who started to populate the valley at the end of the Seventies, when the original inhabitants abandoned their homes for the urban centres of the Piedmontese plain. The current study suggests that future directions of ethnobiological research should more carefully look at the adaptive capacity of LEK systems.

Crumbotti and rose petals in a ghost mountain valley: foraging, landscape, and their transformations in the upper Borbera Valley, NW Italy

“…To this end, particular attention should be paid to the continuities and changes of LEK across time and space. In fact, rural abandonment cannot be described a priori as an erosion of LEK, but rather a qualitative and quantitative change that affects the community and expresses its social and economic transformations [ 28 ]. A diachronic comparison would thus help in shedding light on the complex transformations underpinning this phenomenon.…”

“…Changes in LEK assessed using comparable research methods (ethnography-based techniques, i.e. face-to-face interviews) remain limited, however, due to the lack of reliable ethnobotanical studies conducted in previous decades [ 28 – 32 ].…”

On the Trail of an Ancient Middle Eastern Ethnobotany: Traditional Wild Food Plants Gathered by Ormuri Speakers in Kaniguram, NW Pakistan

“…Cultural and linguistic edges have always played an important role in articulating human perspectives on the diverse biological world [7], and, most importantly, language holds a wealth of information about nature, including plants [8]. Researchers have always taken a keen interest in understanding TEK transmission within given cultural groups [9][10][11][12][13][14], and more specifically, the cross-cultural sharing of TEK, which has led researchers to carry out cross-cultural and cross-linguistic ethnobotanical studies ( [7,[15][16][17][18][19][20], and references therein).…”

Analysis of Usage and Quality of Wild Edible Mushrooms by People From Bulgaria, Compared to Other Foreign Countries

“…During the past 40 years, ethnomycological information about gathering and use of wild mushrooms in the Upper Sangone Valley, Western Italian Alps, Piedmont, North Western Italy, is obtained through 47 in-depth open and semi-structured interviews with community members [5]. Recently, the collection of mushroom genera growing in more anthropogenic environments or possibly promoted via popular books and media has been introduced.…”