Traditional knowledge hiding in plain sight – twenty-first century ethnobotany of the Chácobo in Beni,Bolivia

Background

The Chácobo are a Panoan speaking tribe of about 1000 members (300+ adults) in Beni, Bolivia. Originally nomadic, the Chácabo were relocated to their current main location in the 1960s. Researchers have visited the Chácabo since 1911. A first more detailed anthropological report exists from the late 1960s, and ecological–ethnobotanical studies were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. The presented work represents a complete ethnobotanical inventory of the entire adult Chácobo population, with interviews and plant collection conducted directly by Chácobo counterparts.

Methods

Based on previous reports and our preliminary studies, we hypothesized that twenty-first century Chácobo plant use centered on income generation, and that traditional plant use related to household utensils, medicine and traditional crop varieties had almost disappeared. To test this hypothesis, we started the “Chácobo Ethnobotany Project,” training 10 indigenous Chácobo participants in ethnobotanical interview and plant collection techniques, in order to more fully document Chácobo knowledge and avoid the influence of foreign interviewers.

Results

Our study found 331 useful plant species in 241genera of 95 plant families, with leaves, roots and bark being the most commonly used plant parts The comprehensive documentation that these methods enabled completely nullified our initial hypothesis of knowledge loss. Traditional crop varieties are still widely grown and traditional knowledge is alive. Moreover, it is being actively recuperated in certain domains by the younger generation. Most Chácobo know, and can name, traditional utensils and tools, although only the older generation has still the skills to manufacture them. While many Chácobo still know the names and uses of medicinal species, the younger generation is however often unsure how to identify them.

Conclusions

In this paper we illustrate the complexity of perspectives on knowledge at different ages, and the persistence of knowledge over almost a century. We found that traditional knowledge was only partially affected by the processes of exposure to a market economy, and that different knowledge domains experienced different trends as a result of these changes. Overall knowledge was widely distributed, and we did not observe a directional knowledge loss.We stress the importance to not directly conclude processes of knowledge loss, cultural erosion or acculturation when comparing the knowledge of different age groups.

     

Knowledge Loss and Change Between 2002 and 2017—a Revisit of Plant Use of the Maasai of Sekenani Valley,Maasai Mara,Kenya

Traditional plant use is of tremendous importance in many societies, including most rural African communities. A variety of studies have shown knowledge dwindling due to changes towards a more Western lifestyle, and the influence of modern tourism. In the case of the Sekenani Maasai, we hypothesized in 2006 that, while little knowledge loss had been observed at that time, the change from a nomadic to a more sedentary lifestyle would lead to an accelerating loss of traditional plant knowledge. This paper examines the plant use of the Maasai in the Sekenani Valley, North of the Maasai Mara National Reserve 15 years after a first study. Based on the study of 2002 (Bussmann et al. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2: 22, 2006), semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff of Sekenani Camp in order to document current plant knowledge. The results of this follow-up study indicate dramatic knowledge loss over the last 15 years. Of 139 used species documented in 2002, only 84 remained in use in 2017. Off those species still in use, 30 had experienced a loss of uses, while for 18 species new uses were documented. The knowledge loss observed in Sekenani in 15 years is rather dramatic. Lifestyle changes and over-use of resources have clearly led to a rapid decline of traditional knowledge on plant use. This trend is expected to continue.     

Knowledge and Use Value of Plant Species in a Rarámuri Community: A Gender Perspective for Conservation

We used a quantitative ethnobotanical approach to analyze factors influencing the use value of plant species among men and women of the Rarámuri people in Cuiteco, Chihuahua, Mexico. We constructed a use value index (UV) combining the use frequency (U) and the quality perception (Q) of useful plant species by local people. We identified all plant species used by the Rarámuri and classified them into 14 general use categories. We interviewed 34 households in the village to compare men and women’s knowledge on the five main general use categories (and on their respective subcategories and specific uses), to document how they practice gathering activities and to calculate scores of plants UV. A total of 226 useful plant species were identified, but only 12% of them had high UV scores for the 42 specific uses defined. When the overall knowledge of plant species was examined, no significant differences were detected between men and women, but significant differences were identified in general use categories such as medicinal plants, plants for construction and domestic goods, but not in plants used as food and firewood. We identified a division of labor in gathering activities associated with gender, with women mainly gathering medicinal and edible plants and being involved in preparing medicines and food, whereas men were primarily gathering and using plants for manufacturing domestic goods, firewood, and building materials. Plant species UV associated to gender were significantly different between men and women at the level of specific uses in the general category of domestic goods and building. Frequency of use is highly associated with plant species quality perception.     

