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      Globalization and Loss of Plant Knowledge: Challenging the Paradigm

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      Journal: PLoS ONE
      Publisher: Public Library of Science

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          Abstract

          The erosion of cultural knowledge and traditions as a result of globalization and migration is a commonly reported phenomenon. We compared one type of cultural knowledge about medicinal plants (number of plants reported to treat thirty common health conditions) among Dominican laypersons who self-medicate with plants and live in rural or urban areas of the Dominican Republic (DR), and those who have moved to New York City (NYC). Many plants used as medicines were popular Dominican food plants. These plants were reported significantly more often by Dominicans living in NYC as compared to the DR, and this knowledge was not age-dependent. These results contradict the popular paradigm about loss of cultural plant knowledge and is the first study to report a statistically measurable increase in this type of knowledge associated with migration.

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          Medicinal plant knowledge and its erosion among the Mien (Yao) in northern Thailand.

          Kamonnate Srithi, Prachaya Srisanga, Henrik Balslev … (2009)
          We studied local knowledge and actual uses of medicinal plants among the Mien in northern Thailand, documenting traditional medical practices and its transfer between generations. With the assumption that discrepancies between knowledge and actual use represent knowledge erosion, we studied whether actual use of medicinal plants corresponded to people's knowledge of such uses. We used local knowledge from four specialist informants as the domain for semi-structured interviews with 34 randomly selected non-specialist informants. We calculated informant consensus, use value, and fidelity level for each species and use category and performed statistical analyses with Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, and paired-sample t-tests. We found significant discrepancies between knowledge and actual use of medicinal plants. The number of known and actually used plants increased with increasing informant age and decreased with increasing years of formal education. Medicinal plant knowledge and use in these Mien communities is undergoing inter-generational erosion because of acculturation and interrupted knowledge transmission. Preservation of Mien medicinal plant intellectual heritage requires continued documentation concerning use, conservation, and sustainable management of this resource, which should be publicized to younger Mien.
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            Modernization and medicinal plant knowledge in a Caribbean horticultural village.

            Gregory J. Quinlan, Marsha B Quinlan (2007)
            Herbal medicine is the first response to illness in rural Dominica. Every adult knows several "bush" medicines, and knowledge varies from person to person. Anthropological convention suggests that modernization generally weakens traditional knowledge. We examine the effects of commercial occupation, consumerism, education, parenthood, age, and gender on the number of medicinal plants freelisted by individuals. All six predictors are associated with bush medical knowledge in bivariate analyses. Contrary to predictions, commercial occupation and consumerism are positively associated with herbal knowledge. Gender, age, occupation, and education are significant predictors in multivariate analysis. Women tend to recall more plants than do men. Education is negatively associated with plants listed; age positively associates with number of species listed. There are significant interactions among commercial occupation, education, age, and parenthood, suggesting that modernization has complex effects on knowledge of traditional medicine in Dominica.
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              Cross-cultural adaptation in urban ethnobotany: the Colombian folk pharmacopoeia in London.

              Ina Vandebroek, Andrea Pieroni, Melissa Ceuterick … (2008)
              To investigate traditional health care practices and changes in medicinal plant use among the growing Colombian community in London. Ethnobotanical fieldwork consisted of qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 23 Colombians living in London and botanical identification of 46 plant species actively used as herbal remedies. Subsequently, research data were compared with literature on ethnobotany and traditional herbal medicine in the home country, using a framework on cross-cultural adaptation, adjusted for the purpose of this study. Similarities and discrepancies between data and literature are interpreted as potential indicators of continuity and loss (or deculturation) of traditional remedies, respectively. Remedies used in London that are not corroborated by the literature suggest possible newly acquired uses. Cross-cultural adaptation related to health care practices is a multifaceted process. Persistence, loss and incorporation of remedies into the Colombian folk pharmacopoeia after migration are influenced by practical adaptation strategies as well as by symbolic-cultural motives of ethnic identity.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                : Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date Collection: 2012
                Publication date (Electronic): 25 May 2012
                Volume: 7
                Issue: 5
                Electronic Location Identifier: e37643
                Affiliations
                [1]Institute of Economic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York, United States of America
                University of Arkansas, United States of America
                Author notes

                Conceived and designed the experiments: IV MJB. Performed the experiments: IV. Analyzed the data: IV. Wrote the paper: IV MJB.

                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-12-01685
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037643
                PMC ID: 3360753
                PubMed ID: 22662184
                SO-VID: f35bc3d9-6a2d-48ab-8336-9b8aeee38197
                Copyright © Vandebroek, Balick. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
                History
                Date received : 17 January 2012
                Date accepted : 26 April 2012
                Page count
                Pages: 6
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Biology
                Subject: Plant Science
                Subject: Botany
                Subject: Ethnobotany
                Subject: Plant Taxonomy
                Subject: Plants
                Subject: Medicine
                Subject: Drugs and Devices
                Subject: Ethnopharmacology
                Subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences
                Subject: Anthropology
                Subject: Cultural Anthropology
                Subject: Geographic and National Differences
                Subject: Biological Anthropology
                Subject: Ethnobiology

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
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                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

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