Wine, Beer, Snuff, Medicine, and Loss of Diversity - Ethnobotanical travels in the Georgian Caucasus

Bussmann, Rainer W.; Zambrana, Narel Y. Paniagua; Sikharulidze, Shalva; Kikvidze, Zaal; Kikodze, David; Jinjikhadze, Tamar; Shanshiashvili, Tamaz; Chelidze, Dato; Batsatsashvili, Ketevan; Bakanidze, Niki

doi:10.17348/era.12.0.237-313

Cited by 746 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

128

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…These served as a repository of ancient crops until the 1990s. Recently, the most prevalent cause for genetic erosion of traditional crop varieties is the outmigration in mountain regions as reaction to the harsh economic conditions and lack of modern infrastructure [3,[53][54][55]. The shift from traditional cultivars to modern high-yielding crops, which took place in the lowlands much earlier, began in mountain villages towards the end of Soviet occupation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, essentially no cereals have been grown in the surveyed high altitude regions of Georgia for decades, according to all participants recalling cereal cultivation at all. Nowadays, villagers buy wheat to distil alcohol or to bake bread, or buy commercial beer making mixtures to brew their own beer [3]. The maintenance of home gardens in Georgia serves as socio-ecological memory, like in many other regions [57,58], and is an irreplaceable tool to maintain Georgian culture.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Linguistically, the Chaghma Tushs speak a dialect close to Khevsurian, Mokhevian, and Pshavian, which all belong to the Pkhovian group of Georgian dialects. The Tsova Tushs speak a distinct language -Tsova Tushetian / Batsbian in their homes, and a Georgian dialect similar to Kahetian in more official settings [1,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Plant and fungal use in Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi, Sakartvelo (Republic of Georgia), Caucasus

Zambrana²,

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this study, we documented traditional plant use in Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi and hypothesized that (i) plant use knowledge in general would be higher in isolated high elevation communities, and that (ii) use of home gardens would be much more restricted to lower elevation settings. Fieldwork was conducted in Khevsureti, Pshavi, and Tusheti. Interviews using semi-structured questionnaires were conducted with 74 participants. In the present study, we encountered 317 plant species belonging to 203 genera of 80 families being used in the research region. Of these, 197 species were exclusively wild-harvested, 73 were grown in homegardens, and 47 were both grown in gardens and sourced in the wild. The ordinations in plant-space and in use-space were significantly fit by elevation of informant community, and community itself. Age and gender did not significantly fit the distribution of informants across either plant-space or use-space, respectively. Number of use-reports was highest across all communities in the food and medicinal use-categories, and informant consensus. Species with especially high use-diversity (UD) tended to be woody species although. Species with high usevalue (UV) were mostly managed/domesticated species from home orchards, gardens, or farms. Plant species, and uses, found in our study, showed clear relations to the wider Eurasian cultural complex. The species number found was, however, far higher than in any published study from either the region or the wiser Mediterranean and Eurasia. The maintenance of home gardens in Georgia serves as socioecological memory. While the great variety of plant species used in the Georgian Caucasus might provide a reservoir for food security climate change is starting to affect both natural floristic diversity and gardens both in the Caucasus as well as continent wide.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Plant and fungal use in Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi, Sakartvelo (Republic of Georgia), Caucasus

Zambrana²,

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hardly any research has been done in other parts of the Caucasus. There is a recent ethnobotanical survey from Georgia done by an international team of researchers, and the work on the subject is going to be continued [ 5 ]. In their analysis of Mediterranean gathered food plants, Rivera and colleagues present a comparison with GFP in the Caucasian diet and they admit that there is not enough data on the subject.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The social context of wild leafy vegetables uses in Shiri, Daghestan