Stradivarius in the Jungle: Traditional Knowledge and the Use of “Black Beeswax” Among the Yuquí of the Bolivian Amazon

Native Amazonians traditionally use two methods to feather, or fletch, arrows—they either tie feathers to the shaft or use an adhesive. This paper discusses the latter method, analyzing the use of “black beeswax” arrow cement, derived from an insect product, the wax–resin cerumen of native stingless bees (Meliponini). Such mixtures of beeswax and plant resins, prepared by cooking, have a long history of human use in the Old World: in encaustic painting, beaumontage for furniture repair, sealing waxes, and varnishes for fine musical instruments. This study explores the special properties of meliponine cerumen, containing a resin compound, geopropolis, which makes an excellent arrow cement. Like their Old World counterparts, native Amazonians discovered that cooking a mixture of cerumen and plant resins from bee nests produces an adhesive that dries to a hard finish. We compare both raw and cooked samples of cerumen with infra-red spectroscopy. The wax–resin compound yields adhesive material that is tough, flexible, and has many qualities of both sealing wax and varnish. The Yuquí of the Bolivian Amazon provided the cerumen samples for this analysis, and we describe their methods of preparing and applying arrow cement. We also discuss how social change and globalization negatively affect Yuquí traditional knowledge, which survives, in this case, largely because there is a modest market for bows and arrows in the tourist trade.

Plant genome editing in the European Union—to be or not to be—a GMO

New plant-breeding techniques have been boosting plant breeding, since only a few years but already first promising products are pushing to the market. In contrast to this, in many countries, the current Directives regulating genetically modified organisms have been established more than 25 years ago, especially in the European Union being based on clear differentiation between transgenic plants and conventional breeding. Therefore, the question arises if these Directives are suitable to face the new challenge of genetic engineering or if there is a need for updated regulations.     

Fijian Business—a Bone of Contention. Was it One of the Factors Leading to the Political Crisis of 2000?

In this paper I seek to cast light on a particular aspect of the background for the political crisis in Fiji in 2000. Before and during this crisis politicians and media kept hammering on the theme of Fijians' inferior position in the economic life of the country. The public argument in Fiji further emphasised the success of the Indians and that this in turn further marginalised the Fijians. It was frequently asserted that the Fijians needed affirmative action in order to get on in the modern business world and that the new Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry was favouring the Indians. The theme of this article is that the rhetoric used prior to and during the crisis was a reiteration of a longstanding discourse in Fiji. Similar arguments were used in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly as a means of legitimating the coup in 1987, and during the regime of Rabuka in the 1990s. My primary concern here is not to document the success or failure of Fijians in modern business enterprises, but rather to make clear how the dichotomy of business‐vanua comprises a variety of concerns and doubts related to modernisation, urbanisation, ethnicity, belonging, values and choices. By constantly discussing and exposing the interface between business and vanua, money and land, people seek to make sense of complex urban situations. The ongoing debate may be looked upon as a ‘work of coherence’ in Hannerz’ terms, and as such is a debate on modernity.     

On the Use of Distance in the Taxonomic Study of Critical Plant Groups—Case Studies of Western European Orchidaceae

Four distance coefficients are compared on four data sets composed of samples coming from western European populations of the genera Dactylorhiza, Orchis and Epipactis (Orchidaceae). The performance of the distance coefficients is evaluated through: (a) the quality of clusters obtained by five classical methods (as compared to a priori classification), (b) the Mantel statistic with respect to an a priori distance matrix resulting from previous knowledge, (c) the result obtained with the k-means method, and (d) principal coordinate diagrams. It appears that: (a) the Mahalanobis distance based on the pooled dispersion matrix performs best on the whole; (b) a distance based on the recently developed Common Principal Component model, used with a log transformation, also provides useful information and performs best on the largest data set; (c) the Gölz and Reinhard taxonomic distance, widely used among orchidologists, is attractive for its simplicity, yet good performance and the valuable information it provides, despite its theoretical shortcomings. A brief taxonomic discussion is made on the results obtained for the Dactylorhiza samples, especially about samples whose identification was in doubt.     

