Children’s Ethnobotanical Knowledge and Parental Investment in a Dominican Village

Caribbean horticulturalists learn most traditional ecological knowledge through vertical transmission, yet children’s TEK knowledge has not yet been used to assess parental investment. This study identified culturally salient plant species that residents of an eastern Dominican village learn as children. Then, 52 children (ages 4-17) participated in a “plant walk” along a “staged” route containing the 50 core plants. Individual children’s ethnobotanical knowledge was assessed based on proper plant identification. Family, social and demographic data were also collected for each child. It is hypothesized that father-present children will demonstrate a marked knowledge of the local flora, and that compared to father-absent peers, and that children residing in compounds with larger extended families will display high plant recognition scores due to an increased availability of alloparents.  Results will be discussed in terms of parenting dynamics of rural Caribbean ethnobotany.