XII. Tonics, Textures, and Taste Buds: Global Perspectives in Ethnobotany

Session Type: 
Oral
Session Date and Time: 
Thursday, 9 May, 2019 - 15:00 to 17:15
Location: 
Geography 147
Time Abstract
3:00pm
Author(s):
Ellen
, Roy - University of Kent, UK

Codiaeum variegatum has become a well-known ornamental plant in Europe and North America, and has long been culturally significant in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. This paper shows, firstly, how variations in foliage are managed and valued in one population (Nuaulu people on the island of Seram, eastern Indonesia), and the uses to which these are put. Secondly, the paper reviews the ethnobotanical literature on C. variegatum throughout its natural range with a view to hypothesizing its biocultural evolution. It is noted that the features that evolved in its area of endemism are those that make it attractive as an ornamental globally, but that colour variations in foliage combine genotypic cultivar differences, clonal differences and age-dependent differences, to produce phenotypic instability which is not a problem for Nuaulu but which is a problem for ornamental plant producers in a commercial context.

3:15pm
Author(s):
van ´t Hooft
, Anuschka - Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí
Heindorf
, Claudia - Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí
Reyes-Agüero
, Juan Antonio - Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí
Fortanelli-Martínez
, Javier - Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí

The Teenek are an indigenous people living in the subtropical Huasteca area in Mexico. The Teenek name, characterize and distinguish crops and their variants based on color, texture, shape, and stages and ways of growth. In this presentation we demonstrate this classification system with four crops: corn, squash, bean and chayote. Information was gathered through observations in three different agricultural systems in three localities (ranging in altitude from 60m to 1200m) and ten markets, as well as interviews with local farmers and merchants. Additionally, we organized participatory workshops and group discussions with local experts aimed to discuss our findings. Our work shows that (i) similar to other traditional classifications, Teenek assign a generic, specific and varietal name to plants, yet (ii) some plants receive more attributes than others; also, (iii) there is a high degree of taxonomic overlap between communities, though discrepancies exist at this level and among individual persons.

3:30pm
Author(s):
Qiong
, Fang - School of Life and Environment Science, Minzu University of China

Jianghua is the biggest autonomous county of the Yao ethnic group in China. It has the most famous herbal medicinal market during the Dragon Boat Festival. In order to understand and conserve its traditional botanical knowledge, we conducted an ethnobotanical survey, using participant observations, semi-structured and key informant interviews to investigate its herbal, culinary, ornamental, and cultural plants. A total of 376 species were documented, 64.9% of them are medicines and over 20 species are culturally significant. Interestingly, there are many wild edible flowers and weeds. Some plants have multiple uses as medicines, foods and ornamentals. Plants play an indispensable role in all aspects of the Yao people’s life.

3:45pm
Author(s):
Wagner
, Gail - University of South Carolina

If desert is a sweet dish at the end of a meal, and if ingredient is an edible substance mixed with other edible substances to make a food or food dish, what is a condiment? Based on 140 interviews of adults, condiment is more frequently defined by script (context) than by taxonomy (description) when the question is primed (as above) for a script-based definition. Sequential card sorts indicate overlap between the domains of condiment and sauce, and illustrate low utility of the category of condiment. Free-lists of most-used condiments and food pairings highlight differences in favorite condiments by age, as well as correlations between particular foods and the condiments paired with those foods.

4:00pm
Author(s):
O'Sullivan
, Megan

Cuisine is derived from a sense of place. It is the story of the land on a plate, a growing system, an ecology. Indigenous food systems encompass vast plant diversity, terrain, geographic borders, and cultural signifiers. These factors are also used toward understanding a cuisine. Prehistoric Native American foodways may not have an ecology that can support a full diet with a variety of dishes. But an inability to define a diet as a cuisine does not take away from the importance of the food from the people. Determination of cuisine does not undermine the validity of traditional foodways and indigenous practices.

4:15pm
Author(s):
Jernigan
, Kevin - University of Alaska, Fairbanks

The authors conducted a comparative ethnobotanical study with the Chukchi, Naukan and Central Alaskan Yupik peoples, from 2014-2018, with 126 participants, in 12 villages on the Alaskan and Russian sides of the Bering Strait.  Here, we focus on mouse foods,a category of edible plants including tubers, root nodules and stem bases taken from caches of Microtus vole species in the fall. The practice of harvesting and consuming these foods has largely declined among the Chukchi and, especially, Naukan peoples on the Russian side of the Bering Strait. However, the practice is still very common among the Central Alaskan Yupik. Moreover, the number of plant species known to be harvested from vole caches is greater on the Alaskan side. We explore possible reasons for this discrepancy, including the larger Russian influence on the food traditions of native Chukotkans.

4:30pm
Author(s):
Flachs
, Andrew - Purdue University

Ethnobiologists can contribute to the study of fermentation because we attend to place- and practice-based knowledge, local flora and microbial taxa, are sensitive to cultural and ecological conditions, and our research illuminates the interactions through which communities shape and are shaped by the world around them. In this presentation, I discuss findings from an ongoing project to document fermentation from a biocultural perspective, including collecting sociocultural food narratives, microbial samples from fermented foods in the form of brine or food matters, and microbial samples from the humans who consume them in the form of human stools. Themes from 16 hours of recorded conversation and interviews conducted during an event ethnography at a fermentation revivalist workshop include the pursuit of terroir, an embrace of tactile and creative work, a search for natural and restorative relationships, and an embrace of probiotic foods as healing.

4:45pm
Author(s):
Toro
, Fabian H. - UC San Diego
Jigen
, Tang - Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
McGovern
, Patrick - University of Pennsylvania
Preti
, George - Monell Institute

Traditional Chinese Herbal preparations include a diverse spectrum of food items that were widely consumed during the Shang Dynasty. Few scientific studies have examined organic residues in ritual bronzes from this period, many of which are generically interpreted as “wine vessels” despite their diversity. Our study uses a suite of chromatographic techniques to examine the contents of two sealed fangyi type vessels from the burials at the site of Yinxu in Anyang (~1200BCE).  The resulting biomarker profile was compared with phytochemical databases as well as Traditional Chinese materia medica. Our results did not conclusively identify the presence of a fermented beverage; however, we identified a high proportion of ursolic and oleanolic acids suggesting the contents had hepatoprotective properties. These properties are alluded to in older Chinese material medica, as well as contemporary TCM practices and pharmacological literature. We contend that the analyzed vessels had a dual dietary and medicinal role.