Kaliszewska

Kołodziejska-Degórska

2015

J Ethnobiology Ethnomedicine

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundShiri is a small mountainous village in the Republic of Daghestan, in the North Caucasus. Daghestan is Russia’s southernmost and most ethnically and linguistically diverse republic, a considerable part of which belongs to the Caucasus Biodiversity Hotspot.Various species of wild leafy vegetables are collected in Shiri and there are still many social and cultural practices connected with plant collection in the village. Yet due to migration processes, local knowledge about wild greens and their uses is being slowly forgotten or not passed on. The Shiri language is highly endangered and so are the local plant terminologies and classifications. The unstable political situation hinders local and international research, therefore we find it highly important to explore both what wild leafy vegetables are collected in this mountainous part of Daghestan and how the relation between plants and people is shaped in this linguistically and culturally diverse context. We answer the following questions: what wild leafy vegetables are collected in Shiri? Why are they important to the local people? What is the social aspect of wild leafy vegetable uses?MethodsThe methods applied were as follows: forest walks and semi-structured interviews with adult inhabitants of Shiri village, participant and non-participant observation. During the walks herbarium specimens were collected, and visual recording of plant collecting process was conducted. This article is based on fieldwork done in Shiri, Daghestan, between 2012 and 2014, over the course of 3 field trips that took place in 3 seasons.ResultsWe collected and identified twenty-two local (24 botanical) species of wild leafy vegetables. Fourteen local species were used as snacks, eight for cooked dishes and three of them were also dried in order to be transported to kin living in the lowlands. It is significant that 70 % of taxa collected in Shiri are used as snacks. While snacks were collected by both sexes, greens for cooking and drying were part of the women’s knowledge.The analysis of people-plant relations showed that care practices constitute an important part of these relations. Through the giving of wild greens, Shiri people express care for co-villagers and migrants and show their respect for elders. In the narratives about wild greens, their nutritional and taste value as well as perceived exceptionality were emphasized.Conclusions1) Wild leafy vegetables are a significant element of everyday social life in Shiri in regard to mutual care, respect for elders and local identity. 2) Gender has a greater influence on practical skills than on declarative plant knowledge. 3) Names of plants are publicly discussed with elders and are not always fixed. 4) The moral value ascribed to giving in the local culture is expressed through wild leafy vegetables. 5) Care expressed through sending wild leafy vegetables helps to sustain social ties between migrants and Shiri inhabitants. 6) Identity, health and naturalness discourses are adding value to the local knowledge about wild l...

show abstract

“…Recent studies conducted in Georgia (Sakartvelo) reveal a noteworthy ethnobotanical knowledge of people living in various regions [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Furthermore, the book "Ethnobotany of the Caucasus" presents detailed information on about culturally salient 130 plant species currently and historically noted in the South Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medicinal ethnobotany of wild plants: A cross-cultural comparison around Georgia-Turkey border, The Western Lesser Caucasus

Kazancı

Oruç

Mosulishvili

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The Mountains of the Western Lesser Caucasus with its rich plant diversity, multicultural and multilingual nature host diverse ethnobotanical knowledge related to medicinal plants. However, cross cultural medicinal ethnobotany and patterns of plant knowledge have not yet been investigated in the region. Doing so could highlight the salient medicinal plant species and show the variations between communities. This study aimed to determine and discuss the similarities and differences of medicinal ethnobotany among people living in highland pastures on both sides of the Georgia-Turkey border.Methods: During the 2017 and 2018 summer transhumance period, 119 participants, (74 in Turkey, 45 in Georgia) were interviewed with semi-structured questions. The data was structured in use-reports (URs) following the ICPC classification. Cultural Importance (CI) Index, Informant Consensus Factor (FIC), shared/separate species-use combinations, as well as literature data were used for comparing medicinal ethnobotany of the communities.Results: 1506 UR for 152 native wild plant species were documented. More than half of the species are in common on both sides of the border. Out of 817 species-use combinations, only 9% of the use incidences are shared between communities across the border. Around 66% of these reports had not been previously mentioned specifically in the compared literature. Only 33 species have similar use reports in both countries, most important of which are Plantago major, Urtica dioica, Picea orientalis, Anthemis spp., Sambucus ebulus, Achillea millefolium, Helichrysum rubicundum, Mentha longifolia, Pinus sylvestris var. hamata, Hypericum perforatum, Tussilago farfara, Helichrysum plicatum, Rumex crispus, Berberis vulgaris, Origanum vulgare. More than half of species reported in each country were found to have more than one part of the plant valued for medicinal use. The most common way of using plants medicinally in both countries is drinking the water infusion of aerial parts with flowers. Based on CI index value, two thirds of the salient 15 genera in both countries have use reports in at least seven medicinal use categories. While the most cited category with highest FIC is digestive in Georgia, it is skin category in Turkey. Patterns of medicinal plant knowledge among studied communities appear to be connected with more than one cultural factor, in particular ethnolinguistic diversity, cultural background, and access to multilingual written folk and scientific literature, or probably a combination of various factors.Conclusion: Considering the regions’ floral similarity, common historical-cultural contact, and similar livelihood strategies of the communities, shared ethnomedicinal knowledge across the Georgia-Turkey border is quite low. Even though the impacts of accessing multilingual folk and scientific literature are likely to be significant, the factors that shape the medicinal plant knowledge patterns of the communities are shown to be variable among species, needing further research into intracultural diversity and socio-economical conditions, as well as the political history across the border.

show abstract

Wine, Beer, Snuff, Medicine, and Loss of Diversity - Ethnobotanical travels in the Georgian Caucasus

Cited by 746 publications

References 6 publications

Plant and fungal use in Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi, Sakartvelo (Republic of Georgia), Caucasus

Plant and fungal use in Tusheti, Khevsureti, and Pshavi, Sakartvelo (Republic of Georgia), Caucasus

The social context of wild leafy vegetables uses in Shiri, Daghestan

Medicinal ethnobotany of wild plants: A cross-cultural comparison around Georgia-Turkey border, The Western Lesser Caucasus

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About