Plant analysis — as a guide to the nutrient requirements of temperate and tropical crops

Book review

Plant analysis — as a guide to the nutrient requirements of temperate and tropical cropsP. Martin-Prevel, J. Gagnard and P. Gautier (Eds.), [translated from the French by M.R.J. Holmes]. New York: Lavoisier Publishing Inc., 1987. xx + 722 pages. US$112. ISBN 2-85206-364-6     

DAD2 Is an α/β Hydrolase Likely to Be Involved in the Perception of the Plant Branching Hormone,Strigolactone

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Highlights? DAD2 gene, identified by transposon tagging, encodes an α/β hydrolase fold protein ? DAD2 acts in the shoot; mutants are insensitive to strigolactones ? DAD2 crystal structure shows an internal cavity capable of binding strigolactones ? DAD2 can hydrolyze the strigolactone GR24     

What is the Conservation Value of a Plant in a Botanic Garden? Using Indicators to Improve Management of Ex Situ Collections

Living botanic garden plant collections are a fundamental and underutilized worldwide resource for plant conservation. A common goal in managing a botanical living collection is to maintain the greatest biodiversity at the greatest economic and logistic efficiency. However to date there is no unified strategy for managing living plants within and among botanic gardens. We propose a strategy that combines three indicators of the management priority of a collection: information on species imperilment, genetic representation, and the operational costs associated to maintaining genetic representation. In combination or alone, these indicators can be used to assay effectiveness and efficiency of living collections, and to assign a numeric conservation value to an accession. We illustrate this approach using endangered palms that have been studied to varying degrees. Management decisions can be readily extended to other species based on our indicators. Thus, the conservation value of a species can be shared through existing databases with other botanic gardens and provide a list of recommendations toward a combined management strategy for living collections. Our approach is easily implemented and well suited for decision-making by gardens and organizations interested in plant conservation.     

Perception of a Common Fate in Human—Animal Relations and its Relevance to our Concern for Animals

ABSTRACT

Considering violence against animals and violence against people as one and the same problem presupposes a comprehensive concept of violence, a concept of suffering uniting humans and animals, and a specific relationship to nature and life. The thesis of this paper is that the greater concern for animals that has developed in western societies, particularly in the last few decades, is fundamentally related to the perception of a common fate that humans and animals share, especially in the face of the threat of an ecological or nuclear catastrophe and the awareness of the competitiveness in human relationships that now prevails the world over. Two literary works and a social psychology study are referred to in order to illustrate this thesis. The perception of a common fate is considered an integral part of identification with others, either humans or animals, of empathy with them, and of an attitude of respect toward nature in general.     

“Wisdom of the Elders” or “Loss of Experience” as a Mechanism to Explain the Decline in Traditional Ecological Knowledge: A Case Study on Awaji Island,Japan

Human Ecology - Previous studies have reported that older people are more knowledgeable about nature than the younger generation. The relationship between people’s age and level of knowledge...     

LATERAL THORACIC RADIOGRAPHS—Evaluation of Their Use as a Routine Procedure in Roentgen Examination of the Chest

A thousand cases of consecutive radiographic examinations of the chest, consisting of postero-anterior and left lateral views, were reviewed.In seven cases (0.7 per cent) the lateral view revealed clinically significant lesions which were not seen on the postero-anterior view.In 30 cases (3 per cent) the lateral view demonstrated clinically significant added information permitting more definite diagnosis.Addition of the lateral view to the routine roentgen study of the chest gives a more thorough and complete examination at minimal expense and permits a more definite diagnosis in a significant number of cases.     

Environments of Learning: Rarámuri Children’s Plant Knowledge and Experience of Schooling,Family, and Landscapes in the Sierra Tarahumara,Mexico

