The role of schools as an opportunity for transmission of local knowledge about useful Restinga plants: experiences in southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Background The study of cultural transmission can help identify processes that influence knowledge systems dynamics and evolution, especially during childhood and youth, which are fundamental phases in acquiring survival skills. In this sense, we use the knowledge about useful restinga plants (Brazilian coastal vegetation) as an analytical model to describe, compare, and analyze cultural transmission during youth, while factoring in origin, in the Cabo Frio region, southeastern Brazil. We tested (1) whether transmission of knowledge is conservative, (2) whether immigration events define the transmission modes, (3) whether teaching is the most important social transmission cognitive process, and (4) which type of stimulus/context is most important for the knowledge transmission process. Methods Questionnaires and free listings were applied to 150 high school students aged between 15 and 20 to obtain information about socioeconomic characteristics, useful plant knowledge, and cultural transmission. We analyzed the distribution of knowledge according to the informant’s origin and evaluated the models, processes, and context with which this information was transmitted. The chi-square test was used to determine the association between origin, plant knowledge, and transmission as well as to reveal the most important models, modes, and processes during youth. Results Informants provided 299 plant citations ($$ \overline{x} $$ x ¯ = 1.75; s = 1.73) related to 37 species. The categories of the most cited uses were edible (93) and medicinal (32). Statistical results showed that origin did not influence knowledge distribution and transmission. In addition, although the most relevant mode was the conservative (vertical) one, the one-to-many diffuse mode (teacher) was highlighted. The new environmental context for immigrants did not influence transmission, the main transmission process was teaching, and the learning contexts were predominantly school-related. Conclusion Plant knowledge in youth was related to local edible and medicinal plants, indicating adaptive knowledge linked to material demands for survival. While the initial models for cultural transmission are family (vertical), during the development phase of juveniles, other actors become models (one-to-many). In addition, the nature of the information (survival demand) and age are more relevant to cultural transmission than the socio-environmental context.

Factors affecting local plant knowledge in isolated communities from Patagonian steppe: Metacommunity theory is revealed as a methodological approach

“…It has been argued that the introduction of traditional knowledge in formal contexts of education may increase rates of intergenerational knowledge transmission, empowering local students and maintaining individual and collective cultural identity [ 48 ]. For example, in a study in public schools located in an area of traditional populations on the coast of southeastern Brazil, van Luijk et al [ 12 ] show that a considerable part of the local ecological knowledge held by children is taught at school by their teachers.…”

“…Several studies have documented the use of natural resources by the local aged members and warned about the lack of transfer of their knowledge to young members of communities of Patagonian communities [ 8 , 9 ]. In this sense, some authors suggest that decontextualized formal education—which takes place in rural villages—tends to devalue the local knowledge that children learn informally with their families and encourages the incorporation of concepts that are not their own [ 10 – 12 ].…”

Conversando sobre etnobiologia

“…Uma área que ganhou força na pesquisa em etnobiologia no Brasil é a ligação com a educação (ver Baptista & Araujo, 2019;Baptista & El-Hani, 2009;Oliveira et al, 2020;Sotero et al, 2020;van Luijk et al, 2021). As questões de gênero (T. C. Zank et al, 2021) e decolonialidade (Martinelli & Euzébio, 2022) Por fim, a partir de reflexões anteriores (Albuquerque, et al, 2019c) permito-me identificar algumas das preocupações que definem a pesquisa etnobiológica no Brasil:…”

People's migrations and plants for food: a review for fostering sustainability

“…5, blue bars), but not mentioning plant species in particular, were observed in 37% of the studies, with a slightly higher proportion for those studies in which the plant resources were gathered/foraged (14 studies) when contrasted to cultivated (10 studies) or obtained in markets or through exchanges (10 studies). In some cases, migration does not seem to affect plant knowledge, such as in the circular migrations in Mexico [43] and among migrant and non-migrant students in a coastal urban area in Brazil [44].…”

“…In some reported cases, migration did not affect the knowledge of food plants. These cases were related to internal or circular migrations, with a relatively smaller contrast between migrants and the dominant group [43,44], but the loss of knowledge on plant foods was also reported, especially among younger generations [48,52,65].…”