This paper investigates social-environmental factors contributing to differential ethnobotanical expertise among children in Rarámuri (Tarahumara) communities in Chihuahua, Mexico, to explore processes of indigenous ecological education and epistemologies of research. One hundred and four children from two schools (one with a Ráramuri knowledge curriculum and one without) were interviewed about their knowledge of 40 useful plants. Overall, children showed less ethnobotanical expertise than expected and a great deal of variability by age, though most shared knowledge of a core set of culturally and ecologically salient plants. No significant difference was found between girls’ and boys’ knowledge. The overall use-knowledge scores were almost twice as high as naming scores (mean of 40% vs. 24.4%). This supports the conclusion that use-context is more culturally relevant, salient or easier for children to remember than names. The social–environmental factors significant in predicting levels of plant knowledge among children were whether a child attended a Rarámuri or Spanish-instruction school, and, to a lesser extent, age. However, these effects were not strong, and individual variability in expertise is best interpreted using ethnographic knowledge of each child’s family and personal history, leading to a model of ethnobotanical education that foregrounds experiential learning and personal and family interest in useful plants. Though overall plant knowledge may be lower among children today compared to previous generations, a community knowledge structure seems to be reproduced in which a few individuals in each age cohort show great proficiency, and children make the same kinds of mistakes and share specialized names for plants.     

Loss of Gsα in the Postnatal Skeleton Leads to Low Bone Mass and a Blunted Response to Anabolic Parathyroid Hormone Therapy

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is an important regulator of osteoblast function and is the only anabolic therapy currently approved for treatment of osteoporosis. The PTH receptor (PTH1R) is a G protein-coupled receptor that signals via multiple G proteins including G_sα. Mice expressing a constitutively active mutant PTH1R exhibited a dramatic increase in trabecular bone that was dependent upon expression of G_sα in the osteoblast lineage. Postnatal removal of G_sα in the osteoblast lineage (P-G_sα^OsxKO mice) yielded markedly reduced trabecular and cortical bone mass. Treatment with anabolic PTH(1–34) (80 μg/kg/day) for 4 weeks failed to increase trabecular bone volume or cortical thickness in male and female P-G_sα^OsxKO mice. Surprisingly, in both male and female mice, PTH administration significantly increased osteoblast numbers and bone formation rate in both control and P-G_sα^OsxKO mice. In mice that express a mutated PTH1R that activates adenylyl cyclase and protein kinase A (PKA) via G_sα but not phospholipase C via G_q/11 (D/D mice), PTH significantly enhanced bone formation, indicating that phospholipase C activation is not required for increased bone turnover in response to PTH. Therefore, although the anabolic effect of intermittent PTH treatment on trabecular bone volume is blunted by deletion of G_sα in osteoblasts, PTH can stimulate osteoblast differentiation and bone formation. Together these findings suggest that alternative signaling pathways beyond G_sα and G_q/11 act downstream of PTH on osteoblast differentiation.     

Is it Useful to Have a Clear-cut Definition of Life? On the Use of Fuzzy Logic in Prebiotic Chemistry

Many scientists, including one of the authors of the present paper, have devoted time to try to find a definition for life (Bersini and Reisse 2007). It is clear that a consensus will never be reached but, more importantly, it seems that the issue itself could be without major interest. It is indeed impossible to define a “natural” frontier between non-living and living systems and therefore also impossible to define dichotomic criteria which could be used in order to classify systems in one of these two classes (living or non-living). Fuzzy logic provides a natural way to deal with problems where class membership lacks sharply defined criteria. It also offers the possibility to avoid losing time with unnecessary controversies such as deciding whether a virus is, or is not, a living system.     

Visuospatial Function in Early Alzheimer’s Disease—The Use of the Visual Object and Space Perception (VOSP) Battery

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most frequent cause of dementia. The clinical symptoms of AD begin with impairment of memory and executive function followed by the gradual involvement of other functions, such as language, semantic knowledge, abstract thinking, attention, and visuospatial abilities. Visuospatial function involves the identification of a stimulus and its location and can be impaired at the beginning of AD. The Visual Object and Space Perception (VOSP) battery evaluates visuospatial function, while minimizing the interference of other cognitive functions.

Objectives

To evaluate visuospatial function in early AD patients using the VOSP and determine cutoff scores to differentiate between cognitively healthy individuals and AD patients.

Methods

Thirty-one patients with mild AD and forty-four healthy elderly were evaluated using a neuropsychological battery and the VOSP.

Results

In the VOSP, the AD patients performed more poorly in all subtests examining object perception and in two subtests examining space perception (Number Location and Cube Analysis). The VOSP showed good accuracy and good correlation with tests measuring visuospatial function.

Conclusion

Visuospatial function is impaired in the early stages of AD. The VOSP battery is a sensitive battery test for visuospatial deficits with minimal interference by other cognitive functions.